“Growing up, there was always a lot of other Chris’s everywhere,” Chris Lee told American Songwriter. “In classes and stuff people ended up just calling me ‘Chris Lee’ because it stood out.”

Years later, Chris Lee — who now goes by ‘ChrisLee’ — is still standing out. On Monday night, Lee became the newest winner of NBC’s “Songland,” the show which features songwriters pitching their songs to a panel of celebrity ‘producers’ — Shane McAnally, Ryan Tedder and Ester Dean — and a guest artist. This week, the guest was the influential vocal group Boyz II Men, who actually made the unprecedented move to record all of the songs pitched to them. However, Lee’s song “Love Struck” still received special recognition as the winning song… which makes sense considering that it is a grooving pop number which feels perfectly situated for the glossy sound of Boyz II Men.

A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, Lee has been writing songs since he was in elementary school. As a beautiful reminder of the importance of teachers — an especially powerful sentiment in today’s quarantine world — Lee cites his music teacher, Bob Berzack, as the person who spurred his life’s journey.