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IG Storieeees… if it were anyone else, I would feel so annoyed that they took 8 stories to basically say the same thing but with David, I’m like, “MOAAAR!!! KEEP DOING, D.!!!!” lol
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Early bird @DavidArchie ‘s Good Things Utah IG story Part 3. Theme: YO, Utah gals, he really wants you to come to Kamas. Multitask, y’all! pic.twitter.com/bnazWy5nt8
. WE CAN PREORDER POSTCARDS IN THE SKY SEPT. 29!!!!
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And in case you’ve been pinned down by something heavy these last few months and haven’t signed up for D’s email newsletter, you can SIGN UP HERE.
A post shared by David Archuleta (@davidarchie) on
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Watching the lovely and amazing @djhsail’s Peri’s HERE, I noticed the sweet ladies in front. They were using sign language to interpret David’s words and songs for the hearing impaired.
His words and songs.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Those ladies were signing for people who couldn’t hear David very well or not at all.
As I was mesmerized by the ballet of their hands, it suddenly struck me that some people might be inspired reading David’s words or by following him on social media, but will never get to hear that glorious voice. Not a single, pitch-perfect note.
It brought me to tears realizing… once again… just how blessed we are.
I never want to take that for granted.
“How in a million years could you ever take David’s voice for granted??” you might be screaming at your screen.
Good point. But, hey, he’s just so incredible all of the time that, yes, if my blood sugar is low and it’s been a while since I’ve had a Gilmore Girls fix, I do catch myself not fully appreciating the wonder that is David Archuleta. Every once in a while.
So, wow, this was some good reminder (as they say in Nova Scotia 🙂 ).
Back to the incredible #TOFW today… go check out Donna’s amazing Peri. or some of the stuffs I thought were particularly cool, below. (Not exhaustive, you’ll need to visit FOD for that, lol.)
VIDEOOOOOOS!!!!!
. Be Still My Soul
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This BSMS from Donna’s Peri had me clutching my chest from the first note… not even kidding… by the end I was sobbing uncontrollably… it was like he was channelling something so pure and divine that my mortal body couldn’t quite handle it. You have been warned.
. https://www.pscp.tv/djhsail/1kvKpjXPydVJE?t=9s
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And on video!
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. I’m Ready
Wow. Just wow. This I’m Ready is incredible!
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. True Colors
One of my favourite songs on BEGIN. Would love to hear it live someday, this is GORgeous!!!
. Say Me alone
(this song has meant so much to me lately because reasons… )
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MLP alone
Costco-size tissue alert… when David cries, we cry. I don’t make the rules, my friends, that’s just how it is.
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. Angel & True Colours
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. Pride
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*****
This kinda looks like he’s doing standup so I’d like to respectfully request that he add another string to his bow and branch into comedy. pic.twitter.com/rLIHcltvaM
@davidarchie standing ovation for bridge over troubled water. He was surprised when everyone stood up. And also sang beautiful. pic.twitter.com/jAEIZPRpdI
My initial reaction to finding out this morning that a friend *cough*Pastel*cough* got to attend David’s listening party here in Toronto mere STEPS from my office.
Or maybe more like this….
Actually, it was this….
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But when the shock wore off … (full disclosure: it may never wear off)… I was happy she was there to represent for the Canuck fans and put in a good word for a possible Toronto show sometime in 2226.
Go and check out her must-read recap of the event… which sounds like a cross between a VIP at the Vatican and brunch with David where he sings and gets emotional and snacks on poutine.
Def. read the whole thing but I’d just like to call out a few questions I have:
Excerpt 1:
Vince was our incredibly charming and knowledgeable emcee. Obviously a man with a keen ear for talent, he introduced David by explaining that we were there to preview David’s new CD, coming out in October (Note: subsequent to this event, David Archuleta announced the date for “Postcards in the Sky” as October 20th). David had already released Orion EP which was available for all the guests. He was also to release Leo, is second EP, on August 25th. Collectively, those 8 songs would be part of the album plus a few others, some of which we would hear during the event.
Wait, what?? “Plus a few others, some of which we would hear during the event” … You heard his unreleased songs? Like not released to anyone yet?? First fan of all us fans to hear these songs?? HOW ON EARTH ARE YOU SO CALM ABOUT THIS??!!*
Excerpt 2:
He spoke of the day when he called his Manager, Gina Orr, to discuss his decision to not continue in his career, to “not do this anymore”. The description was very poignant since Gina was in the room and added a bit of colour to the explanation as well.
Okay, I need more here, my friend … what do you mean by “colour”? Did she give more background? Throw in more details? Re-interpret the convo in mime??
Excerpt 3:
The next song we heard was “Up All Night.” Vince was effervescent with enthusiasm for this song and couldn’t hold back his excitement. He told us that once he heard it, he said to himself “Now that is a REAL RECORD”, indicating he will be talking about that song “daily for the next six years.”
Confession: When I first read this through, I thought David was the one saying these things and I was extremely confused. I confuse easily.
Excerpt 4:
The next song was another song David wrote for a specific reason. In this case, it was a song of inspiration for those battling mental health issues. He carefully described the message of the song was to explain there was a universe, a bigger picture at play when dealing with issues, rather than what is occurring on a single day.
I need to hear this song. Like NOW.
Excerpt 5:
David discussed a song that he was initially not going to include on the CD, until further reflection that day. He explained he had been at Orange Lounge Recording Studio earlier that afternoon listening to final cuts and reconsidered the CD track list. Still undecided, he provided a detailed backgrounder to the song, let the tape play, and then asked the audience for feedback to assist with his decision… As the song’s sound filled the room, the mood changed instantly. It was apparent we instantly understood that the song was written from a very difficult place, a very painful place. It was a song without a lot of lyrical structure but nevertheless, David had so very much to say. We will have to wait for the final decision from Team Archuleta regarding its fate, but the crowd was unanimous in its recommendation.
Okay, this KILLED me… I would’ve been heckling from the back, “BONUS TRACKS, DAVID, BONUS TRACKS!!!”*
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Sidenote: At last December’s Layton show, Refnaf and I were picking up our Will Call tix and Dean was standing there picking up his… he was on the phone… doing these vocal exercises with David! Pretty dang cool. We spoke to Dean at the intermission (he was sitting near us) and he said that he wished David wouldn’t do so many volunteer singing things while he was touring, that he should rest between shows and give his voice a break. Oh, David.
Okay, it took me a while to come back down to earth after the double-whammy of having Leo released on the same day as David Archuleta’s epic FB live… I’m not there yet, but I knowwwww… (sorry, couldn’t resist 🙂 ) … seriously though, David, ARE YOU TRYING TO KEEEEL US??!!
Many cold compresses and smelling salts later, here I am to give you my stream-of-consciousness impressions of the whole thing.
First of all, let me say how impressed I was that David not only took the time to organize a professional, recording studio set-up for the whole thing, so the songs would “sound good”… boy, did they ever! … but he also coordinated his outfit to match his avi… THAT is commitment to your craft, my friends.
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David’s done other FB Lives but what I loved most about this one was how relaxed he seemed… maybe having a structure to it, with songs and pre-organized questions, and a “cohost” and interns to share it with, helped. Or the elation of getting instant positive (well-deserved) feedback from the amazingness that is Leo.
No idea, but whatever it was, it made for a full hour of all that we love most about David. His talent, yes, of course, but also his authenticity, his courage to be vulnerable, his quirky sense of humour and something else… a mercurial essence none of us can ever quite put our finger on that makes him endlessly fascinating. Go ahead, disagree with me, I just saw Wonder Woman so I’m feeling feisty. 🙂
Random impressions, in no particular order:
**His Nashville accent struck my hubs when he walked in and caught a few minutes… “What’s with the accent??” he asked. “Is he doing country music now?” Oh, honey.
**Loved the way David made a point of including as many names of peeps who asked questions as possible (AND THAT I KNEW A LOT OF THOSE LOVELY PEOPLE!!!) … even grouping together the names of those who asked similar questions… how thoughtful is that? I don’t watch anyone else’s FB Lives, but I doubt anyone else takes that time or trouble.
**Also loved his explanation for choosing “Leo” and constellations: “There’s something about the stars that makes me feel small, but also that I belong in this huge universe, so I wanted people to get that cool feeling.”
**How talking about staying cool like a lion lead to a finger-snapping snippet from one of my favourite musicals ever, West Side Story… “stay cool, boy”
**And the way he started tapping out the beat for Someone to Love before Brady even started strumming… BECAUSE HE IS DAVID “MUSICAL GENIUS” ARCHULETA!
**’Twas awesome to hear him talk about being fine with writing radio-friendly songs at some point (although, hello, would not today’s radio be 100% improved by hearing Other Things in Sight on it???) … “It’s about being myself… I’ll be happy to try and write some good radio songs in the future but I wanted a project where I could just show who I am to all of you.” (Was I the only one screaming “YOU GO, DAVID!!!!” at my screen? Sure. Okay.)
**Then he launched into OTIS. Oh. Em. Gee. Groovy chair-dancing David takes over. I know lots of you love this song and I am right there with you, my people. It. Rocks. In a soulful, funkalicious groovy Tuesday kind of way…
**Kind of taken a back, tbh, at how he was so open about this being his “rebellious” song… but not a “NO WAY, I’M GOING TO THROW THIS CHAIR AT YOU!” song… yes, those were his exact words, I checked. 🙂 (Shades of Josh Bradley versus Uncle Stevil there, right?!)
**When he said “For a good chunk of my life I felt like I was [longest pause in the history of pauses]… controlled” … I may have gasped at that moment.
He went on to explain, “This song’s saying, ‘You know what, I’m an adult now, sooooo … I’m not saying, ‘In yo’ face!’ to anybody… just give me the space I need.” Lesson learned: Give some space to The Archuleta.
**When he sat down at the piano for “I’m Ready,” I couldn’t help but think back to this:
For real, though… sitting down at a grand piano performing heartfelt singer-songwriter tunes but now they are HIS songs, from HIS heart. (brb, have a branch in my eye)
**I didn’t follow along with all the live comments until I watched it a second time (needed to focus, y’all)… but there are some hiLARious ones… like this one from a young guy: “I’m torn between doing my laundry and watching this and yet I’m here.” 🙂 🙂 🙂 … and “Can you sing, ‘My Hands’?” 🙂 🙂 🙂 And possibly my favourite: “Can you surprise my friend at her wedding?” hahaha… how? by being the groom? *DEAD*
Who else?:
(a) Clapped after every song
(b) Pictured him nodding off during a song-writing session (cowriters, pics please, or it didn’t happen)
**Loved his answer to the lovely @pastelpastel‘s question that mentioned Adele’s approach to writing albums, not singles… “I want to give birth naturally to these kids here” 🙂 “If you try to make a song a hit it takes away the emotion, takes away the place where the song comes from.” PREACH, DAVID!!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
**It warmed my heart how intently David looked at his phone to make sure he included as many questions as possible, and to read out people’s names. Who does that?? David, that’s who.
**When I watched it through again, I noticed David kind of chuckled before he read out my question. My question was asking if, in I’m Ready, the lines after the bridge were improvised… I also asked how he made it sound so cool. I’m thinking he chuckled at that last part because he didn’t read it out, lol. Loved his explanation though, that it was improvised (SUPER cool!) and that it was a line of Annie Schmidt’s and another way to pay tribute to her. Beautiful.
**Loved the acoustic versions of all the songs (‘natch)… but especially Spotlight Down, I think… how softly he sings the beginning, and how his voice wavers in parts of it… obvs. strikes very close to home and you could really feel that.
**I had to laugh at him getting “permission” to show us the cover of the new album… is he not the boss of him? lol And also, lol @ his face worrying his “personal” photos might be revealed… 17380974619384738436 shots of his lunch?? 🌽🍳🌮🍜🌯🍔🍗😂
**So much good news he shared!!!! Philippines & Asia trip!!! Videoooooos!!!! More tour dates to come!!! Album release date Oct. 20!!!! CANADAAAA!!!! (Sure, it’s two giant provinces over and further than Utah from here, BUT STILL!!!!)
**My absolutely favourite part was how happy he was at the end:
It feels better than I’ve ever felt in the history of my music life to see the positive response [to Leo songs]… because they’re ME… to see that you guys connect to it is so cool.
How about you guys??? What was your favourite part???
Watch again here:
p.s.
It’s SnowAngelz’ Birthday, you guys!
Where on earth does the time go??
Made a fascinating discovery about Spotify… (this is likely common knowledge, right? 🙂 ) … I downloaded it for free onto my desktop from HERE (opened account via FB), did a search for “David Archuleta Leo” and proceeded to put the EP on repeat (just turning off the speakers when need be) … and left the computer on overnight.
Why does this matter?
Because streaming counts toward Billboard charting, my dear friends.
I have no idea if Leo has any chance to doing that but, just in case….
And there’s moaaaar:
HOW TO DOUBLE STREAM!!!
…another Spotify discovery… I have the app on repeat on my computer at work (opened the account with the Facebook link), so I just figured out how to stream it at home too:
Step 1: Went to spotify.com on my home computer and created a new account with an email address diff. from my FB one. #mwahaha
Step 2: Back on the spotify.com home page, I opened the web player (link in the footer at the VERY bottom of the Spotify home page, see screen capture below)
Step 3:A browser page opens up where I searched for “David Archuleta Leo” and…again… hit play & repeat (see screen capture above)! turn off speakers as needed 🙂
WoooooT! Double streaming!!!
Now go! Go! Go!
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Web Player Screen Capture
To find the link to the Spotify Web Player, scroll to the bottom of the Spotify.com home page… it will look like this:
. Full disclosure
I posted something very similar… in fact, almost identical… when Up All Night came out but just HAD to repost because MORE PEEPS NEED TO HEAR THESE AMAZING SONGS!!! Right??
imo, this is the best work he’s ever done… don’t get me wrong, I obviously love David’s voice and his earlier albums, but THIS one… he’s just taken things to another level… a level above the clouds where ice cream is served all day and hugs are given freely on every corner. OTIS is my absolute fave… I’ve listened so much, it’s literally become another layer under my skin, I swear… but I don’t just replay it because I want to hear all four of the songs, they all have their own special somethin’ somethin’.
I remember right after Idol when David sang an acoustic Waiting on the World to Change with Dean Kaelin on guitar at some TV station or other and it just b.l.e.w..m.e..a.w.a.y… the groove, the soulfulness, just took me places… and I’ve been waiting for David to share that side of him on record ever since … and that’s what #Leo does… takes me places. We’ve certainly seen that side live (praise be!)… but to hear it captured in the recording studio finally…. YES!!!!! I just want the world to hear it… is that too much too ask? 🙂
Duuuuudes! Are you truly ready for the next few days??
Never fear, SAz is here.
This is what you need to do to be prepared for the onslaught of awesomeness about to befall you.
Step1
Dress appropriately.
Step2
If you’re a “trender” and end up in Twitter jail, never fear… been there… they have great snacks.
Step3
Drink Coke, Pepsi, espresso, whatever caffeinated beverage it takes to keep you #UpAllNight (see what I did there? 😊) until Leo pops up on iTunes and Spotify (usually around midnight ET tonight).
Or try some of these moves… pro tip: warm up first. 😊
Step4
Set yourself up to keep streaming on Spotify … I trust you lovelies to be able to figure that out (or see my earlier post for double-streaming UAN HERE).
Step5
Make sure you have all your email addresses handy for iTunes gifting.
Step6
Buy that baby or check for your preorder to download automatically and then take a deep breath …
Step7
Banish all noise and distractions from your happy place… put on your super expensive headphones that you bought just for David music, close your eyes and let the exquisite sounds wash over you, fill your heart with joy and give you the overwhelming feeling that anything is possible.
Step8
Repeat Step 7. As many times as you can handle.
Step9
Share the Leo iTunes / Spotify link on your preferred social media platforms, and leave a comment on iTunes… I always forget that one, lol.
Step10
After you’ve heard the songs, think of some questions for David’s FB live.
Step11
Get some rest before Friday night’s Leo Release Par-tay.
Okay, I am def. psychic… this morning I left a comment on David’s “Leo Preorder” IG post asking if he was going to do a FB Live for Leo and BAM! he is!!!* Only better!
Acoustic songs?? Answering Qs?? Being his ridiculously charming self?? Eclipse Schmeclipse, this is WAY better!!! And no special glasses needed to see this solar flare of amazingness!!!
Can I get me a Hallelujah?! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
I’m still on a high from David casually touring around my T.O. turf soaking in the maple-tinged vibes and rocking Captain Canuck shirts and driving by my favourite Winners store and likely hearing a million “sorry”s… I may need to lie down.
So get some rest and hydrate extensively, my lovelies, this is going to be EPIC!!!
With a capital EPIC!!!!!
Share the heck out of this news, mes amies!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
10 years after hearing you the first time and your voice still amazes me Syesha! Much love to you, K2🙏🏼 and all th… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…1 week ago
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Screencaps from David’s IG Live. Run, don’t walk to check it out… along with his IG stories.
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