Pausing for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, the 34-year-old said of his new music, “I feel like it’s David Archuleta 2.0. I’m in my flirty era – like, just owning my sensuality and being confident in my body.”
Archuleta added that his new single, “Crème Brulée,” which drops today (March 21), features “a little bit of Spanglish,” which he hopes can make listeners “confident with themselves too as they listen to it, just enjoy vibing out to it.”
Archuleta’s sexy new confidence finds him in quite a different place than where he was at the beginning of his career. After placing second on “American Idol” in 2008, Archuleta released his first single, “Crush.” He recalled his wonder and excitement at hearing the song on the radio for the first time. Describing the moment to THR, Archuleta said it was “wild.” Back in Utah, while hanging out with friends, he heard the song come across the airwaves once more. “Whaaat? I just randomly come up on the radio? This is crazy!” he recalled thinking at the time.
Those comments track with what the singer told People Magazine last month while discussing his forthcoming memoir, “Devout.”
“I was such a young boy,” he told People, noting that he was only about 16 when he competed on the reality show. “I feel like sometimes I was like an 11-year-old in my mind because I was so sheltered.”
Compare that recollection to the teaser he posted on X for “Crème Brulée,” in which his clothes briefly vanish.
Since breaking away from the Mormon Church and embracing authenticity, the singer has discovered a whole new sense of freedom, he told People last month.
“Now I’m like, ‘Oh, I can be whoever I want now,'” Archuleta said. “I don’t have to try and be like, ‘Well, is that against the rules or is this going by the book?’ I’m like, ‘You know what, I get to write my own rules and paint my own story and tell my own story.'”
