David James Archuleta, the 26-year-old world famous singer-songwriter, recently returned to the Philippines and performed a concert at the Kia Theater, Araneta Center, Quezon City on Friday, 20 October 2017. Also on that day, his long-awaited CD Postcards in the Sky was released. The 16-track album is comprised of the 8 tracks from his 2017 EP releases Orion and Leo and eight new additional tracks.

While visiting the Philippines, David was interviewed by several news outlets including CNN Philippines and made guest appearances in several venues, one of which was the Wish 107.5 Bus where he sang his song “Up All Night.” During his interviews, David attributed his music and his success to his faith – he is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – and to the two years that he stepped away from the spotlight to serve a two-year mission for the Church in South America. He comments that his mission changed his life in many ways and feels that it is the best thing that he has done thus far.

David served his mission in the Chile Concepción Mission. He entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, in April 2012 and returned from his mission in March 2014. On stage, before a crowd of his fans at a concert in Salt Lake City, Utah, in December 2011, he made the announcement that he would be leaving to serve a two-year mission for the Church. He told the audience that night, “It’s not because someone told me that I’m supposed to do it, and not because I no longer want to do music, but because it’s the feeling that I’ve felt I need to do this with my life.”

In a 19 October 2017 interview with PUSH, David shared that “his two-year missionary work in Chile, which ended in 2014, made him want to embrace who he really is as a performer.” He continued, “I was feeling like if I am going to go back like who I was before compared to where I’ve been now, I don’t think I want to do that anymore.” Since returning from his mission, David looks at his career in a totally different light. He now focusses more on performing songs that he can relate to instead of songs that his managers and producers visualize as the next big hit. He recalls that during production meetings, “The label would literally tell me. . .. we want you to be a white Chris Brown or now we want you to be a Justin Bieber. They would say that, and they always wanted me to become someone else instead of being me.”

When he was deciding whether to serve a mission, many people tried to discourage him. He was told, “You’re such an idiot for doing that! Why are you taking a break when you’re in a business when you must keep the momentum going? You’re in something when you must constantly engage with your audience or else people will forget you.” Thankfully, he made the choice to put his career on hold to do what he believed he needed to do. In an interview with GMA News, he remarked, “I think sometimes God asks us to do things that seem dumb to everybody else. He makes sense out of things that don’t make sense to the world. So, I had to trust in that. I asked myself if I were to lose everything, am I still willing to do this?” He further says that he has no regrets. “It changed my life so much. I will forever be grateful for that. It’s the greatest thing I’ve done in my life so far.”