Re: My early pick for American Idol
David Archuleta has quite a history. Tried out for star search as a kid and won "junior singer grand prize winner of Star Search 2":
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/star_search2/junior_bio.php?jf=david_archuleta
And he is mormon?
David Archuleta
Latter-day Saint. Born 28 December 1990 in Miami, Floria. Lives in Murray, Utah. Birth name: David James Archuleta. At the age of 13 he won $100,000 when he came in first place in the national TV talent competition "Star Search" on CBS (2003-2004 season). Official website:
http://davidarchuleta.net/. Bio from official website:
"Where did you get that voice"? From Jenny Jones to Naomi Judd, Ben Stein, Boyz II Men, Leann Rimes, Hillary Duff and Ahmet Zappa, it seems everyone who hears David wonders the same thing - How can a young kid living in Utah learn to sing like that?? He has been called "The Soul man from Utah," the "Soul Midget King," "Mini Motown Monster" and a singing prodigy, and this is just the beginning.
From Wayne Newton in the 50s and 60s, Michael Jackson and Donny Osmond in the 70s, Tevin Campbell in the 90s and Billy Gillman in 2000, only a handful of young male entertainers have been able to achieve National recognition. Now to add to this elite list of pre-teen young male singers is David Archuleta, whose natural "soulful" voice has captivated America through his performances on Jenny Jones and most recently as the junior singer grand prize winner of Star Search 2.
David Archuleta was born in Miami, Florida on December 28th 1990 and spent the first six years of his life in various cities in Florida. In February of 1997, David and his family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah where he lives with his parents, his brother and 3 sisters and 2 cats. He comes from a musical family where his mother sings both Spanish and English pop music, and his dad is a jazz trumpet player. David began singing at the age of 6 when he memorized several songs from the Les Miserables 10th anniversary concert, complete with English and Cockney accents. He also enjoyed singing songs from the movie Evita and songs he learned while at the amusement park Lagoon in Utah like Natalie Cole's "Pink Cadillac". Although David enjoyed singing, he still didn't feel comfortable singing in front of people. He just couldn't believe people would really want to hear his voice.
When he was 10 he participated in the Utah Talent Competition and although VERY reluctant to go perform in public, and feeling extremely nervous, he went onstage and sang "I Will Always Love You" and received a standing ovation, winning the kid division and realizing that people really did like to hear his voice. Several months passed and a new show started on TV, American Idol. David loved to watch and rewatch the performances and learned dozens of songs from the show including the song, "And I am Telling You, I'm Not Going" which has become one of his favorite songs to perform.
Towards the end of the American Idol first season, a friend of the family called about a show Jenny Jones was doing to feature talented kids across America and thought David should audition for the show. A show producer called and listened to an a capella recording of David singing "And I Am Telling You", and was so impressed, she asked him to rush a video and CD to them. A few days later, David and his dad were on a plane to Chicago to be on the show. While there he met AJ Gil from American Idol and formed a friendship with him, and a week later while in LA, met with AJ who then introduced David to the rest of the American Idol finalists including Kelly, Justin, Tamyra, Christina, Nikki, RJ, Jim, Ryan, and Ejay, and asked him to perform for them. They were absolutely amazed with his singing, and within a few days David was being introduced to many TV and Record label producers and executives.
The last several months have included performing 3 times on Star Search, being seen on CBS' The Early Show and has been the beginning of an exciting journey for David and his family. He is now in negotiations to record some new material and will be releasing a new CD soon.
