The "Tender" Heart of David Archuleta

David Archuleta announced Tuesday night that he would be singing his first "on stage love song", to which his myriads of fans rejoiced. He sang Elvis Presley's "Love me Tender" and openly admitted he wasn't real familiar with the song so he did some searching on line for different versions. He worked with the arrangement some and staring directly into a camera full of "teens" (and the rest of us that love him) he smoothly sang Love Me Tender, his voice even romantically fading a bit at the end.

Still right on cue the "I Love You David" singers couldn't help themselves and screamed to be heard at every open air space available. David shyly and graciously smiled. For such a young contestant he certainly is able to hold his own each week, regardless of the theme. We weren't sure what rock week would be like for him, but he pulled it off without a hitch causing Randy Jackson to declare, "Hot vocal Man, I loved it dude, it was HOT!" And later stating that David had the "Hot vocals of the night", leaving Simon to proclaim, "You crushed the competition!"

David "tender" heart Archuleta certainly seems to take everything in, sometimes even flinching from the pressure of the competition, however, once he is singing he looks to be perfectly content. He is at home on the stage. He is gracious with his fans. He listens and takes heed to the judges' comments and criticisms, immediately implementing those things that truly are needed. How grateful his parents must be. He has a history in this competition of picking songs that have heart and meaning making his fans melt just a little bit more each week.

Of course, it probably wouldn't matter what he sang, as Randy and Paula like to remind all of America, "if you can sing, you can sing anything" and "David, you could sing the phone book and we would love you", but having been raised around a variety of music from soulful and gospel to rock and pop he is well equipped to handle a diverse array of song themes. He has overcome obstacles that most adults would have a difficult time pressing through one of them being almost complete recovery from partial vocal paralysis without risky surgery.

If it wasn't for the few vocal mistakes he did make you would wonder if he wasn't lip singing, but we all know that isn't true, even one of his fans commented on his constant moistening of his lips. So he is human, he is shy, he is tender, he is one of two Davids (a double witness if you will) in the top, but he is David "Beloved" James "Nurtured" Archuleta, most likely to be the next American Idol.