ABC NewsTen years ago, David Archuleta was the runner-up on American Idol season seven. Monday, he talked to ABC’s Good Morning America about Sunday night’s episode, where contestants sang for America’s vote for the first time. Afterward, David told ABC Radio that when the viewers start voting, there’s even more pressure.
“Just watching last night…you could feel the tension…it really affects them,” David noted. He then laughed, “But I don’t think you should hold that against them. …[T]he first time I was live, I completely forgot the words to my song!”
David was most impressed by contestants Catie Turner and Gabby Barrett.
“[T]hey both really stand out,” he said. “Catie… she’s just so personable ’cause she has a unique personality and she can’t help but be herself…it’s just fun, it’s refreshing.”
As for Gabby, David said “she just has a full package, I think she connects, and you can see that she’s just about to [blow up].”
David also praised judge Katy Perry, who told Catie to stop reading social media comments. David’s own struggle with that, and the pressure he felt to please everybody, is one reason why he took two years off and went to Chile to serve as a missionary.
“I just needed…some one-on-one time,” says David. “I need[ed] to remind myself what I think of myself and what God thinks of [me].” The experience helped inspire his current album, Postcards In the Sky.
“[It] that was beyond anything I can even describe, how much that was of value to my life, and to my career moving forward,” he says of this two years away. “I realized I could say what I wanted to say and not just be told to just shut up and sing.”
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