Review of David Archuleta's Performance on American Idol

Randy, Paula and Simon have been saying it over and over since the beginning of Season 7 of American Idol: This season is the most talented season yet! Now while many fans agree, the performances of the majority of participants have been sub par thus far. That is, except for David Archuleta.

Born December 28, 1990, in Miami, Fla., David is merely 17 years old, yet he is the stand out performer on American Idol so far in season 7. No stranger to the stage, Archuleta appeared on Star Search at the age of 11 and he even had the chance to meet and sing for the final contestants, Kelly Clarkson included, on the first season of American Idol. So what does he have going for him? His age for one, the fact that his voice is mature beyond his years for another and a cute face and an even cuter personality (lets hope Paula doesn't literally take his head off and dangle him from her rearview mirror).

Randy claims that this year is the year for the young ones and David has proven this twice over. In week one '60's Week' he sang a lively rendition of "Better Shop Around" which garnered rave reviews from all three judges (something that most of the top 12 guys had a hard time receiving). In week two '70's Week', David chose a very risky song, John Lennon's 'Imagine'. This perfectly balanced version had the audience leaning forward to catch every perfectly sung note; David primarily stuck to the original tone of the song, but in true Idol fashion, he did put his own spin on it.

The judges ate it up claiming his performance was the best of the night, absolutely captivating, one of the best versions of the Lennon song they'd ever heard and one of the best performances they'd ever had on Idol, period. The gracious and bashful Archuleta smiled and thanked the judges saying that their praise made his choice only that much better.

Anyone who's been watching Idol from the start can see that David has the potential to make it all the way. But that's not to say that he won't have some competition to make him work even harder. From the boy's side, Chikezie could definitely give him a run for his money as well as David Hernandez. Both Chikezie and Hernandez gave solid performances during week two, but the one thing that Archuleta has them beat on is consistency. From the girls side, both Alaina Whitaker and Syesha Mercado gave outstanding performances in week one, but we have yet to see them in week two, so we'll see if their performances can hold up. So for now, we'll have to resort to YouTube to see more of David Archuleta, but we should be seeing a lot of him on American Idol and beyond, in the future.