Especially now, with 'Glee,' it's allowed a lot of kids to love music and performing at a young age. All ages watched 'American Idol,' but I think it was nice to be able to show kids, 'Hey, you can be here, too.'
— David Archuleta
I really wanna do a Spanish album. I have that Latin culture background. It's a part of me. I'm not the best Spanish speaker, but I have a longing to connect with that. I just think how supportive the Latin community has been, even during 'Idol.' I'd like to give back with something like that.
It's the boring things that mean a lot to me. I enjoy taking my sisters to eat. Or sitting watching TV with my family.
My whole family has been such a great support, and they're the ones who have kept me grounded and allowed me to be who I am today.
I really like the European carols, and I like that captivating sound that they have that isn't usually in Christmas songs.
What I've learned is that music affects the way you feel. A song can change someone's life.
I want to make sure that I make music that lasts. I've been experimenting. I've been writing.
I love Sara Bareilles. She's just so clever. I wish I were her. She's so awesome.
I like cartoons. I like 'Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.' It's funny! It has things that kids wouldn't get. It's like, if you're mature, you get it. I like that and 'The Fairly OddParents.'
Relationships are about helping motivate each other to be all that you can be.
Before 'American Idol' and all this stuff, I was obsessed with music charts, and I used to go online to find out what was popular in other countries. I'd log on to the BBC website, and that's how I found out about artists like Natasha Bedingfield, Daniel Bedingfield and Take That.
I knew people liked me on 'American Idol,' but I didn't think they'd care to come see me sing at my own show.
I like the pop music, but I still want to have meaning in my music.
There's a lot of really talented people in Utah, people who would really make an effort to make the music the best that it could be and as emotional as it could be.
It's cool when people notice that you make an effort to live certain values.
I want to figure out what kind of artist I want to be, because with the 'American Idol' process, it just works really fast. The night of the finale, they said, 'OK, here are all the label people that you're gonna work with, this is the album you're gonna make and blah, blah, blah.' So it was a pretty fast process, but it's been cool.
My mom is just someone who's easy to talk to and hang with. My sister, it's always cool to be able to help her out with things. My brother is fun when we're just joking and messing around. And my dad is someone who's helpful with my music and easy to talk to about that stuff because he understands me in that sense.
It's so important for girls to respect themselves and not put themselves down and say, 'Oh, my life is horrible,' and 'I'm not pretty enough.' How do you know? There's this energy people give off that people can be drawn to.
I've never had a celebrity crush! I don't believe in those, really. I feel like you have to get to know the person before you start to feel anything like that. People always think they know celebrities, but how can you when you've never met them?
I don't think songs have to be like these super-#1-smash-hit-sounding songs, because I think it's more important that it's like, 'Hey! This is coming out of me. This is something I connect with. This is something that I like to sing.'
What I find is really interesting is the Ear-Nose-Throat doctor thing, which I know would take a lot of work and education, but it's something that really interests me, because it's something that helps people who've had the same problems as me, with the whole hearing and nose congestion and problems with your voice.
All my mom's side speaks Spanish. I speak to my grandparents in Spanish. Slowly. And they're patient with me! But I do speak with them in Spanish and carry on conversations with them.
I definitely want to do music for the rest of my life. So I just want to make sure that I'm doing music in the way that I feel is the way I need to.
Despite whatever commercial kind of success you might have or radio success, I don't want to do something just to get as many people as possible to listen.
If not music, I think it would be pretty cool to be an ear, nose and throat doctor.
