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 attended 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 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.[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 weeks 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]
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 in November 2008
Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:33 pm
