Happy Birthday, Mike!

Toronto’s Mike Krompass celebrates his birthday tomorrow (Feb. 8th). As you know, Mike and David Archuleta co-wrote tour-faves Somebody Out There, A Little Too Not Over You and Zero Gravity.

Canadian SnowAngelz are a little too not over the fact that Mike wasn’t able to swing a cross-Canada ArchuTour while he was David’s music director on tour, but we hold out hope for 2010! (To sign a group e-card for Mike, click on the pic in the sidebar.)

I don’t know how I missed this great ArchuletaFanScene interview with Mike and Dave Filice, but I did. So, in case anyone else also missed it, here are Parts 1 to 4 (I especially enjoyed hearing more about how “Bubbly” came about and the respect they clearly have for David as a person and as a musician/artist):

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Somebody Out There, SLC

Posted in Special event | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

David Archuleta: I once was Lost but now am found

Lost castaways on a lei over.

"Any Dharma water left?"

The TV series Lost returns to the small screen tonight after a long hiatus. Now, I haven’t looked forward to watching anything on TV since David Archuleta stopped making his weekly appearance on American Idol Season 7 … Lost being the one notable exception.

And as the debut of this final season of Lost draws closer, I’ve been noticing a number of other things David and the Lost World have in common.

1. Desert Island

First of all, Lost takes place on a treacherous, uncharted patch of land not unlike the “bubble” world David survived on A.I. — and now finds himself in as he works on his next CD and tries to navigate the cut-throat world of the recording industry.

2. Smoke Monster

We know this nebulous creature on Lost is about to strike when we hear the creepy music start to play … cue “Light On” … (sorry, couldn’t resist).

3. Heroes & Villains

Lost has hero-doctor Jack, who’s fought to protect his fellow plane-crash survivors from the “Others,” while David’s been our hero from the first note we heard him sing. The villains? Take your pick. The A.I. machine in general (or Simon Cowell, in particular), Mr. Cook (until David convinced us otherwise), the “haters,” the press, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Plaid.

4. Dharma Initiative

A mysterious corporate-sponsored entity led by a guy with a funny accent … need I say more?

5. Time Travel

The characters of Lost flash back and forward so fast it makes our head spin. David time travels every time he steps on stage, leaving his present-day adorkable teen self behind and breaking through the space-time continuum to emerge as a mature, seasoned performer who commands the stage like a veteran.

Now if we could pick up some tips from Lost and time-travel to tour time, life would be real sweet!

Have I missed any other common threads?

.

P.S. Pics from the Miami Starkey Hearing Foundation event with Jordin Sparks:

Pic of David & Ricky's bro, Adam: (From @B_Twice's twitter) "Sid, J Bell, me, Jordin Sparks, Adam Archuleta @ the Starkey Hearing Foundation event."

Described on Twitter as "Miami-Vice-ish" LOL

The Miami Soundcheck Machine

Screen cap: Archuleta Phillipines

Crush Twitpic via the amazing @John_AF

Jorvid "No Air" duet (via @John_AF)

Matching Chucks FTW!!! (via @zerogravity1)

David in 2010 Shelby Super Snake Coupe, Jordin Sparks Special Edition - auctioned for Charity at Superbowl Experience

David and Jordin bring teddy bears to young patients at Miami Children's Hospital. (Photo @MeliCarcache)

"No Air" footwear

Posted in Fan experience | Tagged , , , | 79 Comments

Will the song remain the same?

When I heard Emily Haines (Metric) sing “Help, I’m Alive” on the Canada for Haiti telethon last Friday, two things occurred to me.

First, how perfect this song was for the occasion – a fundraiser to help keep hope alive for the earthquake-rocked people of Haiti.

Second, how Metric’s indie sound is a direction I’d love to see David Archuleta’s next CD take. The lyrics also brought to mind the pressure David must be under right now to write a hit song; produce a hit record. “If I stumble/They’re gonna eat me alive.”

Okay, that’s three things….

We’ve heard David tell several interviewers that the songs he’s writing this time out will reflect more of his own personality, and themes that are closer to his heart:

David & Lady V: "V" for songwriting victory?

“It’s cool getting to talk about things I want to talk about. I feel like it’s me talking in these songs, and that’s what I really like about them. Even though I talk weird and stuff, I guess that’s what makes me the way I am. There’s more of my personality in these songs,” he told USA Today’s Idol Chatter.

“Instead of saying, ‘We need to write a hit! Smash! That’s not good enough! It’s not catchy enough!’ [in Nashville,] they’re like, ‘Let’s just write and see what comes out.’ They really care about what I like and what makes me feel good.”

David & Priscilla Renea at Pre-Grammy Par-tay

But when you see the superstar songwriters Jive’s hooked him up with for the L.A. writing sessions, you know they’re now pulling out all the stops to find that “smash hit” — another Crush. In fact, when I first read that Idol Chatter quote, it occurred to me that David must have heard those exact words from the label at some point: “We need to write a hit! Smash! That’s not good enough! It’s not catchy enough!”

The good news is, David’s in the writing “boiler room” working alongside these A-list songwriters, this time out. This bodes well for David getting to “make his own kinda music, sing his own special song” (to paraphrase Mama Cass, lol) on this record.

I tremble
They’re gonna eat me alive
If I stumble
They’re gonna eat me alive

Can you hear my heart beating like a hammer?
Beating like a hammer?
Help, I’m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Hard to be soft
Tough to be tender

Come take my pulse, the pace is on a runaway train
Help, I’m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer

If you’re still alive / My regrets are few
If my life is mine / What shouldn’t I do?
I get wherever I’m going /I get whatever I need
While my blood’s still flowing /And my heart still beats…
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer

Help, I’m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer Hard to be soft /Tough to be tender
Help, I’m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer

*******

David experimented with a bunch of styles on his debut CD and on tour  —  which one do you think will crop up most on this record? “Reggae-ish” (his word!) like Barriers? Angsty-rock like Desperate? Soulful gah-roovitude (as Beebee would say) like My Hands? Acoustic magic like The Riddle? Or do you think he’ll come up with a brand new sound altogether?

Posted in Fan experience, Music review, Special event | Tagged , , | 41 Comments

Hope for Haiti

“Hope” is one of the words that came to mind the first time I heard David Archuleta sing. I remember trying to figure out how a sweet little song like “Shop Around” could pull me out of a deep sorrow following a friend’s funeral. “His voice is the sound of hope,” I thought then … and now.

So David answering phones and taking pledges at a telethon called “Hope for Haiti Now” seemed like the perfect fit. It was no surprise David would blog or vlog about the experience, but what did surprise me was how intensely moving it was. His vlogs usually make me smile till my cheeks hurt, not get a lump in my throat. I felt compelled to transcribe it, read it over, let his words really sink in. As with many things David-related, I wasn’t sure why … but I did it anyway. And here are some of them:

Photo: PopEater

“Hello everyone, it’s David here! And I’m sorry I haven’t made a video blog for a while but, as you know, I was in Central America last week and then I lost my voice at the beginning of this week. And so it was just a bad time.

“I had such a great time in Central America, in Guatemala and Honduras and it was so great having my mom there. I’m so thankful for Enterprise Mentors for taking us down there and showing us what they’re all about, helping families out and letting us get to meet them. And it was so neat to be able to see how happy they were with what they had.

“It’s amazing because they had so little, but they don’t have distractions, and they don’t have so much that they’re like envious and jealous of, they’re just happy with what they have and happy to have their family. And they want to provide for them the best they can.

“It’s really cool and really humbling and it was just really fun and I’m hoping to go back because we didn’t want to leave. But just happy to help out in any way that we can with that.

“Another thing that happened this week, as you know, was the telethon yesterday, Hope for Haiti Now. And that was so great to be a part of because there were just so many people together there helping out, being a part of the telethon. So many amazing performers and I was just so glad to be a part of that and to be able to help out.

“I was so happy to be able to just donate and then also helping with answering the phones and talking to people and hearing their stories and how they felt about what’s been going on – how it’s changed their perspective on things.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, centre, visits the collapsed UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince.

“You know, it’s cool to see people care about other people.

“And it’s been so hard, you know, with everything going on with these people in Haiti, just seeing how much they’ve been going through … these people trying to find their family members under all these crumbled buildings and the horrible stench from the bodies all over the city….

“It really hurts your heart to hear that kind of stuff but it’s REAL … it’s really happening

“…and I think it’s a wake-up call for us to know that we need to come together and help these people out, because people are really going through these kinds of things.

“And it’s just neat to see people, you know, change, and think about ‘How can we help these people out?’ … ‘How can we give in any way that we can?’

“So thanks, you guys, so much for doing that and helping these people who are having a hard time just finding simple medicine and water just to keep them alive and to not have doctors there with all their injuries, even after they’ve been found dug up from the horrible disaster zone over there. They still need our help, they still need supplies and stuff.

“So thanks for helping out and keep on helping because they still need us. Sorry to get all serious on that but I just feel that these people need help and it’s hard to see the stories and stuff that have been going on and I have been watching about it.

“So keep on praying for them, keep on caring for them, keep on donating, and doing anything that you can for these people….”

UPDATE: Virtual MTV Cupcakes for Haiti

These tweets from MTV’s Jim Cantiello after the Hope for Haiti Now Telethon filled David’s fans with hope:

@jambajim The show’s over but the work still continues. Clipping press i/vs all nite long. OMG @DavidArchie sang backstage for our producers. Dawwwww!

@jambajim Don’t worry @DavidArchie fans. I’ll make sure MTV News posts the impromptu perf on our site Monday. It’s beautiful. Not saying what song.

Jim had tweeted earlier that David’s team reached out to him because David wanted  to volunteer to help in some way at the telethon and he helped make that happen.

As a fun, yet meaningful, way to thank Jim for his continuing ArchSupport, a “Virtual Cupcakes” campaign began via Twitter!

David’s fans have been “virtually baking” like crazy to send Jim “cyber cupcakes” (photos via Twitter and/or post) along with a donation to the Hope for Haiti Now coalition of charities on behalf of Jim and David.

Total donation raised: US$5,450 !!!

Only David Archuleta fans could respond to something so kooky and fun with such serious generosity and kindness. Thank you to every donor (and fellow instigator/organizers momJulee, BeckyFOD, janey, karenkid) … non-virtual hugs all around!!!

And the hugs … and cupcakes … just keep on comin’!

Tweet from MTV’s Jim Cantiello:

@jambajim I’m in awe of all the $$$ @DavidArchie fans have raised for Haiti in my name. Unreal. You guys are insane in the best possible way. **Hugs**

Posted in Fan experience, Special event | Tagged , , , | 78 Comments

The Thing and The Thang


I just hafta say one thing.

Well, two things.

No. One “thing” and one “thang.”

The Thing

I’ve concluded that David Archuleta’s ALMA Awards performance of Contigo en la Distancia just has to be, to date, the Archuleta Hope Diamond, IMHO. It, quite seriously, struck me dumb. It IS a class of/on its own. JMHO. I still can’t and won’t choose favorites with David. Way, WAY too much to love out there to be narrowing things down. However, allow me to me reiterate: Contigo en la Distancia left me dumbstruck.

NOW…

The Thang

That said, I have to state — as I am wont to do periodically — that, IMO, to try to contain David within the confines of the Ballad Boy Box is just … well, a monstrous, dark & gnarly, green & slim y … SIN of the highest order (or would that be lowest?). When I (still!) hear comparisons to Josh Groban, I find it — I’m not kidding — downright nauseating. (Almost as sickening as when one *gag* N. Judd *gag* gushed about David on Star Search with comparisons to *gag* Wayne *gag* frackin’ *gag* Newton*… ew … ew … ew … ewwwww) I jez can’t take it. *bangs head on table*

*composes self*

With all due respect to the talented and lovely Mr. Groban (I do recognize and acknowledge both his talent and what appears to be a perfectly lovely persona), David has more heart and soul and sass and chops and musical intuition and guh-roovitude in the furthest right eyelash of his upper left eyelid at any given nanosecond than Mr. Groban could ever even imagine wishing or hoping to have in his entire being in a hundred lifetimes.

Photo: Calgary dahling Gengen

This soulfulness is embedded in one way or another in every song David sings. Sometimes small, intuitive, perfectly weighted and deftly delivered nuances, and other times, as we all know, he jez let’s it allllll hang out and BRANGS IT BABY — full-on soulful, jazzy, bluesy, Archu_Sass’n’Soul. I think what gets to me is any suggestion that he should in any way abandon or damp down such a THANG in favor of ballads, and only ballads. The very notion makes me positively ill. Mercifully, of late, I am not only feeling even more reassured that he could no more divest himself of that part of his musicality than he could, say, …smack a kitten, but I am also getting the feeling that he might just be coming upon another evolutionary spurt where this scrumptious aspect of his ever-lovin’ *mighty-fine-itude* may be even more deliciously and confidently revealed and expanded. *clings to defibrillator* Brrraaang it, David! I’m a’ready!

I know when I run on about this it must seem as if I’m more enamored with the overt Soul-Man David than I am the pure Ballad David, but really, that is SO not the case. Nooooo. (REALLY! *crosses heart* lol) I just fret about the baby being thrown out with the bathwater — which, from my vantage point, happens far too frequently in oh so many ways. I fret about under-appreciation and under-recognition of, imo, his outrageous, thoroughly organic, innate soulful genius. So… meh, I blither. Occasionally. lol

But make no mistake, I see so many facets to David Archuleta’s musical soul — not just Ballad Boy, and not just Soul Man. And I salivate in anticipation, as he takes his sweet time and plays with each and every one of those facets …”like a shiny new toy” (to quote Joner —thank you, Joner! lol).

David has so much musicality in him, I just can’t bear the notion of anybody limiting or pigeonholing him. Only David is allowed to do that. (Maybe.)

Allllrighty. I feel MUCH bettah now, thank you. heh.

Thing

Thang

Thing

Thang

Thing

Thang

Thing (or possibly a hybrid ThingThang in this particular case…lol)

Thang

OH, I could just go on and on, folks… there is, oh, so much more where this came from. Just remember, when it comes to David Archuleta, it’s best just to sit back and take it in…. pigeonholing is neither desirable, applicable, nor, frankly, even an option.

beebee

Reprinted with gracious permission from beebee’s most lovely Planet Hunkerdown.

******************************************************************

Photo: PopEater

Photo: MomJulee

VIRTUAL MTV CUPCAKES 4 HAITI

These tweets from MTV’s Jim Cantiello after the Hope for Haiti Telethon filled David’s fans with hope:

@jambajim The show’s over but the work still continues. Clipping press i/vs all nite long. OMG @DavidArchie sang backstage for our producers. Dawwwww!

@jambajim Don’t worry @DavidArchie fans. I’ll make sure MTV News posts the impromptu perf on our site Monday. It’s beautiful. Not saying what song.

Jim had tweeted earlier that David’s team reached out to him because David wanted  to volunteer to help in some way at the telethon and he helped make that happen.

As a fun, yet meaningful, way to thank Jim for his continuing ArchSupport (he was previously the recipient of a cupcake birthday surprise *cough*cb/BeckyFOD/Janey/momJulee*cough*), a mini “Cupcakes for Jim” campaign began via Twitter!

Instead of real cupcakes this time, we’ll be sending Jim “virtual cupcakes” (photos via Twitter and/or post) with a donation to the Haiti relief effort on behalf of Jim and David. If you’d like to contribute with a small donation , please donate via the CrushMS PayPal account by THIS MONDAY, January 25, 10 a.m. ET. ! The email for that PayPal is CrushMS@gmail.com. (PayPal allows you to donate $2.50 or more quickly and easily.)

MomJulee will then send Jim a “virtual cupcake” pic and make the donation to Hope for Haiti, which benefits several organizations including the Red Cross and others. Please visit Hope for Haiti Now for more information. (Please note: This is more of a fun shout-out to Jim, so it shouldn’t replace your main donation to the effort.)

P.S. Here’s how PayPal works:
1. Go to www.paypal.com
2. Click on the “SIGN UP” button to register (follow the prompts) or the “LOG IN” button if you’re already registered with PayPal.
3. Once you’re signed in/registered, click “SEND MONEY” on the top menu bar
4. Fill in the email address crushms@gmail.com
5. Fill in the amount of your donation
6. Select “Personal/Gift” below that
7. Then “Continue” and follow prompts to complete the donation
8. A confirmation email will be sent to you and the amount you donated will be debited from the credit card (or bank account) you used to register your PayPal account at “Sign In.”

Posted in Fan experience, Music review | Tagged , , | 81 Comments

Can you hear the Prayer of the Children?

[A heart-wrenching video combining footage from the Invisible Children documentary with David Archuleta singing “Prayer of the Children.” Credit: boptodatop11, with 8throwcenter and mcamy1 footage]

After the devastating earthquake in Haiti last week, I’ve been finding it especially heartbreaking to listen to David’s “Prayer of the Children.” I knew POTC was written by Kurt Bestor but it occurred to me that I didn’t know the history behind the song and wanted to learn more. I did some research and found Kurt to be quite an amazing person.

He served as an LDS missionary in war-ravaged Serbia in the 1970s. While there, he worked in a hospital caring for children of the town. One day, while he was away on a trip to a nearby town to get supplies, the hospital was bombed and the children all killed. Here’s how Bestor describes how those horrific events inspired him to write the song:

“Having lived in this war-torn country back in the late 1970s, I grew to love the people with whom I lived. It didn’t matter to me their ethnic origin — Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian — they were all just happy fun people to me and I counted as friends people from each region. Of course, I was always aware of the bigotry and ethnic differences that bubbled just below the surface, but I always hoped that the peace this rich country enjoyed would continue indefinitely. Obviously that didn’t happen.

“When Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito died, different political factions jockeyed for position and the inevitable happened — civil war. Suddenly my friends were pitted against each other. Serbian brother wouldn’t talk to Croatian sister-in-law. Bosnian mother disowned Serbian son-in-law and so it went. Meanwhile, all I could do was stay glued to the TV back in the U.S. and sink deeper in a sense of hopelessness. Finally, one night I began channeling these deep feelings into a wordless melody. Then little by little I added words….Can you hear….? Can you feel……?

“I started with these feelings — sensations that the children struggling to live in this difficult time might be feeling. Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian children all felt the same feelings of confusion and sadness and it was for them that I was writing this song.

“Those children didn’t hate anybody,” he told Meridian magazine. “They didn’t care about who owned the land, or who had the power or the money. These are adult neuroses. They just wanted to have a mom and dad and a place to play.”

conditioner

********************

Can you hear the prayer of the children
on bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room?
Empty eyes with no more tears to cry
turning heavenward toward the light.
Crying,” Jesus, help me
to see the morning light of one more day,
but if I should die before I wake,
I pray my soul to take.”

Can you feel the hearts of the children
aching for home, for something of their very own.
Reaching hands with nothing to hold onto
but hope for a better day, a better day.
Crying,” Jesus, help me
to feel the love again in my own land,
but if unknown roads lead away from home,
give me loving arms, ‘way from harm.”

Can you hear the voice of the children
softly pleading for silence in their shattered world?
Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate,
blood of the innocent on their hands.
Crying,” Jesus, help me
to feel the sun again upon my face?
For when darkness clears, I know you’re near,
bringing peace again.”

(For Canadians who want to find out more about how to help in the Haiti relief effort, please click HERE.)

Posted in Music review | Tagged , | 38 Comments

ODDrought Survival Guide


Not since the post-A.I.-finale era (aka The Dark Ages) has such a deep pang of separation anxiety been felt throughout the David Archuleta fan base.

David’s left the continent to do good works and when he gets back, he’ll continue to toil away on his next album for months on end and we have no idea when he’ll tour again.

So what’s a loyal fan to do in the tweet-deprived meantime? Try this:

● Rewatch solo tour videos until you know the precise moment of every “Sing it!” and “I love you, David!!!!” (or, um, do you know that already?).

● Replay Season 7 youTubes and get traumatized that he was robbed not crowned winner, all over again.

● Tune into, gasp, the new season of Idol to measure each and every contestant against the monumental amazingness of the Archulator.

Form a band called The Hush Cats*.

Renew your Demi Lovato Fan Club membership for old time’s sake.

● Actually read that copy of Life Story Magazine you have 12 copies of.

● Hire a translator so you can also read THIS … and THIS … and THIS.

Follow Ricky Archuleta on Twitter (@Popculturestud … not. even. kidding.)

● Reacquaint yourself with your loved ones and your vacuum (hint: the vacuum plugs into the wall).

If you’ve tried all these techniques to no avail but have other, more effective, survival-guide tips, please share. No, really … please … for the love of Totoro … share with us!!!

To help you get through this David Drought, this ArchuWilderness, this aching withdrawal from all things glowy and random and bewitchingly adorkable, the SnowAngelz team has searched deep within their video vault.

Refnaf and Conditioner have dusted off these never-before-seen blasts from the past to offer us all a lifeline, a Linus blanket, a Build-A-Bear…. (Anyone need a hug?)

A.I.Tour autograph line, Grand Rapids, MI

Ford Day autograph snippet

CHUM Christmas Wish Breakfast, Toronto
1st acoustic performance of Crush

CHUM interview Part 1

CHUM interview Part 2

* Be sure to wear a snuggie at soundcheck.

Posted in Diary of an Archuholic, Fan experience, Utter nonsense | Tagged , , , , | 41 Comments

Embracing Life’s “Currents of Joy”

I just returned from a holiday in Italy, touring for 14 days with my baby sister.  We have made a pact in the past to be “happiness housekeepers” supporting each other by identifying and enhancing the currents of joy that can and/or do run deep in our respective lives if we but let them.

And, David Archuleta’s music is definitely a current of joy.

So, part of our trip itinerary was to listen to specific songs from Christmas from the Heart at certain sites throughout Italy in pursuit of one of those current’s of joy.

Picture in your mind, two women, one iPod with one earbud each, listening to David’s Christmas songs while completely enveloped in the art, atmosphere and history at these settings:

“O Holy Night” in the Sistine Chapel, while viewing the nine scenes from the Book of Genesis of which the Creation of Adam is the best known.

~~~~~~

“The First Noël” next to the Nativity Scene at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

Vatican Nativity 2009

~~~~~~

“Ave Maria” at Michelangelo’s last Pietà in the Florence Duomo  Museum …..

Pietà Duomo

Pietà Vatican

and also at Michelangelo’s 1st Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

~~~~~~

“Silent Night” and “What Child Is This” while waiting for Christmas Mass at the Duomo in Florence next to the nativity scene (the primary Christmas decoration throughout Italy).

Duomo Nativity

….and the Duomo

Duomo Florence

~~~~~~

“Angels We Have Heard on High” in San Gimignano

San Gimignano and Tuscan Countryside

~~~~~~

“Joy to the World” on New Year’s Eve outside of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice….we toasted all the SnowAngelz here New Year’s Eve.

St Marks Basilica - Where relics of Mark The Evangelist rest

~~~~~~

Ah, such joy, happiness, deeply felt sacredness, and beauty in abundance … we actually wrote a journal detailing our thoughts and feelings and named it “Currents of Joy Tour #1.”

I can highly recommend this “Current of Joy Tour #1.”  It weaves a deeply poignant and sacrosanct thread into the profound “current of joy” one already experiences when listening to David’s holiday music … music infused with David’s reverence for the season.

And, laughingly albeit seriously (harking back to our halcyon childhood days) we agreed via pinky swearing to make ‘happiness housekeeping’ a daily discipline… and… to keep experiencing the many currents of joy out there, a top priority in our lives.

Ah, sisterhood is truly a divine gift!  And, coincidentally…or maybe not…I feel the same sisterhood connection with all of you here at SnowAngelz!  Pinky Swear!

Posted in Fan experience | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 51 Comments

He shoots, he scores: The David Archuleta “Hat Trick” factor

Hat Trick: When a hockey player scores three goals in one game. The NHL tradition is for fans to throw hats onto the ice when a hat trick occurs.

As a teenager, I played hockey on one of the teams that comprised the first ladies hockey league in Calgary during the mid to late 1970s.  I was always hoping to score that elusive (at least for me!) hat trick.  And so it seems that I continue to look for things in threes – and David Archuleta hat tricks are no exception.

After all, he kicked off his A.I. run with a triple-threat killer combo of Heaven, Shop Around and Imagine … were any of us left standing after that hat trick?

Then he brought the house down in the finale with another three-song tour de force: In this Moment, DLTSGDM, Imagine — forever becoming our American Idol.

After A.I., the hat tricks kept coming.

• Signing a three-CD deal with Jive.

• Touring the U.S. three times.

• Three killer covers in the CFTH Tour: The Riddle, FOG, POC.

Part of the joy of being a David Archuleta fan is knowing you can expect the unexpected (in terms of new vocal notes, runs, delivery) and be awestruck, humbled or even overwhelmed at any given moment.  Is there something else that keeps me “coming back for more”?

In a word YES. Well, three words – the IT Factor. To each one of us, “it” may mean something different. What I do know, however, is that whatever “it” is, my life has been profoundly changed over this last year and a half.  And, in keeping with the time of year, I tend to look back and reflect on all that’s happened.

Starting with the beginning of my journey with David – Shop Around – the moment when I first asked myself “who is this young singer and what is it that draws me to him?”  Since then, I’ve struggled to try to figure out what it was about him that made me respond like I never have before, or since, and what it all means.

My “ah-ha” moment occurred when I discovered, through my healing tears, that it mattered not why.  IT just IS.  Something inside me was released – a burden lifted – and a feeling of peace took its place.  My heart was opened wide to accept what was to come next.

This was the moment when David’s reverence to God — through his singing and by the very nature of who he is — captured my soul and lifted it up to a place where it has never been.  Emotionally overwhelming.  Profound. I now look ahead to the coming year with thrilling anticipation.

For no matter what David has planned for us, I know that I will be sharing it with all of you here! So here’s to the brand new decade and the joy with which I look forward to more David “hat tricks” to come.

Happy New Year to All!

Awestruck

Posted in Fan experience | Tagged , | 52 Comments

Slow news day: Cleveland vids

"Oh ya, gettin' down with my bad self!"

"My Haaaaands"

My never-before-seen Cleveland vids. Enjoy!

Fields of Gold

The Riddle


ZG partial … extreme close-up bounce warning!!!

Sing it!!!

… along with KT’s amazing POC vid from Baltimore.

Posted in Concert recap | Tagged , , , | 22 Comments