Biography thanks to Wikipedia:

Early life
David Archuleta (born December 28, 1990) lives in Murray, Utah and is a student at Murray High School. If his bid to become the next American Idol fails he plans to continue school and keep singing. The only regular job he has had was over the summer of 2007 as a sound "techie" at a park amphitheater. He once suffered partial vocal paralysis but refrained from risky surgery and feels he has fully recovered.

Archuleta started singing when he was six because he was inspired by a Les Misérables 10th-anniversary video he was watching, "That musical is what started all of this." He started performing as an entertainer at ten years old 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 kid division. This led to Archuleta competing on Star Search, appearances on The Jenny Jones Show and CBS' The Early Show as well as meeting the finalists from American Idol's first season for whom he performed a spontaneous a cappella rendition of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls.

Musical influences
Archuleta's mother is from Honduras and much of the music he listened to as a child, according to an interview aired on American Idol, was Hispanic-influenced. He also listened to jazz music, he said, from his father's collection as well as gospel, pop, rock and "soulful music".In a later interview he also revealed that his dad was a jazz musician. Archuleta also enjoys Broadway musicals. On his American Idol "Fast Facts" page, David cites musical influences as: Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Kirk Franklin and Bryan Adams. When asked to list his top pop artists, he cites; Natasha Bedingfield, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Adams and Kirk Franklin. He also cites Tamyra Gray and Elliott Yamin as his favorite former American Idol contestants. Like Yamin and another singer he admires, John Mayer, Archuleta aspires to infuse his pop selections with a soulful vibe.

Star Search
In 2003, at the age of 12, Archuleta sang on several episodes of the television show Star Search. He ended up winning grand prize on Star Search 2. On one episode, he sang against then 13-year-old Alexandréa Lushington, who also became a "top 20" semi-finalist on American Idol alongside Archuleta.

American Idol
Archuleta won his ticket to the Hollywood final auditions at the San Diego tryouts held at Qualcomm Stadium - July 30 & July 31, 2007. He was still only sixteen during the Hollywood auditions and, along with other contestants not yet 18, will have to go to school ("doing schoolwork in the morning and then come onto the stage and then go back to the schoolwork") while a part of American Idol's seventh season. His parents have been on hand, because he's a minor.

Archuleta is considered one of the front-runners for a series of popular performances. After a rousing Eva Cassidy-like rendition of "Imagine", during the week of the top 20, all three judges praised his abilities, with judge Paula Abdul citing it as one of the most "moving performances [she had] ever heard, ever," and judge Simon Cowell added that Archuleta was the "one to beat." Entertainment Weekly critic Michael Slezak commented that Archuleta "[has] shown more star quality and stage presence in two weeks of performances than all the other male contestants combined." The Los Angeles Times noted that Archuleta likely avoided singing the first verse because "as a Mormon, he's unlikely to espouse the song's agnostic ideal ... with the line about "no religion too." However, three years earlier, David sang all three verses on the TV show "Good Things Utah".

iTunes has joined as a Season 7 major sponsor in the U.S. with performances made available via iTunes.com. On 5 March 2008, Archuleta's single "Imagine" reached #1 on iTunes' chart, while "Shop Around" reached #8.