Who is David Archuleta?

by mandymagnificent Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:40 pm

David James Archuleta (born December 28, 1990) is an American singer-songwriter. At ten years old he competed and won the children's division of the Utah Talent Competition leading to other television singing appearances. At twelve, he became the Junior Vocal Champion on Star Search 2.In 2007, at sixteen years old, he became one of the youngest finalists on the seventh season of American Idol.He rose up through the competition, and in May 2008, became the runner-up on the show receiving 44 percent of over 97 million votes.
In August 2008 Archuleta released "Crush", the first single from his self-titled debut album and the highest-ranking debut single release of any American Idol contestant. The album, released in November 2008, debuted at the number-two spot on the Billboard 200 chart; as of January 2009 it has sold over 610,000 copies in the United States.
David Archuleta was born in Miami, Florida, to Jeff Archuleta and Lupe Marie, a salsa singer and dancer from Honduras. Archuleta has four siblings. Archuleta's family moved to the Salt Lake Valley, to the city of Sandy, Utah, when Archuleta was six. He currently lives in Murray, Utah where he attended Murray High School. Archuleta is a member of the Boy Scouts of America.
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 ten 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.
Archuleta was inspired by watching both Tamyra Gray and Kelly Clarkson to "see what performing and really getting into a song was like" during the beginning weeks of the premiere season of American Idol. He later made his television debut, at eleven years old, singing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" on The Jenny Jones Show show for future Latino stars alongside season one finalist A.J. Gil. Through A.J. Gil he was able to meet and sing for Gray who had sung the song on American Idol as well as Clarkson (that year's winner) and Justin Guarini (the runner up).
American Idol-Archuleta won his ticket to the Hollywood final 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 16 during the Hollywood auditions (where his renditions of Bryan Adams' "Heaven" and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" were well-received by the judges) and attended school while a part of American Idol's seventh season.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 "Crazy", "Another Day in Paradise", and "Angels."