About David:
Name: David Archuleta
Age: 18
Location:Sandy, Utah
Music:Natasha Bedingfield, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Adams, Kirk Franklin, Robbie Williams, Elliott Yamin, John Mayer and Sara Bareilles
Birthday: December 28, 1990
Profession: Singing, play guitar, piano and keyboards, songwriter and a student
I C A N. I D O L
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".
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.'" 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."
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 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 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.David 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 like 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.
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 both teenage girls and boys. 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. Billboard magazine's Fred Bronson notes "David fills a spot where there's a void. He has innocence and humility." Los Angeles Times' Richard Rushfield noted that the "tween/teen girl hysteria" has only increased. 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]."
N A L. P R O S P
aith- "I think he is really a nice and cool guy. I just recently learned about from and met him. He seems like a pretty laid back person for the most part. Over all I think he is nice and cool!"
onster- "I think he is cool and normal guy. Not an alien from some other planet just a normal person like the rest of us on the planet earth."
