Background and career
David James Archuleta (born December 28, 1990) is an American singer and songwriter. At the age of ten, he won the children's division of the Utah Talent Competition, leading to other television singing appearances. When he was twelve years old, he became the Junior Vocal Champion on the second season of Star Search, known as "Star Search 2". In 2008, he finished second on the seventh season of American Idol. In August 2008, Archuleta released his first single, "Crush". His self-titled first album, released three months later, debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart; it has sold over 750,000 copies in the United States and over 900,000 worldwide. In October 2010, he released a third album, The Other Side of Down, featuring the lead single "Something 'Bout Love". In March 2012, he released his fourth album, Forevermore, exclusively in the Philippines. This was his first Original Filipino Music (OPM) album, composed of several covers of Filipino songs. The album was certified gold in the Philippines (10,000 units) as of June 2012. His fifth album, Begin, was released in August 2012. A compilation album, No Matter How Far, was released in March 2013. His sixth studio album, Postcards in the Sky, was released in October 2017 and his second holiday album, Winter in the Air, was released in 2018. His eighth studio album, Therapy Sessions, was released in May 2020.
Archuleta was born on December 28, 1990, in Miami, Florida, to Guadalupe Mayorga, a salsa singer and dancer, and Jeff Archuleta, a jazz musician. His mother is from Honduras and his father is of Spanish, Danish, Irish, and German descent. Archuleta has stated that his surname is of Basque origin. He speaks fluent Spanish and has four siblings. His family moved to the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, Utah, when he was six years old. Archuleta began singing at the age of six, inspired by a Les Misérables video. "That musical is what started all of this", he said. He started performing publicly at the age of 10 when he participated in the Utah Talent Competition, singing "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton; he won the Child Division. He attended Murray High School before appearing on American Idol. Archuleta was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and completed the final requirements to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout in 2008, three days shy of his 18th birthday, while competing in American Idol; he did not formally receive the rank until two years later. He is a graduate of Barbizon Modeling and Acting School in Salt Lake City.
In 2003, Archuleta sang on several episodes of the television show Star Search. He wound up as the Junior Vocal Champion on Star Search 2, losing the Junior Grand Champion title to Tiffany Evans. On one episode, he competed against then-11-year-old Alexandréa Lushington, who became a top 20 semi-finalist on American Idol alongside Archuleta. Around the second year of being on Star Search he started focusing on the lyrics, "I didn't even pay attention to the lyrics when I was 12, 13." Archuleta's competing on Star Search was preceded by an appearance on The Jenny Jones Show, 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. He received praise from Season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson, and the episode led to appearances on CBS's The Early Show. The year after Star Search, he found out he had partial vocal paralysis but declined risky surgery and has said he feels he is almost fully recovered. He limited his singing to specific occasions, like Stadium of Fire, the Independence Day celebration at Brigham Young University Stadium. Archuleta made initial attempts at songwriting and arranging music after his Star Search experience and has written at least three songs. His first singles in 2002, written by his father and Sunny Hilden, were "Dream Sky High" and a song he had written by Yani Gileadi, "Don't Tell Me".
Archuleta received his ticket to the Hollywood auditions at the San Diego tryouts – held at Qualcomm Stadium at the end of July 2007 – with a performance of John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change" with judge Randy Jackson spontaneously joining in to sing the background "waiting" in the song. He was sixteen during the Hollywood auditions and attended school while a part of American Idol's seventh season. A parent/guardian was required to be there because he was a minor. Archuleta took advantage of the decision to allow contestants to play musical instruments when he accompanied himself on piano for his performances of "Crazy", "Another Day in Paradise", and "Angels". During the 1970s themed week Archuleta sang the John Lennon song "Imagine", omitting the earlier verses in favor of the last one. Los Angeles Times columnist Ann Powers speculated that he wanted to avoid singing "no religion too" because of his faith. "As a Mormon, he's unlikely to espouse the song's agnostic ideal", she wrote. However, he did sing the entire song on "Good Things Utah" when he was 13. Asked by judge Randy Jackson why he did not sing the first verse, Archuleta said the third verse was his favorite because it has "a great message". 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, who "reportedly yelled at" his son after a recording session the previous night. Jeff Archuleta, in an interview with Us Weekly, 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 an interpretation 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. Archuleta defended his father, calling him "a great guy" who keeps him grounded. During the Top 7 results show, the contestants were split into two groups. In one group was Syesha Mercado, Brooke White, and Kristy Lee Cook. In the other group was David Cook, Carly Smithson, and Jason Castro. Archuleta was the only one not sorted into a group. He was declared safe after the groups were formed, then was asked to choose the group he thought was safe. He refused, and sat down on the floor of the stage, much as Melinda Doolittle had done the previous season. In the finale he sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", "In This Moment" and "Imagine". Judge Simon Cowell declared that Archuleta won the evening and even David Cook, who ultimately won, thought Archuleta would win: "I have to concede it, the kid came out all three songs and nailed it", said Cook. In the final tally, Archuleta received 44 percent of the votes. During the finale show, identical commercials featuring Archuleta and fellow finalist Cook mimicked the Tom Cruise scene from Risky Business where he dances in his underwear playing an air guitar; they were promoting the game franchise Guitar Hero.
Archuleta's first appearances on music ranking charts were with the three songs he performed in the American Idol finale: "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", "In This Moment", and "Imagine" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of June 7, 2008. "Imagine" entered at number 36, giving Archuleta his first top-forty hit, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" at 58, and "In This Moment" at 60. That same week he had three songs on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart as well, where his versions of "Longer", "Think of Me", and "Angels" debuted at number 15, number 19, and number 24 respectively. Archuleta signed with Jive Records in June 2008. His self-titled album, David Archuleta, was released in November 2008. His first single, "Crush", was released in August 2008 on Z100, a New York radio station. On August 12 "Crush" became available on iTunes. It debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, beaten only by Rihanna's "Disturbia". It was the best chart debut in more than 18 months. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the track sold 166,000 downloads in the first week in the United States. It has sold 1.92 million digital copies in the US. Along with American Idol winner David Cook, Archuleta placed second on Forbes' list of "Breakout Stars of 2008". The two co-presented an award at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards in August 2008. Archuleta also received the Teen Choice Award surfboard for "Most Fanatic Fans".
Since the release of his debut album, Archuleta has released three new songs: "Let's Talk About Love (The Build-A-Bear theme song)", "Save the Day (released only in Japan as a bonus track in his album)", and "Zero Gravity". In February, it was announced that Archuleta would be touring the United Kingdom, supporting British band McFly on their "Up Close...And This Time It's Personal" tour. The tour began on April 21, 2009, and continued until May. Archuleta became the opening act for Demi Lovato's tour which began June 21, 2009.
