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Former American Idol Contestant David Archuleta Announces Plan for Mormon Mission

Natalia Buia — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:02:55 +0000

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The 20-year-old “American Idol” runner-up David “Archie” Archuleta used to have songs on the charts about having crushes and wanting to love someone forever. Who knew he was singing about the big guy upstairs the whole time?

Archie announced during a concert in his hometown of Salt Lake City that he’ll be stepping down from music to serve a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He had trouble holding back tears as he told his fans.

Entertainment Tonight reports that missionaries are typically 20 years old and can be sent anywhere around the world to spread the gospel. They are not allowed to date and have to follow a strict dress code. This isn’t the Archie we’re used to seeing on talent shows and in music videos.

It’s obvious the singer thought long and hard about this decision before announcing it to everyone. Two years is a long time to be away from family, friends and fans, but if this is what David thinks his calling is, then it’s very brave of him to follow his heart.

Watch his goodbye video below.

Demi Lovato And David Archuleta Team Up For Tour

Ilan Mester — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:15:54 +0000

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“Camp Rock’s” Demi Lovato and “American Idol” alum David Archuleta are teaming up for a nationwide tour.

Lovato announced the tour on her website and Myspace page, and sited Archuleta as her “special guest,“ making it clear who’s opening for who.

The tour will kick off on June 21 in Hartford, Connecticut and will feature a 47-city trek. Jordan Pruitt and the group KSM will be joining the tour on select dates, according to MTV News.

“I’m so excited about headlining my own tour. I love life on the road. I’m in a different city every night, and it never gets old,” said Lovato to People.

She previously opened for the Jonas Brothers during their tour last summer. This summer tour will also coincide with Lovato’s planned sophomore album, due for release sometime in the summer, most likely during the end of her tour.

After all the shows are over, the Disney star will be filming the “Camp Rock” sequel.

David Archuleta To Guest Star On ‘Hannah Montana’

Ilan Mester — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:45:27 +0000

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Season 7 “American Idol” runner-up David Archuleta is set to appear Disney’s “Hannah Montana.”

The singer has already filmed his guest appearance and admits on his blog that he was nervous to appear on the hit show. “It was another thing I was really nervous about and wasn’t really sure about at first,” Archuleta said of the experience of filming the show.

Archuleta adds that once he got to the set, he had a great time. “Everyone there was fun and Miley was a cool person to hang out with. She has a lot of energy and is really funny haha. Getting to watch how they rehearsed the scenes for the show was really cool too. It’s always interesting to see the behind-the-scenes things.”

This isn’t the first time Archuleta makes an appearance on a TV show. He has also guest starred on an episode of Nickelodeon’s “iCarly”.

Archuleta Crushes Cook

andPOP Staff — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:52:35 +0000

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David Archuleta just crushed the time of David Cook’s life.

Archuleta’s new single, “Crush”, debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 singles chart, beating Cook’s “The Time of My Life” by one spot.

This makes the 17-year-old the first Idol runner-up to outperform the winner since Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard from season two.

American Idol aside, “Crush” is the best debut since Fall Out Boy’s “This Aint a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” back in January 2007.

Round three for the Davids will be in November–when both of their records are to be released.

David Cook’s Brother Too Sick For Finale?

andPOP Staff — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:42:26 +0000

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“American Idol” finalist David Cook may be missing one of his biggest supporters at the upcoming season finale: his brother.

As was revealed last month, Cook’s brother Adam has been fighting brain cancer for the last ten years. People magazine reports that though he was well enough to attend one episode, his condition will likely keep him from travelling back to Los Angeles again.

According to the his wife, Adam’s health is “A day-to-day thing. I can’t look at tomorrow. I have to look at today. If I start planning out and thinking about too much in the future, I can get overwhelmed in all the details. I have to concentrate on today.”

Cook will compete tonight against David Archuleta, with the champion being crowned tomorrow night.

American Idol Recap: Coming to America(n Idol): Neil Diamond Week

andPOP Staff — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:10:21 +0000

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When I think cool and contemporary, I think Neil Diamond. Except not at all. (Unless we’re talking about Will Farrell as Neil Diamond which is kind of hilarious). So Neil seems like kind of an odd choice for a show that is desperately trying to recapture the attention of the crucial under-25 demographic. But obviously someone important at Idol headquarters disagrees as Diamond plays musical mentor this week to the top 5 contestants.

In a cruel twist of fate, Ryan Seacrest reveals that the “American Idol” contestants are each to sing 2 songs tonight from Neil Diamond’s musical catalogue. Two Neil Diamond songs?! That’s rough. I feel your pain, kids.

Jason Castro starts things off singing “Forever in Blue Jeans” and later, “September Morn”. He sings the former with his guitar and the latter without and it seems like he always does a lot worse sans guitar. “Michelle” in Beatles week? Brutal. The judges think it was all bad though as Randy Jackson calls both songs “just ok, whatever”, Paula Abdul advises him to get out of his comfort zone, and Simon Cowell says he doesn’t even recognize him anymore.

David Cook chose the songs “I’m Alive” and “All I Really Need is You”, neither of which I have ever heard, but both of which he makes sound kind of cool. And how can you not respect a guy that makes random Neil Diamond songs sound cool? Neil himself says Cook gave him goosebumps but he’s so monotone that it sounds like he’s lying. Randy calls his performances “blazin”, Paula says she’s already looking at the american idol, and all the judges agree that it’s Cook’s ability to make songs contemporary that makes him appealing.

Brooke White is wearing what looks like an old costume from my low-budget youth theatre company (sparkly super-wide bell-bottoms and a frilly shirt. Belted of course), and she’s singing “I’m a Believer” (which Diamond apparently wrote for The Monkees) and a song called “I Am I Said”. “I’m a Believer” comes off super corny and karaoke-esque, but she plays piano for “I Am I Said” and the singer-songwriter at the piano thing usually works for her. None of the judges praised her first performance (Simon called it a nightmare), but they all agree that the second one brought out the Brooke White that they like.

Next up is David Archuleta, who Neil Diamond calls “kind of a prodigy.” Only kind of? I wonder what it takes to be considered a full-blown prodigy. I’ll have to ask Neil the next time I see him. Archuleta is back to dressing like a kid this week and he does fine with his first song, “Sweet Caroline”, but his second song, “Coming to America”, is more his style. The gigantic American flag waving on the screen behind him doesn’t hurt. Randy thinks he is “the bomb”, Paula tells him, “I love you, you were brilliant, have fun” (umm what?), and Simon says that his performance “ticked all the boxes”, whatever that means.

Closing the show is Syesha Mercado singing “Hello Again” and “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime”. More songs I have never heard of. Awesome. She clearly agrees with Dane Cook’s perspective on shoes as she is not wearing any. For the entire show. Her first song is fairly boring (Simon calls it old-fashioned), but the jazzy vibe of her second song works with her performance style. Neil monotone-ly says she’s infectious and makes me really miss Andrew Lloyd Webber. Randy believes she’s finally realizing who she is, Paula compares her to Corinne Bailey Rae and another singer from the 60s whose name I have never heard, and Simon believes she might be in trouble vote-wise.

It seems that only the Davids are safe for results night, while Neil Diamond is set to perform. Get ready with your fast forward button as Mr. Diamond may be a classic but it turns out he is super dull.

American Idol Recap: Everything Sounds Wiser in an English Accent: Andrew Lloyd Webber Night

andPOP Staff — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:40:49 +0000

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Ryan Seacrest’s fauxhawk is sitting at about a 4.5 on the pointiness scale tonight as he declares it the “toughest test yet” on American Idol.He eventually informs us that it’s Andrew Lloyd Webber week and we get the obligatory video clip summing up his career in 4 minutes, during which my mom exclaims that “he looks like the grinch!” And he kind of does.

The top 6 are introduced and Syesha Mercado starts off the show singing a song called One Rock and Roll Too Many. Wikipedia tells me it’s from a play called Starlight Express which was apparently performed on roller skates. No wonder I’ve never heard of it. Syesha looks really elevated and I can’t figure out why until I realize she is standing on the piano. Um, risky much? She doesn’t sound as good as she usually does but Randy Jackson thinks it’s her best yet, Paula Abdul tells her she’s in her “happy place” and makes me want to watch Happy Gilmore, and Simon Cowell says theatre is her thing.

Jason Castro is next and he’s singing Memory from Cats. He admits he’s never seen an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which is not even remotely shocking coming from this guy. Andrew Lloyd Webber never thought Memory would be sung by a person with dreadlocks and Jason Castro was apparently unaware that the song was sung by a cat. Nonetheless, he goes ahead with it. It’s clearly too much for him as Randy calls it a “train wreck”, Paula falls back on the “you made it your own” thing, and Simon gets to use his favourite wedding analogy when he says it seems like Castro’s parents forced him to sing it at one.

Brooke White chose You Must Love Me from Evita and has to re-start her song for the second time this season. While the first time was kind of endearing, this time it’s just plain awkward since she has to stop the whole band. Once she gets into it she looks like she’s in pain throughout the entire song and I’m not sure if it’s because she’s trying to look like she’s dying (because Webber told her that’s what’s happening to the character in the play) or if she’s actually literally dying of embarrassment. All the judges agree that the mistake at the beginning really threw her and ruined the remainder of the song.

David Archuleta is dressed like a waiter in some new, hip restaurant and before he sings Ryan invites a handful of random girls up on stage to hug him. He laughs awkwardly, because what else does one do whilst being hugged by strange children on national TV? He’s singing Think of Me from Phantom of the Opera and actually makes it into kind of a cool pop-soul song. Sir Andrew and my mom love it (“Wasn’t that beautiful?! It was beautiful!”). As for the judges, Randy says he’s the one to beat and Paula says it was perfect, but Simon plays the bitter British dude role and says it was one of his weakest performances.

Carly Smithson is up next and Webber advises her to choose Jesus Christ Superstar, reasoning that “you’ve got to find a song that suits your voice, a song that you can live in, you can inhabit,” and the English accent makes it sound like the sagest advice anyone has given in the history of ever. She takes his suggestion (obviously, he’s British…and Andrew Lloyd Webber) and comes out rocking, although I’m pretty sure she’s wearing a beaded rug that was previously displayed on my living room wall as a dress. Randy likes the outfit (this from a guy who was seen in public wearing this) and says the performance was “good”, Paula is basically incoherent, and Simon claims it was one of the best of the night.

David Cook closes out the show, choosing yet another song from Phantom of the Opera: Music of the Night. The stylists have slicked his hair down to his head a bit more for this performance, possibly to make him look less rocker-ish and more musical theatre-ish, and he proves that he actually can pull off the musical theatre thing because he does have a good voice. Randy calls the performance a “hot, molten hot, lava bomb” (genius), Paula repeats what she’s said to everyone else on the show, and Simon says he prefers David unslicked but that he did well with what he was given.

Jason Castro and Brooke White are probably at risk on results night and Andrew Lloyd Webber is set to perform. Here’s hoping he comes out wearing those stylish red corduroy pants he was sporting throughout Tuesday’s episode. What a stand-up guy.