Craig Lewis Band

**Craig Lewis Band** was a Band act from FantasyAGT: Battle of the Champions. They were eliminated in Judge Cuts.

## Background

The CraigLewis Band is a duo hailing from Atlanta, Georgia. The name CraigLewis is a combination of the last names of its artists, Zuri Craig and Jeffrey Lewis.

Zuri Craig was born in Metropolitan Washington, DC and at the age of 9 years old began singing as he heard music  from Plain Truth Baptist Church heading home from a corner store. Over the years his love for music became his priority. This prompted him to audition for the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Once accepted, he was quickly offered a solo in the high school talent show and his first performance was none other than Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror." Praised, Craig  was awarded membership in the high school choir where he took on the role as the lead singer. The group would sing at countless events across the DC Metro area, including the Presidential Inauguration for George H.W. Bush. After high school, Craig attended Clark Atlanta University (CAU) majoring in business administration. His freshman year, Craig entered a talent show to meet and make new friends. He sung Brian McKnight's "One Last Cry."

Jeffery Lewis was born in a small city called Americus, GA. Growing up in church allowed Lewis to express himself through songs as much as his heart desired. He often caught the attention of teachers singing in the classroom so one teacher finally said to him “Since you love to sing so much why don’t you sing for the school at the PTA meeting!” Lewis was thrilled by the idea and wowed the school with his own rendition of Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All." Once he completed high school, he packed up and moved to Atlanta, GA where he also enrolled at Clark Atlanta University (CAU). Aside from school he had auditions and singing engagements, but he was not always paid in cash. Sometimes Lewis had to sing just to get something to eat. Two years had passed before he had the opportunity to audition and sing at the same college talent show where he met his now best friend Zuri Craig.

The CraigLewis Band was formed immediately after the talent show at Clark Atlanta University. Craig and Lewis had an instant chemistry. CraigLewis both had a love for Gospel and Contemporary R&B, and went about numerous avenues to display their music, but it was not until they decided to use YouTube as their thoroughfare to broadcast their talent to reach millions of people. CraigLewis knew they had to come up with something original but not too eccentric to catch the eye of the right producers or Artists and repertoire (A&R). They came up with the idea to do a Country-Baptist version of “The Brady Bunch” theme song. The broadcast was an immediate success but friends and family urged them to take it down with fear of controversy. They went on to display their talents on YouTube that also includes a medley of “Even Me” and Fantasia Barrino's “I’m Here” from the Broadway musical The Color Purple.

Tyler Perry saw the YouTube Broadcast in December of 2009. CraigLewis received an email from Tyler Perry’s assistant wanting to set up a meeting with whom they recognize as “Mr. Perry.” In the same week of meeting Tyler Perry, he asked them “What do you both do for a living?” Both Craig and Lewis worked at local Atlanta restaurants, Craig as a host and Lewis as a server. Mr. Perry politely asked them to quit their jobs and join his new play "Madea's Big Happy Family." On January 4, 2010 they were on the road living their dreams with non stop tours performing multiple shows a night. On April 2, 2010 CraigLewis was awarded the opportunity to be on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Tyler Perry and Janet Jackson where Oprah graciously asked the duo to sing what song discovered them: “The Brady Bunch” theme song.

To date, CraigLewis has opened for artists such as Fantasia Barrino and has sung at numerous events all over the US and churches. [1]

## Preliminary

Craig Lewis Band's preliminary performance in Episode BC05 consisted of singing James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World." Mike, Pennies and Fresh all gave the duo standing ovations. Their performance was strong enough for the judges to send them to Judge Cuts instead of The Texas Tenors.

## Judge Cuts

Craig Lewis Band's Judge Cuts performance in Episode BC010 consisted of singing Mary J. Blige's "I'm Goin' Down" together. Mike, Saf, guest judge Mikey, Pennies and Fresh all gave the duo standing ovations. However, their performance was not strong enough for the judges to send them to the Quarterfinals, eliminating them from the competition.