Early life
David Archuleta was born to Jeff Archuleta and Lupe Marie, a salsa singer and dancer from Honduras. Archuleta has four siblings. Archuleta's family moved to the Salt Lake Valley, to the city of Sandy, Utah, when Archuleta was six. He was raised in Murray, Utah after moving there when he was 6 years old.
Archuleta started singing at age six, inspired by a Les Misérables video. "That musical is what started all of this," he said. He started performing publicly at age 10 when he participated in the Utah Talent Competition singing "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton; he received a standing ovation and won the Child Division.
Archuleta was inspired by watching both Tamyra Gray and Kelly Clarkson to "see what performing and really getting into a song was like" during the beginning weeks of the premiere season of American Idol. He later made his television debut, at eleven years old, singing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" on a Jenny Jones show for future Latino stars alongside season one finalist A.J. Gil. Through A.J. Gil he was able to meet and sing for Gray who had sung the song on American Idol as well as Clarkson (that year's winner) and Justin Guarini (the runner up).
Musical influences
Archuleta's mother is from Honduras, and much of the music he listened to as a child was Latin-influenced including watching his mom sing at events with her sisters. She also "was big on dancing" according to Archuleta, and would "make" him dance to traditional music with his older sister. He also listened to jazz music, he said, from his father's collection as well as gospel, pop, rock and "soulful music." In a later interview, he revealed that his father was a jazz musician. Archuleta also said he enjoys Broadway musicals.
On his American Idol "Fast Facts" page, Archuleta cites his musical influences as Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Kirk Franklin and Bryan Adams. When asked to list his top pop artists, he cited Natasha Bedingfield, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Adams, Kirk Franklin, and Robbie Williams. Like Elliot Yamin and another singer he admires, John Mayer, Archuleta tries to infuse his pop selections with a soulful vibe.
Star Search
In 2003, at age 12, Archuleta sang on several episodes of the television show Star Search. He ended up as the Junior Vocal Champion on Star Search 2. On one episode, he sang against then-11-year-old Alexandréa Lushington, who also became a "top 20" semi-finalist on American Idol alongside Archuleta. Around the second year of being on Star Search he started focusing on the lyrics, "I didn't even pay attention to the lyrics when I was 12, 13".
Archuleta's competing on Star Search led to appearances on The Jenny Jones Show and CBS' The Early Show, and meeting the finalists from American Idol's first season, for whom he performed a spontaneous a cappella rendition of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls, and received enthusiastic praise from Season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson. The year after Star Search he found out he had partial vocal paralysis but declined risky surgery and has said he feels he is almost fully recovered. He limited his singing for specific occasions like Stadium of Fire, the Independence Day celebration at Brigham Young University Stadium.
American Idol
Archuleta won his ticket to the Hollywood final auditions (with a performance of John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change") with the help of idol judge, Randy Jackson, who sang the background "waiting" in the song. (at the San Diego tryouts held at Qualcomm Stadium July 30 and July 31, 2007) He was 16 during the Hollywood auditions (where he sang Bryan Adams' "Heaven" and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" to unanimous praise) and because he was not yet 18, had to attend school while a part of American Idol's seventh season. His parents were there because he was a minor. Archuleta also took advantage of the decision to allow contestants to play musical instruments when he accompanied himself on piano for his performances of "Another Day in Paradise" and "Angels."
A Los Angeles Times article speculated why Archuleta avoided singing the first verse of "Imagine": because "of his religion (Mormonism), he's unlikely to espouse the song's agnostic ideal . . . with the line about 'no religion too.'" Archuleta did, however, sing the entire song on Good Things Utah when he was 13. During his first performance of Imagine on American Idol, when asked by judge Randy Jackson why he didn't sing the first verse, Archuleta said the third verse was his favorite because it has "a great message."
In the finale he sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," "In This Moment" and "Imagine." Judge Simon Cowell declared that Archuleta won the evening and even David Cook, who ultimately won, thought Archuleta would win: "I have to concede it, the kid came out all three songs and nailed it," said Cook. In the final tally, Archuleta received 44 percent of the votes. During the finale show, both Archuleta and fellow finalist Cook appeared in separate but nearly identical commercials for the game franchise Guitar Hero, mimicking a Tom Cruise scene from Risky Business.
Zero Gravity
David Archuleta Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Just there beneath my feet
Didn't even notice we were miles above the ground
I'm not afraid of heights
We crashed into the sky
Didn't know that I could feel the way that I do now
All I know is that you take me away
And you show me how to fly
Nothing brings me down when you're around
It's like zero gravity
The world just disappears when you're here
It's zero gravity
When things get messed up
You lift my head up
And I get lost in the clouds
There's no sense of time with you and I
It's zero gravity
The edges fade away
'Til there's no more shades of gray
You only have to whisper anything at all
You opened up my eyes
You turned my lows to highs
And that's the only way that I know how to fall
Not gonna analyze or try to fight it
Don't even care if it makes no sense at all
'Cause with you I can fly
Nothing brings me down when you're around
It's like zero gravity
The world just disappears when you're here
It's zero gravity
When things get messed up, you lift my head up
And I get lost in the clouds
There's no sense of time with you and I
It's zero gravity
You make it so easy to just drift away
I can't imagine being without you
Don't think about it, don't think about
Don't think about, don't think about
(Don't think about it)
Don't think about it
(Don't think about it)
Nothing brings me down when you're around
It's like zero gravity
The world just disappears when you're here
It's zero gravity
Nothing brings me down when you're around
It's like zero gravity
The world just disappears when you're here
It's zero gravity
Zero gravity
The song Zero Gravity by David Archuleta appears to be a love song that describes the way the singer feels when they are with their loved one. In the first verse, the singer seems to be describing a moment where they were with their partner and felt a rush of emotions that they had not experienced before. They felt like they were miles above the ground and did not even realize it. However, they are not afraid of heights and they describe crashing into the sky, which could suggest that they are experiencing a unique type of high, a feeling of euphoria that only comes from being with their loved one.
The chorus of the song emphasizes this feeling of weightlessness that the singer experiences when they are with their partner. The world around them fades away, and they feel like they are in zero gravity, which is a sensation of weightlessness that occurs in free fall or in orbit. They describe feeling lost in the clouds and losing all sense of time when they are with their partner. The second verse again emphasizes the feeling of being lifted up by their partner when things get messed up, and they feel like they are just drifting away when they are with them.
Overall, the song conveys the idea that being with their loved one makes the singer feel like they are in a different reality, one where everything else fades away and they feel weightless and free. The lyrics are packed with metaphors and imagery that reinforce the idea of the singer being transported to another world by their partner.
Line by Line Meaning
Tell me what you did to me
Please explain the impact you have had on me
Just there beneath my feet
You were always there, but I didn't notice until now
Didn't even notice we were miles above the ground
I didn't realize how much you had lifted me up until I looked down
I'm not afraid of heights
I am no longer scared of falling because of you
We crashed into the sky
We rose up so fast that it felt like we collided with the sky
Didn't know that I could feel the way that I do now
I never knew that I was capable of feeling this happy and free
I'm not asking for an explanation
I don't need to understand it all, I just want to feel it
All I know is that you take me away
I feel like I am transported to another world with you
And you show me how to fly
You have taught me how to soar and embrace new experiences
Nothing brings me down when you're around
Your presence alone lifts me up and makes me feel invincible
It's like zero gravity
Being with you makes me feel weightless and free
The world just disappears when you're here
I become so engrossed in the moment with you that everything else fades away
When things get messed up
When life gets tough
You lift my head up
You help me see things from a different perspective and stay positive
And I get lost in the clouds
Being with you feels like I am floating on a cloud and nothing else matters
There's no sense of time with you and I
Time seems to stand still when I am with you, and I lose track of it
The edges fade away
All the sharp edges and rough patches of life become blurry
'Til there's no more shades of gray
Until everything becomes clear and nothing is uncertain
You only have to whisper anything at all
Even a small gesture or word from you can make my day
You opened up my eyes
You have helped me see things in a different light and understand myself better
You turned my lows to highs
You always manage to make me feel better no matter how low I am feeling
And that's the only way that I know how to fall
I trust that you will always be there to catch me if I do fall
Not gonna analyze or try to fight it
I am not overthinking it or resisting the feelings because they feel so good
Don't even care if it makes no sense at all
I don't need it to make logical sense because it feels right
You make it so easy to just drift away
I lose track of time and space when I am with you
I can't imagine being without you
You have become an integral and necessary part of my life
Don't think about it, don't think about
I don't want to overthink this or second-guess it
Don't think about, don't think about
I just want to enjoy the moment with you
(Don't think about it)
I don't want to overanalyze this or think too much about it
Nothing brings me down when you're around
Your presence alone lifts me up and makes me feel invincible
It's like zero gravity
Being with you makes me feel weightless and free
The world just disappears when you're here
I become so engrossed in the moment with you that everything else fades away
Zero gravity
A feeling of being weightless, free and happy when with the person mentioned in the song
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: DAVID ARCHULETA, STEVE DIAMOND, MATTHEW R.T. GERRARD, MIKE KROMPASS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind