18 year old American Idol season seven runner-up David Archuleta sits down with LatinaRoom and chats with us about how his life transformed after American Idol, his latest project and most importantly how his Latino roots and his family has kept him going, giving him strength through it all.

Latinaroom: What has been the biggest change in your life since American Idol?

David Archuleta: The Biggest change - I don’t know kind of all of it together - everyone now recognizing who you are, getting to travel a lot more. You know getting into your core and getting to tour, I mean it’s all a pretty drastic change you know! You’re not really home anymore because you’re all over the place, but it’s really fun; I really love it.

Latinaroom: Being so young, what goes through your mind when performing in big arenas? What’s your biggest fear?

David Archuleta: Biggest fear…I guess it depends on the performance, usually arenas don’t really bother me. It’s usually the special events that I get really nervous for but the arenas usually are just fun. I guess the biggest thing is making sure that you pace yourself, because if you don’t pace yourself you won’t have a voice for the rest of your set. So you have to make sure, you don’t sing all out for the first few songs because then it’s like “oh my voice is gone” and I have four, five, six more songs to sing you know (laughs). So I guess that’s the scariest thing, because if you lose your voice then that can be a little dangerous. But just making sure you do your best and that the crowd is having a good time, that’s what I’m always nervous about, because you can mess up but if the crowd is not having a good time then you feel like “Uh Oh, I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Latinaroom: Your fans want to know what type of girl do you like?

David Archuleta: (Laughs) Well…people who just don’t feel like they have to try too hard or anything. But I like it when girls have respect for themselves. Not in a cocky way like, “I’m so amazing,” but just someone who respects themselves and someone who respects other people. Someone who is a little adventurous in trying different things, like you know going to different restaurants maybe or on a hike; just doing adventurous things. If they’re just like “Oh I just want to sit down and watch a movie all week long with you, I don’t want to do anything,” then that’s pretty lame, you know. [I like] someone who likes to be involved in things, someone who can be independent, but still cares about other people…Does that make sense? And they have to like music obviously, that’s pretty important (Laughs).

Latinaroom: Speaking of different restaurants…what’s your favorite food?

David Archuleta: Thai food. I love Thai food! Thai food is AMAZING! Oooh, I just love it, I love Mediterranean too. It’s a blend of like spicy sweet and sour, they use coconut and milk and peanuts and I love that kind of stuff! My parents have always loved it; they’re like obsessed with it and so I just got it from them, kind of inherited the gene of loving Thai food. Then with Mediterranean food, my friend introduced it to me because their family is Persian. And I just love it, just again with the spices and herbs that they use in the meats, and I love the yogurt that they use in Mediterranean food is just really good. But Thai food is the ultimate one.

Latinaroom: Do you come from a musical family background? Where do you draw your inspiration from?

David Archuleta: Yeah my mom actually sings and dances salsa, meringue and stuff like that and my Dad is a Jazz trumpet player, so they both craft music in different ways. I think they kind of help inspire me. The biggest thing for me though was American Idol the first season (Laugh). That was like the biggest change in making me want to do music, making me want to perform, making me want to do the same thing I saw those people performing on the show. It’s like “Man, Wow…” I was so amazed at the way that they sang and the emotion that they had in their songs. I was like “…I want to do that!” And that was kind of a big step for me, so it’s kind of funny to see this bit come full circle. I liked singing before then, but that was like the big thing that made me say “I want to, I have to do music.”

Latinaroom: What are your plans to promote the Christmas CD "Christmas from the Heart" as far as touring goes?

David Archuleta: Yeah I will be going on tour actually. I’ll be going on tour during the winter time, and I’ll just be singing some of the familiar songs along with Christmas songs, so that should be fun. I’m just excited to do Christmas songs and perform again; it’s been a nice little break. I got my wisdom teeth pulled last week so I’ve been home. I’m going to be working on the next Pop album now. I’ll be going to Nashville, New York and LA to do some writing. So it’ll be nice to get back into gear. After working on that stuff, I’ll be going and working on the Christmas tour and that should be fun, I’m really excited to do another solo tour.

Latinaroom: When should fans expect your next studio album to be released?

David Archuleta: The next Pop album? I’m not sure exactly when, but it’ll be coming out sometime next year.

Latinaroom: Okay, back to the Christmas album. Are the songs mostly remakes or did you write some new songs?

David Archuleta: They’re mainly the traditional Christmas songs, there’s an original on there too; but it’s mainly just the traditional heartfelt kind of Christmas songs that everyone kind of grew up listening to and the songs that mean a lot to me. Along with some other ones that I wasn’t familiar with but really loved and thought were really cool sounding and added a little flavor to the rest of the traditional sounding Christmas songs.

Latinaroom: Are there any French or Spanish songs on the disc?

David Archuleta: Yes there are. There’s a song…I’ve never spoken French before so I hope that it’s good. I hope that people approve of it. I sing a song called “Riu Riu Chiu” and that’s actually a Spanish traditional song…like an old school Christmas Spanish song. And it’s a really cool sounding song. I’m excited to see what people think about it.

Latinaroom: If you were to do a duet, who would you do it with and why?

David Archuleta: I think it would be so cool to do a duet with Natasha Bedingfield. I think she’s so talented, she’s been a big influence on me and I think it would still be fun to do a duet with Jordin Sparks sometime. She’s so cool and she’s close to my age and she’s just an amazing singer.

Latinaroom: Would you do a reality TV show?

David Archuleta: I guess it would have to depend on what I was doing. It is just a weird concept of a camera following you around. But if there were good intentions behind it… like a good reason why they (the cameras) are there…like if I’m trying to help people understand where I’m coming from or something versus just looking like an idiot on camera. If there was something beneficial from it then maybe!

Latinaroom: What does being Latino mean to you?

David Archuleta: I think it means having strong roots…having a strong family. Family is so important, I think, especially with the Latin culture. They’re the ones who carry you, they’re the ones who support you, they love you, they raised you and I feel like that’s kind of the center of everything. It’s the family. And that’s what I love about it. I love how it seems like with all Latin culture that they really focus on family and the strengths in the family because sometimes that’s all you have; and it makes you appreciate what they do and they appreciate each other so much more. That’s something that has always been big for me; the people and both sides of my family have been really important in my life. They’ve taught me a lot and they’ve been my strength. I wouldn’t be able to do all of this if I didn’t have them.

Stay click tomorrow Wednesday October 14 for the second half of David’s two part interview where he will answer questions from his Twitter fans. ‘Christmas from the Heart’ in stores now.