Winter is in the air – well, not quite. However, American Idol alum, David Archuleta is already gearing up for the season. On 4 September 2018, the world-renown singer-songwriter and entertainer revealed to Billboard.com in an exclusive article that he will be releasing a new holiday album, Winter in the Air, on 2 November 2018. The article also includes an exclusive full track from the album, “Christmas Every Day,” which David co-wrote with producer Cason Cooley and Dave Barnes.

David told Billboard.com that “Christmas Every Day” featuring the backing vocals of fellow American Idol alum, Melinda Doolittle, was inspired by Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ and Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Underneath the Tree’ He said, “I tend to gravitate to more serious and slower Christmas songs. This time I wanted to have some fun and write a song that would make people happy and feel the joy of the holidays.” It was the first time that he had ever asked a friend to do backing vocals for him. ABC News Radio Online.com reports that the single will be released in October.

According to his official website, David’s goal for Winter in the Air is to, “Make people happy and feel the joy of the holidays.”  The album, produced by Shadow Mountain Records, is David’s eighth album and second-holiday release. He told Billboard that after finishing his first Christmas album, Christmas from the Heart, in 2009, there was already talk about recording another one. He said, “There’s always a place for it because there are so many great Christmas songs.”

David has always had a love for Christmas music. When he was growing up in Utah, his parents would take him and his siblings Christmas caroling where they would sing songs like “Feliz Navidad,” “Jingle Bells,” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

Many music artists record their holiday albums in the summer to be ready for the festive season, however, David, who now calls Nashville, Tennessee, his home, began working on Winter in the Air in January while the feel of winter still permeated the air. The original writing session had to be canceled because of a snowstorm, but once he was able to get together with songwriters Jeremy Bose and Cindy Morgan, the team wrote what would become the album’s title track, which was inspired “by walking outside in the wintertime with the snow crunching under [our] feet.”

The new holiday album, which is sure to become an immediate favorite of his fans, includes classic holiday tunes, as well as, three original songs that David co-wrote – “Winter in the Air,” “He Is Born,” and “Christmas Every Day.” He told Billboard, “I always wanted to record ‘Mary, Did You Know’ and I [had] wanted ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ on my first album. ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’ is one of my favorite Christmas songs. I usually listen to the Burl Ives version. For this album, I listened to Christmas albums by Michael Bublé and Nat King Cole. My producers’ goal was to get that sound with a big reverb board to capture the classic vibes of the ’50s and ’60s.”

Because of an ice storm, the second writing session, with producer Cason Cooley and songwriter Isabeau Miller, was also canceled. When they were finally able to get together, they wrote a song in remembrance of the birth of the Savior called “He Is Born.”

After recording sessions with Cooley, David went back to Utah to work with producer John Hancock who had spearheaded the production of Christmas from the Heart in 2009. David said, John, added a guitar loop to ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman’ and it felt very Latin to me, so I started singing in Spanish.” That resulted in David singing several songs in Spanish, including “In the Bleak Midwinter,” which his aunt translated into Spanish after they were unsuccessful in finding a Spanish version. With that, David’s fans will be happy to know that a four-song EP of the Spanish renditions will be released, and it is “all thanks to John doing ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ with Spanish guitar.”

The album, Winter in the Air, will be supported with a tour that begins on 26 November 2018 in Los Angeles, California, and run through 21 December 2018, in Richfield, Utah. During the tour, David plans to visit cities in California, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, New York, and Connecticut. David told Billboard, “I’ve always loved being on the road, ever since my dad took me to California when I was 11. When I’m out on the road, I get to interact with fans again. It’s different from the social media experience. You can see how music changes their demeanors.”

ABC News Radio Online.com reports that  pre-orders for David’s Christmas album, Winter in the Air, begins 10 September 2018, with fans receiving an instant download of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” The complete track list for the album is as follows: “Christmas Every Day,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Mary’s Boy Child,” “Some Children See Him,” “Holly Jolly Christmas,” “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” “He is Born,” “White Christmas,” “Mary, Did You Know?” “Winter in the Air,” “In the Bleak Midwinter,” and “Glorious.”

*Cover photo is from David Archuleta’s official website.