David Archuleta was born in Miami, Florida, to Jeff Archuleta and Lupe Marie, a salsa singer and dancer from Honduras. Archuleta has four siblings. Archuleta's family moved to the Salt Lake Valley, to the city of Sandy, Utah, when Archuleta was six. He currently lives in Murray, Utah where he attended Murray High School. Archuleta is a member of the Boy Scouts of America.
Archuleta started singing at age six, inspired by a Les Misérables video. "That musical is what started all of this", he said. He started performing publicly at age ten when he participated in the Utah Talent Competition singing "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton; he received a standing ovation and won the Child Division.
In June 2008, Archuleta signed with Jive Records. His self-titled album, David Archuleta, was released on November 11th 2008. Archuleta's first single "Crush" was released on August 1, 2008 on Z100, a New York radio station. On August 12 "Crush" became available on iTunes, where it rose to the #1 position within 18 hours. It debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, beaten only by Rihanna's "Disturbia." It was the best chart debut in more than 18 months. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the track sold 166,000 downloads in the first week in the United States. It has sold 1.04 million digital copies in the US.
The three songs he performed in the American Idol finale; Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, "In This Moment", and "Imagine", became top-10 downloads on iTunes. All three debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of June 7, 2008 "Imagine" entered at #36 (giving Archuleta his first top forty hit), "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" at #58, and "In this Moment" entered at #60. That same week he landed three songs on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart where his versions of "Longer", "Think of Me", and "Angels" debuted at #15, #19, and #24 respectively. In July 2008 So You Can Dance, a dance competition reality show, Archuleta's cover of "Imagine" by John Lennon was the featured music for contestants Katee Shean and William Wingfield with their pas de deux performance.
Along with American Idol winner David Cook, Archuleta placed second on Forbes' list of "Breakout Stars of 2008". The two co-presented an award at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards in August 2008. Archuleta also received the Teen Choice Award surfboard for "Most Fanatic Fans".
According to People magazine, Archuleta will be making a cameo appearance as himself for his acting debut on Nickelodeon's show iCarly titled "iRocked the Vote". The television sitcom is centered around Miranda Cosgrove who is also a teenage singer and also has music singles charting at the time. "iRocked the Vote" has Archuleta as a contestant on an Idol-style show called America Sings; the episode will air in the spring of 2009.
In June 2008, Archuleta signed with Jive Records. His self-titled album, David Archuleta, was released on November 11th 2008. Archuleta's first single "Crush" was released on August 1, 2008 on Z100, a New York radio station. On August 12 "Crush" became available on iTunes, where it rose to the #1 position within 18 hours. It debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, beaten only by Rihanna's "Disturbia." It was the best chart debut in more than 18 months. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the track sold 166,000 downloads in the first week in the United States. It has sold 1.04 million digital copies in the US.