About David Archuleta

David James Archuleta was born on December 28, 1990 and is an American singer. On May 21, 2008 he became the runner-up on the seventh season of American Idol, to David Cook.

David Archuleta was born in Miami, Florida to Jeff Archuleta and Lupe Maire, a salsa singer and dancer from Honduras. David has four siblings. Archuleta's family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah when Archuleta was 6 and currently lives in Murray, Utah, where Archuleta is a student at Murray High School. He once suffered partial vocal paralysis but declined risky surgery and has said he feels he is almost fully recovered.
Archuleta started singing at age six, inspired by a Les Misérables video. "That musical is what started all of this," he said. He started performing publicly at age 10 when he participated in the Utah Talent Competition singing "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton; he received a standing ovation and won the Child Division. At age 11 he sang "And I Am Telling You" on a Jenny Jones' show for future Latino stars.

Archuleta's mother is from Honduras[8], and much of the music he listened to as a child, according to an interview aired on American Idol, was Latin-influenced. She also "was big on dancing" according to Archuleta, and would "make" him dance to traditional music with his older sister.[9] He also listened to jazz music, he said, from his father's collection as well as gospel, pop, rock and "soulful music."[5] In a later interview, he revealed that his father was a jazz musician. Archuleta also said he enjoys Broadway musicals.[10]

On his American Idol "Fast Facts" page, Archuleta cites his musical influences as Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Kirk Franklin and Bryan Adams.[6] When asked to list his top pop artists, he cited Natasha Bedingfield, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Adams, Kirk Franklin, and Robbie Williams.[6] He also listed Tamyra Gray and Elliott Yamin as his favorite former American Idol contestants.[citation needed] Like Yamin and another singer he admires, John Mayer, Archuleta tries to infuse his pop selections with a soulful vibe.


Star Search
In 2003, at age 12, Archuleta sang on several episodes of the television show Star Search.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] He ended up as the Junior Vocal Champion on Star Search 2.[2] On one episode, he sang against then-11-year-old Alexandréa Lushington, who also became a "top 20" semi-finalist on American Idol alongside Archuleta.[14] Archuleta's competing on Star Search led to appearances on The Jenny Jones Show and CBS' The Early Show, and meeting the finalists from American Idol's first season, for whom he performed a spontaneous a cappella rendition of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls.


American Idol
Archuleta won his ticket to the Hollywood final auditions (with a performance of John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change") at the San Diego tryouts held at Qualcomm Stadium July 30 and July 31, 2007. He was 16 during the Hollywood auditions (where he sang Bryan Adams' "Heaven" to unanimous praise) and because he was not yet 18, had to attend school ("doing schoolwork in the morning and then come onto the stage and then go back to the schoolwork") while a part of American Idol's seventh season.[19] His parents were there because he was a minor. Archuleta also took advantage of the decision to allow contestants to play musical instruments when he accompanied himself on piano for his performances of "Another Day in Paradise" and "Angels."
A Los Angeles Times article speculated why Archuleta avoided singing the first verse of "Imagine": because "of his religion, he's unlikely to espouse the song's agnostic ideal . . . with the line about 'no religion too.'" Archuleta did, however, sing the entire song on Good Things Utah when he was 13. During his first performance of Imagine on American Idol, when asked by judge Randy Jackson why he didn't sing the first verse, Archuleta said the third verse was his favorite because it has "a great message."[21] After his "Imagine" performance, the judges said he was "the one to beat".

In his finale performance he sang, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", "In This Moment" and "Imagine." After his rendition of the three songs Simon Cowell declared that Archuleta won the evening and even David Cook thought David Archuleta nailed the American Idol Finale: "I have to concede it, the kid came out all three songs and nailed it" said Cook. In the final week of the season, Archuleta received 44 percent of the votes.

During the finale of season 7 of American Idol, Archuleta appeared in a commercial for the game franchise Guitar Hero, mimicking Tom Cruise in Risky Business. [23] Fellow finalist David Cook appeared in a separate commercial parodying the same scene.


Fans
Archuleta's fans have been dubbed "The Archies" and the "Arch Angels" with his "cult-like appeal" nurtured by his work on American Idol attracting a wide demographic including "grandmothers and teenage girls." [24] [25][26]
Archuleta was labeled the front-runner by both the judges and the media because of his good looks and his "pure, pop voice," which helped him build a large fan base during the competition. Billboard magazine's Fred Bronson notes “David fills a spot where there’s a void. . . . He has innocence and humility.”[26] Los Angeles Times' Richard Rushfield noted that the "tween/teen girl hysteria" has only increased despite some less than amazing performances.
Archuleta seems to be sympathetic with his audience, as since his performance of "Angels" he has been responding to requests of his fans on the American Idol Forums to signal them by putting his hand over his heart. Rushfield commented on some of the girls who were standing in the front of the audience: "An hour after the show, they were still shaking, sobbing and screeching about their encounter with the Chosen One [Archuleta]." Teen-based entertainment is "surging" and the teenage voters may have accounted for the teenaged Jordin Sparks who beat out front-runners Blake Lewis and Melinda Doolittle last season. Referring to American Idol's system of popular voting for the remainder of the competition, Rushfield said, "No demographic can match the voting power of hysterically excited teen girls."


Controversy With Father
After his performance of "We Can Work It Out," which judge Simon Cowell called "a mess," Entertainment Tonight reported that Archuleta was feeling pressure from his father, Jeff Archuleta, who "reportedly yelled at" his son after a recording session the previous night. Jeff Archuleta, in an interview with Us Magazine, denied the claim. A May 2008 Associated Press article reported that Jeff Archuleta had his son add a lyric from the Sean Kingston song "Beautiful Girls" into a rendition of "Stand by Me" (from which "Beautiful Girls" samples its bass line), increasing the costs for licensing, and that this had resulted in Jeff Archuleta being banned from American Idol backstage rehearsals.


Post-Idol Career
The three songs Archuleta performed in the American Idol Finale, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, In This Moment, and Imagine, became top-10 downloads on iTunes.
Archuleta also signed with Jive Records on May 22, 2008 and plans on releasing a CD.

Career

Guitar Hero Commercial - 2008 - Himself
Ford Music Videos - 2008
American Idol - 2008 - Runner-Up
Star Search - 2003 - Won