American Idol Season 7 Contestant Profile: David Archuleta

David Archuleta is not only favored by the American Idol judges, but is developing a large group of fans from watchers all over America. His past two performances have been coined as the "best of the night" by all three judges. Fans seem to be smitten with his beautiful vocals, mature sound, and his big heart.

At only 17, he has blown away viewers, but not only with his powerful singing voice. Viewers can see something else in David; he has the ability to draw people in with his charisma and passion for singing.

Paula even admitted that she wanted a miniature version of him to dangle from her rear view mirror. It created quite the laugh among the crowd, but who could deny they didn't feel the same way? Although, I'm sure younger viewers than myself, feel that they can relate to him and I can see the possibility of many girls swooning at the sight of him.

David Archuleta's hometown is in Murray, UT and from the weekly interview on AmericanIdol.com we find that David is half-Honduran and actually visited Honduras a few years ago with his family. While he was there he sang at Carnaval. During his performance his voice gave out and his mother stepped on stage to finish the song for him; he says this was his most embarrassing moment.

David has been singing since he was 7 and has had the opportunity to participate in voice lessons since he was 12. On top of lessons he has the experience of singing in front of large groups, as mentioned above. He also sang for the 1st season of American Idol contestants in the lobby of a hotel as well as for a fire department in New York who lost 14 members on 9/11.

Does his voice lessons and stage performance experience give him an advantage? I don't think it necessarily does, there are other contestants who have been band members and received voice lessons as well. I personally believe he is the best contestant by far as of now.

His biggest male competitors, in my opinion, are David Hernandez and Michael Johns who have given quality, consistent performances. As of now, I think it is hard to compare him to the women since they are not singing on the same night. With the men on one night and the women on another night I feel like I'm watching two different shows. It will only be a few more weeks until we see both men and women on the same night and the competition gets tough.

There is no doubt in my mind that David will be in the top two. He has an amazing voice as well as a sweet, humble attitude. As Simon always says to those good and bad, "get better." That's what this competition is all about, growing as a person as well as a singer. The judges want to see it and so does America.