David Archuleta Speaks!
I know shocking right!!!
At just 17 years-old, David Archuleta is the youngest contestant, and the current favorite, still in the running to win season seven of “American Idol.”
Below, the 17-year old speaks with Billboard about his experiences so far on the show:
Earlier this season, you talked about suffering vocal paralysis a few years ago. Were you worried you wouldn’t be able to sing again?
The year after “Star Search” is when I found out I had vocal paralysis. That’s when I was really struggling, barely getting through a minute-and-a-half song. I took a break after that, because I thought, “I can’t do this.” I was having a hard time singing and I didn’t have a range back then and I didn’t know if it was permanent or not. I had no idea what it was. I’d never even heard of it. I didn’t know your vocal chords could get paralyzed. After a while, I thought, “I need to start singing again. I just love it too much.” You know, there’s just something about it that makes you feel something that you can’t feel anywhere else. So I kept doing that, just singing here and there, [like] Stadium of Fire, this thing they do in Utah for the Fourth of July at BYU Stadium.
After a while, my voice started coming back. My range started getting bigger. So I started trying to figure out what I could do again. I thought everyone could sing. A lot of people have that ability and it seemed the older I got, the more people could sing.
I started to write some songs. I thought that was really fun to do. I still can’t really do that. I’d like to get into that more. I think this experience on “American Idol,” trying to figure out what songs work best with your voice and trying to arrange them has really helped and I’d like to see if I can write some more stuff, because I’ve only written like three songs all the way.
Neil Diamond called you a prodigy and a lot of people think you have an incredible gift for music. How does that feel?
I still feel weird when people say, “you’re a good singer,” because I’ve never looked at myself like that. I’ve always looked at myself as someone who loves music and loves to try and interpret it as I see it.
Online, there’s a popular video of you meeting the first season contestants at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood. How did that come about.
I got into [the first season of] “American Idol” and then Tamyra Gray sang “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” and opened up soulful music and expressive music to me. I couldn’t stop watching “Idol” over and over again with TiVo. I’d sing along with Kelly [Clarkson] and Tamyra. Those were the two people I’d really listen to, because I’d never heard people sing like that before. It allowed me to see what performing and really getting into a song was like.
And then I sang “And I Am Telling You” on a “Jenny Jones” show for future Latino stars [that also featured first season finalist] A.J. [Gil]. I was 11 and my aunt and I ran into A.J. outside of the hotel and he said, “Come in. I want you to meet Tamyra,” because she had totally changed my life. So I sang the song for her and that was just really scary but cool at the same time. Then they had me sing for some other contestants and then Kelly [Clarkson] and Justin [Guarini] came down and they all wanted me to sing for them. That was really cool. Kelly hadn’t even won yet at that point.
Click HERE to read the rest of this great interview.
Photo via latimes
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