David James Archuleta (born December 28, 1990) is an American singer. In May 2008, he became the runner-up on the seventh season of American Idol receiving 44 percent of over 97 million votes. Archuleta's first single "Crush" was released in August 2008; his self-titled debut album was released on November 11, 2008.[3][4][5]
Contents |
Early life
David Archuleta was born in Miami, Florida, to Jeff Archuleta and Lupe Marie, a salsa singer and dancer from Honduras. Archuleta has four siblings.[6] 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 is a student at Murray High School.[7] Archuleta is a member of the Boy Scouts of America.[8][9]
Archuleta started singing at age six, inspired by a Les Misérables video. "That musical is what started all of this", he said.[10] 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.[11]
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 wee
ks of the premiere season of American Idol.[12] 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.[12] 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).[12]
Musical influences
Archuleta's mother is from Honduras, and much of the music he listened to as a child was Latin-influenced including watching his mom sing at events with her sisters.[12]
She also "was big on dancing" according to Archuleta, and would "make" him dance to traditional music with his older sister.[14] He also listened to jazz music, he said, from his father's collection as well as gospel, pop, rock and "soulful music."[10] In a later interview, he revealed that his father was a jazz musician. Archuleta also said he enjoys Broadway musicals.[15]
On his American Idol "Fast Facts" page, Archuleta cited his musical influences as Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Kirk Franklin and Bryan Adams.[11] When he listed his top pop music artists, he cited Natasha Bedingfield, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Adams, Kirk Franklin, and Robbie Williams.[11] Like Elliott Yamin and another singer he admires, John Mayer, Archuleta tries to infuse his pop selections with a soulful vibe.[10] In a Seventeen interview he cites Sara Bareilles as a clever singer-songwriter he looks up to.[16]
Star Search
In 2003, at age 12, Archuleta sang on several episodes of the television show Star Search.[17][18][19] He ended up as the Junior Vocal Champion on Star Search 2. On one episode, he sang against then-11-year-old Alexandréa Lushington, who became a "top 20" semi-finalist on American Idol alongside Archuleta.[18] 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".[12]
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, and received enthusiastic praise from Season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson.[20][12] The year after Star Search he found out he had partial vocal p
aralysis but declined risky surgery and has said he feels he is almost fully recovered.[10][12] He limited his singing for specific occasions like Stadium of Fire, the Independence Day celebration at Brigham Young University Stadium.[12]
American Idol
Overview
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.[21][11]) He was 16 during the Hollywo
od 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.[22] His parents were there because he was a minor.[22] 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."
A Los Angeles Times article speculated that Archuleta avoided singing the first verse of "Imagine": because "of his religion (Mormonism), he's unlikely to espouse the song's agnostic ideal . . . with the line about 'no religion too.'"[23] Archuleta did, however, sing the entire song on Good Things Utah when he was 13. During his first perfor
mance 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."
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.[24] In the final tally, Archuleta received 44 percent of the votes.
[25][26] 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.[27]
Performances
Fans
The Fans dub themselves "Archies" or "Arch Angels." With his "cult-like appeal" nurtured by his work on American Idol, Archuleta has attracted a wide demographic of fans including teenage girls.[29][30][31] Archuleta was labeled the front-runner after the first few weeks of performances by both the judges and the media because of his "pure, pop voice", which helped him build a large fan base during the competition.[32] Billboard magazine's Fred Bronson notes "David fills a spot where there's a void. He has innocence and humility."[31] Los Angeles Times' Richard Rushfield noted that the "tween/teen girl hysteria" has only increased.[33] 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]."[33]
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.[34] Jeff Archuleta, in an interview with Us Magazine, denied the claim.[35][36] 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.[37] Archuleta defended his father calling him "a great guy" who keeps him grounded.[38]
Post-Idol career
In June 2008, Jive Records announced that Archuleta signed a recording contract and his debut album will be released later in 2008, after the "American Idols tour".[2] The three songs he 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. All three debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of June 7, 2008. "Imagine" entered at #36 (giving Archuleta his first top forty hit), "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" at #58, and "In This Moment" entered at #60.[39] That same week he landed three songs on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, where his versions of "Longer", "Think of Me", and "Angels" debuted at #15, #19, and #24 respectively.[40] In July 2008 So You Think You Can Dance, a dance competition reality show, Archuleta's cover of "Imagine" by John Lennon was the featured music for contestants Katee Shean and William Wingfield with their pas de deux performance.[41]
In July 2008, two more song titles, "My Hands" and "Ruined Me", were registered at ASCAP. However, the track list has since been released and "Ruined Me" did not make the final cut.[42][43] Archuleta's first single "Crush" was released on August 1, 2008 on Z100, a New York radio station.[44][3] On August 12 "Crush" became available on iTunes, where it rose to the #1 position within 24 hours.[45] It debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, beaten only by Rihanna's "Disturbia." It was the best chart debut in more than 18 months.[46] According to Nielsen SoundScan, the track sold 166,000 downloads in the first week in the United States.[47] As of mid-November it has sold over 920,000 digital copies.[48] The album is now available for pre-order on iTunes, and a new recording of "Angels" can be downloaded with the pre-order.
He was a presenter with American Idol winner David Cook at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards on 4 August 2008.[49] He also won the Teen Choice surfboard for "Most Fanatic Fans".[49]
Archuleta has made initial attempts at songwriting and arranging music after his Star Search experience and has written at least three songs.[12]
Acting debut
According to People, Archuleta will be making a cameo appearance as himself for his acting debut on Nickelodeon's show iCarly titled "iRocked the Vote".[50] The television sitcom is centered around Miranda Cosgrove who is also a teenage singer and also has music singles charting at the time.[51] "iRocked the Vote" has Archuleta as a contestant on an Idol-style show called America Sings; the episode will air in the spring of 2009.[50]
Discography
Albums
| Year | Information | Charts | Sales and certifications | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | AUS | CAN[52] | GER | UK | |||
| 2008 | David Archuleta
| 2 | - | 15 | - | - |
|
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart position | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Hot 100 | US Pop 100 | US Digital | US AC | US Top 40 | US Adult | CAN Hot 100 | |||
| 2002 | "Dream Sky High"[53] | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | single only |
| "Don't Tell Me"[53] | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2008 | "Crush"[A][54] | 2 | 12 | 1 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 7 | David Archuleta |
| "A Little Not Too Over You"[B][55] | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
Other charted songs
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Hot 100 | US Pop 100 | US Digital | CAN | |||
| 2008 | "Imagine"[56] | 36 | 35 | 16 | 31 | American Idol performances |
| "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"[56] | 58 | 41 | 26 | 50 | ||
| "In This Moment"[56] | 60 | 43 | 28 | 56 | ||
| "Longer"[40] | 115 | 97 | — | — | ||
| "Think of Me"[40] | 119 | — | — | — | ||
| "Angels" | 89 | — | 53 | 64 | David Archuleta | |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Presenter | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Teen Choice Awards | 2008-Most Fanatic Fans | Won[57] |
| 2008-Best Smile (Post Show) | Won[58] |
Notes
- ^ The performance of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" wasn't aired due to licensing issues with American Idol and the original artist(s).
- ^ John Farnham released "You're the Voice" in 1985; it was re-arranged and released as a cover version by David Foster with vocalist Jeff Pescetto in 1990. Archuleta was born that same year so was able to use it for the week's theme - "Songs from birth year of contestants".
References
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