David Archuleta

David Archuleta was born December 28, 1990 in Miami, Florida. His family moved to Utah when he was 6. Archuleta began singing at the age of 6 after watching a video of the musical Les Miserables. His first public performance at the age of 10 won the child division of a Utah talent show. His TV debut at age 11 came on the Jenny Jones Show singing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." He was identified in the show as a future Latino star.

David Archuleta's mother's Honduran heritage caused him to exposed to Latin music from a young age. His mother performed publicly with her sisters singing as well as dancing. Archuleta's father is a jazz musician and passed on an interest in jazz. Among major influences David Archuleta has listed are Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Kirk Franklin, and Bryan Adams.

In 2003, at the age of 12, David Archuleta became a contestant on Star Search. He was very successful as a contestant and at one point competed against Alexandrea Lushington who later became a fellow American Idol finalist.

David Archuleta received a ticket to the Hollywood finalist auditions of American Idol in the summer of 2007. He sang John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change" to secure his spot in Hollywood. From the beginning of Season 7 of American Idol in early 2008 David Archuleta was favored to be one of the final pair vying for the title. In the end he lost out to rocker David Cook.

In June 2008 Jive Records announced they had signed David Archuleta to a contract. He began recording material for a debut album during the summer and fall American Idol concert tour. His first single from the new recordings, "Crush," was released to pop radio on August 1, 2008. It quickly topped digital download charts and debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. His self-titled debut album headed to stores in November 2008 and entered the album chart at #2. It sold over 500,000 copies by early 2009.