Donell Lewis, of Samoan descent, was born in South Auckland before moving to the North Shore. He grew up playing sport and going to church and had very little interest in music. At the age of 15, he stumbled across his untapped potential after making a song on some run down equipment in his garage. After showing a few people from school, he received incredible amounts of praise and positive feedback. He then realised he had discovered a talent he never knew he had, and naturally, he wanted to pursue his options and see where this could take him.

A few years later in 2010, singer songwriter D.Lewis was born. He signed with G.E.M (Green Eyed Monster) in hope to make it big, and released his first single All Night featuring G.E.M’s founder EN-V. His time at G.E.M was short lived and he eventually found himself back at square one; however he had now learnt a thing or two about the music industry and was prepared to give it another go.

In between meetings with various record labels, D.Lewis worked hard in his home-made studio. He produced beats, recorded songs and compiled a number of tracks which he hoped would one day be recognised. You Tube became his way of letting the world know what he was made of, and he was eventually contacted by an old friend and super producer DLove. DLove organised a meeting with D.Lewis and the team at DNK World Music, in hopes to help D.Lewis get a head start on the career he wanted so bad.

Within a matter of months, D.Lewis had gone from being an independent artist with little sense of direction, to the newest member of DNK World Music. He joins Karnel and DLove who have already made their mark on the industry and are now prepared to catapult D.Lewis into the spotlight.

Donell received the Phillip Fuemana Award for Most Promising Pacific Artist in 2015