 In 2003 , when he was twelve years old , Archuleta sang on several episodes of the television show Star Search . He ended up as the Junior Vocal Champion on Star Search 2 , losing the Junior Grand Champion title to Tiffany Evans . On one episode , he sang against then @-@ 11 @-@ year @-@ old <unk> 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 " . 
