David Archuleta

David James Archuleta (born December 28, 1990) is an American pop singer.

At ten years old, he won the children's division of the Utah Talent Competition, leading to other television singing appearances.

When he was twelve years old, he became the Junior Vocal Champion on the second season of Star Search, known as "Star Search 2".

Archuleta was born on December 28, 1990, in Miami, to Guadalupe Mayorga, a salsa singer and dancer, and Jeff Archuleta, a jazz musician.

His mother is from Honduras and his father is of Spanish, Danish, Irish, and German descent.

Archuleta has stated that his surname is of Basque origin.

He speaks fluent Spanish and has four siblings.

His family moved to the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, Utah, when he was six years old.

He attended Murray High School before appearing on American Idol.

He began singing at the age of six, inspired by a Les Misérables video.

"That musical is what started all of this", he said.

He started performing publicly at the age of 10 when he participated in the Utah Talent Competition, singing "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton; he won the Child Division.

When Archuleta was 21 he volunteered for two years as a full-time missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and was called to serve in Rancagua, Chile.

Archuleta has since left the LDS Church.

He is a graduate of Barbizon Modeling and Acting School in Salt Lake City.

His first singles in 2002, written by his father and Sunny Hilden, were "Dream Sky High" and a song he had written by Yani Gileadi titled "Don't Tell Me".

In 2003, Archuleta sang on several episodes of the television show Star Search.

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Archuleta's competing on Star Search was preceded by an appearance on The Jenny Jones Show, 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.

He received praise from Season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson, and the episode led to appearances on CBS's The Early Show.

The year after Star Search, he found out he had partial vocal paralysis but declined risky surgery and has said he feels he is almost fully recovered.

He limited his singing to specific occasions, like Stadium of Fire, the Independence Day celebration at Brigham Young University Stadium.

Archuleta made initial attempts at songwriting and arranging music after his Star Search experience and has written at least three songs.

Archuleta received his ticket to the Hollywood 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 sixteen during the Hollywood auditions and attended school while a part of American Idol's seventh season.

In 2008, he finished second on the seventh season of American Idol.

In August 2008, he released "Crush", the first single from his self-titled debut album.

The album, released three months later, debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart; it has sold over 750,000 copies in the United States and over 900,000 worldwide.

In October 2010, he released a third album, The Other Side of Down, featuring the lead single "Something 'Bout Love".

In March 2012, he went on hiatus for two years to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chile, but stated that he would continue his music career afterwards.

As of February 2012, he had sold 1,108,000 albums and 3,327,000 tracks in the United States.

Archuleta and his mother have both since left the LDS Church.

In March 2012, he released his fourth album, "Forevermore", exclusively in the Philippines.

This was his first Original Filipino Music (OPM) album, composed of several covers of Filipino songs.

The album was certified gold in the Philippines (10,000 units) as of June 2012.

His fifth album, Begin, was released in August 2012.

A compilation album, No Matter How Far, was released in March 2013.

His sixth studio album, Postcards in the Sky, was released in October 2017 and his second holiday album, Winter in the Air, was released in 2018.

His eighth studio album, Therapy Sessions, was released in May 2020.

In 2023, Archuleta competed in the ninth season of The Masked Singer as "Macaw" and finished in second place.