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| David Archuleta |
As the seventh season of
American Idol winds down, weekly front-runner
David Archuleta is finding out that sometimes having a supportive family can be bad for your career.
It was announced this weekend that his father,
Jeff Archuleta, was banned from any further participation from the show after his stage parent meddling caused Fox to incur a fine.
Archuleta is the young precocious teenager with the velvet voice who seemed like a shoe in for the finals, but his omnipresent father has been quite a challenge for the young singer's career.
At the age of 12, David was a finalist on the show
Star Search and ended up with the title of Junior vocal champion where he ironically performed “You’re All I Need” and "I Surrender", the same songs that
Kelly Clarkson had sung the year she won
Idol.
His victory, however, came at a price as his father was banned from the show after harassing some of the other contestants. It is reported that Jeff Archuleta cornered eventual Grand Prize winner
Tiffany Evans and demanded that she lose to his son.
After receiving several threatening phone calls, the Evans’ complained to producers who forbid him from returning to the lot.
While the senior Archuleta has been picking his son’s songs and causing chaos backstage with the judges and cast members all season long, this week, a final straw was broken when he ordered David to change the lyrics to the song “Stand By Me”.
Against the orders of the producers, David added a verse from
Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls", to his song selection, which had not been previously approved, and the show incurred additional costs according to the
Associated Press.
David Archuleta joins
Syesha Mercado and new front-runner
David Cook on this week’s finale.
