Elite TV- Colby O'Donis

Elite TV and SOG Crew caught up with music superstar Colby O'Donis at a live performance in downtown Los Angeles at the 740 club. We are currently working on an exclusive Elite TV show highlighting Colby.

Early life

He was born in Queens, New York, and is of Puerto Rican descent.[1] Colby's parents discovered his talent at age 3 when he won first place at a talent show by singing a Michael Jackson song. He would also perform at his father's flea market in Queens every weekend, just for fun.[2]

Music career

By age of 3, Colby's parents had relocated to Altamonte Springs, Florida where he began collaborating with producer/songwriters, Full Force, who were responsible for numerous hits by the Backstreet Boys, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, 'N Sync, and Britney Spears. Colby's rise to fame began at 10 when he became the youngest recording artist ever signed to Motown Records to do a song for a major motion picture soundtrack. The song titled "Mouse in the House" was featured on the 1999 Stuart Little soundtrack. Soon after, he began taking guitar lessons with Johan Oiested, a musician in Carlos Santana’s rhythm section. At age 11, he appeared regularly as an actor on the TV series Grandpa's Garage. By age 14, Colby's passion for music had him opening shows for major recording artists including JoJo, A*Teens, Hoku, S Club 7, Jump5, B-5, Backstreet Boys, Brian McKnight, 98° and 'N Sync. Shortly after his 15th birthday, Colby's parents made the decision to relocate to Los Angeles and pursue a recording deal using Colby’s 100+ song catalogue. Upon relocating, Colby was introduced to Genuine Music Group where he began collaborating on producing an LP album consisting of songs from his catalog and songs co-written by producer's Damon Sharpe (J-Lo, Ginuwine, Kelly Rowland, Anastacia), Gregg Pagani (Babyface, Musiq, 3LW), Brion James, Manuel Seal Jr. (Mariah Carey, Usher, Mary J. Blige) and multi-platinum recording artist Justin Timberlake.[3] Colby also performed in California, opening shows for Keyshia Cole, 112, Montell Jordan, Daddy Yankee, Omarion, Don Omar, Brandy, Akon, Rihanna, Bobby Valentino, Ne-Yo and Lil Wayne.[3] He was also briefly featured on an episode of Nickelodeon'sNed's Declassified School Survival Guide as Nelson Duckworth.

For the next two years, Colby continued to strengthen his dancing and stage presentation, learned to play piano, and had at one-time considered signing a recording deal with singer-songwriterBabyface, until a career-altering meeting with Akon occurred.[4] Upon hearing Colby's demo in 2006, Akon immediately booked studio time for the then 17 year old:

“The chemistry was just crazy. And after that he [Akon] said, Yo, I got this new label I’m startin’ up soon. It’s called Konvict Muzic. It’s gonna’ be real big, we’re gonna’ be partnering up with Interscope Records, and I want you to be one of my acts on the label. And from there we kinda’ just ran with it. We were like, yeah, let’s do it. I was down. ‘Cause when you looked at his eyes you could just tell he had that determination that he wasn’t gonna fail, and the rest is just history in the making, so, we’re workin’ on it.Colby O'Donis was also featured in Space Cowboy's music video "Falling Down" released April 2009 [5]

Colby's first single, "What You Got" featuring Akon, was released on February 26, 2008 and in April 2008 he was featured on the dance-hit "Just Dance" alongside Kon Live labelmate Lady Gaga. His second single titled "Don't Turn Back" was released on June 24, 2008. Colby's debut album Colby O was released on September 16, 2008. Colby performed his hit "What You Got" at the US Open'sArthur Ashe Kids Day, and was recently featured as an opening act for New Kids on the Block. On November 23, 2008, he performed the National Anthem at the 2008 MLS Cup. Colby was also featured on "Beautiful" from Akon's2008 album Freedom. On December 4, 2008, he received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording for his contribution on Lady Gaga's "Just Dance." Colby was also featured on "Hey Yo!" from Brooke Hogan's sophomore album The Redemption.

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