Leslie Lewis
Leslie Lewis: Music composer, guitarist, singer, lyricistNick Name: Lezz
Family: father- P.L. Raj (veteran choreographer), spouse- Lollette
Popularly known: as a part of team 'Colonial Cousins' along with singer Hariharan
Leslie Lewis is a talented guitarist, composer, arranger, lyricist and a singer. Leslie came to fame with his Indian-English album Colonial Cousins along with Hariharan in 1996. Leslie and Hariharan created history in the Indian music industry, when they were invited to perform on MTV Unplugged in 1996. MTV Unplugged is the prestigious show which shows only the biggest act in the musical world of America and UK. Leslie and Hariharan became the first Indians as well as first Asians to perform on this show. Colonial Cousins was a huge hit, which included the fusion of Indian and Western music. Leslie came to overnight recognition with this album. The duo won MTV Asia Viewers' Choice Award as well as US Billboard's Viewers' Award in 1996 for the album. After their first successful album, they released their second album 'The Way We Do It' in 1998.
Leslie Lewis is also known as Lezz. His father P.L. Raj was a veteran choreographer. Lezz was always in touch with music since his childhood. He is also familiar with the rock music biggies Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton when he was in college. These things filled in him the various musical styles from different cultures.
Before composing music, Leslie was playing guitar at the Cafe Royale, Oberoi Towers hotel, Mumbai. He is an excellent guitar player. Also he had played guitar for Bollywood music directors like Kalyanji-Anandji, R.D. Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. In 1987, he opened his own music company where he was used to compose jingles for TV commercials. Leslie was consecutively nominated for four times at the Indian Academy of Advertising Film Art. However, he won the award in 1989.
Leslie also had worked as composer and producer for non-film albums like- Sunita Rao's Paree, Alisha Chinai's Bombay Girl and Asha Bhosle's Jaanam Samjha Karo. By the time he also released his solo album called Haseena. He also had composed music for Band Of Boys album 'Gaane Bhi Do Yaaron' and Sonali Rathore's (wife of Roop Kumar Rathore) album named 'Sunali - This Is Me'.
This talented guitarist, singer, composer is also recently opened his doors to Bollywood. He recently composed music for Bollywood film Apna Aasmaan, in 2007. Leslie has married Lollette. The couple is together from the last ten years and are blessed with two kids.
Awards won by Leslie Lewis
- 1996 - MTV Asian Viewer's Choice Award - Colonial Cousins
- 1996 - US Billboard's Viewers' Award - Colonial Cousins
- Channel [V] award - Colonial Cousins
- Indian Viewers Choice - Colonial Cousins
- Saa Ni Da Pa - Colonial Cousins
- Krishna - Colonial Cousins