at the age of 10 when he participated in the Utah Talent Competition, singing "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton; he won the Child Division. When Archuleta, a member of the LDS Church, was 21, he volunteered for two years as a full-time missionary and was called to serve in Rancuagua, Chile. He is a graduate of Barbizon Modeling and Acting School in Salt Lake City. Music career 2003–2006: Star Search and musical beginnings In 2003, Archuleta sang on several episodes of the television show Star Search. He wound up as the Junior Vocal Champion on Star Search 2, losing the Junior Grand Champion title to Tiffany Evans. On one episode, he competed against then-11-year-old Alexandréa Lushington, who 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 was preceded by an appearance on The Jenny Jones Show, meeting the finalists from American Idols first season, for whom he performed a spontaneous a cappella rendition of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls. He received praise from Season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson, and the episode led to appearances on CBS's The Early Show. 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 to specific occasions, like Stadium of Fire, the Independence Day celebration at Brigham Young University Stadium. Archuleta made initial attempts at songwriting and arranging music after his Star Search experience and has written at least three songs. His first singles in 2002, written by his father and Sunny Hilden, were "Dream Sky High" and a song he had written by Yani Gileadi titled "Don't Tell Me". 2007–2008: American Idol and David Archuleta Archuleta received his ticket to the Hollywood auditions at the San Diego tryouts – held at Qualcomm Stadium at the end of July 2007 – with a performance of John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change" with judge Randy Jackson spontaneously joining in to sing the background "waiting" in the song. He was sixteen during the Hollywood auditions and attended school while a part of American Idols seventh season. A parent/guardian was required to be