Last year, David Archuleta returned to the American Idol stage to perform “Hell Together,” a song inspired by his mother’s response to his coming out as queer.
“You said, ‘If I have to live without you, I don’t wanna live forever,’” Archuleta sings. “‘If paradise is pressure, we’ll go to hell together.’”
Archuleta, who finished second on American Idol in 2008, is scheduled to headline Oklahoma Pridefest at Scissortail Park, 300 SW Seventh St. Jo James, Outlawz and Isis Payne are also scheduled to perform. Visit okpridealliance.org/pridefest for more information.
Since releasing 2020’s introspective Therapy Sessions, Archuleta has publicly come out as queer and stepped away from the Mormon church. Singles “Hell Together,” a cover of George Michael’s “Freedom” and most recently the flirty “Can I Call You” and “Crème Brûlée” followed. After his performance at Pridefest, he will be releasing his Earthly Delights EP on August 15 followed by a North American tour in the fall.
We talked to Archuleta about his most recent music and what Pride means to him.
The singles you released recently seem to follow a positive arc, from “Afraid to Love,” “Hell Together” and “Rather Be Lonely” to “Crème Brûlée” and “Can I Call You,” which seem like lighter romantic love songs, especially following 2020’s Therapy Sessions. Does this mirror the trajectory of your own life?
Yeah, I would say so. The first couple songs are about accepting yourself and moving into this next chapter of just accepting who you are and understanding who you are better. And now it’s just kind of like, “OK, I’m here, embracing this, and it’s time to have fun.”
Therapy Sessions was a little heavier because I think it was me not knowing what I was going through, or at least maybe part of me knew what I was going through. A lot of the mental crisis seems to have been just coming to terms with my sexuality and trying to resist it, thinking the worst of that part of me, which caused a lot of inner turmoil. … But if I accept that part of me, it will take away a lot of the anxiety, the depression and the self-loathing.
As someone who’s coming to this in your 30s, has going to Pride celebrations helped you process that?
What I like about the Pride events is sometimes that’s the one thing that people have in their city. There isn’t too much else that they have, other than a couple of their friends that they have at school who happen to be queer. … I came out when I was in Tennessee, and there just weren’t very many people who were out and comfortable with themselves. … People were like ‘We’re OK with you coming out, but just don’t put it in our faces.’
What does that mean? Because for me, I’m just gonna start dating guys. And basically, they’re like, ‘We’re okay with that, but just don’t show it around my kids.’ You’re acknowledging that I’m queer, but you don’t want to see any side of that from me. So basically, if I want to have a boyfriend and hold his hand or something, you don’t want to see that. I’m trying to learn. I grew up feeling like that was an offensive thing, too, so now I’m trying to learn how to be okay with that. But I’m around a bunch of people who want me to learn. … I’ve been in an environment where people are very much out there with their boyfriends, and they’re holding hands, and girls who are lesbians, too, they’re holding hands, and people don’t make a fuss. They don’t make a big deal, and it’s not a big deal. It’s not hurting anybody. … They’ve been around enough queer people to know that. It doesn’t actually bother anybody once people understand it.
Sometimes in more conservative communities where they’ve been taught to fear the queer community, they think suddenly they’re gonna, like, put on the most boldest, loudest makeup and walk down the street and wave their hands, screaming at people. You know?
It’s what they expect. Or they think that because you’re gay, you’re gonna be having sex in public on the sidewalk in front of a school or something. I think they’re expecting the most extreme things to happen because they’re told that the gay community is extreme.
And usually, because everyone in their city is hiding, is too afraid to come out, they only see extreme examples of it given by anti-LGBT propaganda on their news channels or on their social media feed.
They usually cherry-pick the most extreme examples of the more extravagant sides of the queer community, which, in the end, too, I don’t really see anything that’s too bad about it. I can see what’s overwhelming, though, because sometimes I go, ‘That’s pretty loud and pretty big,’ and I come from a community that’s more conservative and keeps to themselves. You know?
This is probably relatable to many people here in Oklahoma City. What would you say to anyone going through some of the same things?
I would say just because someone’s been told something about you, that doesn’t mean it’s true. That’s what I had to learn about myself, because I was like, ‘I know who I am. I know the kind of life I’ve lived and all the bad things that they say that gay people do.’ And I was like, ‘I’m afraid. I don’t want to be a bad person. So I don’t want to be gay because I don’t want to be bad.’ Even when I came out, I was like, ‘I’m going to prove to myself that I’m still, from what I was taught, a good person.’ And because they’re like, ‘Well, gay people do this and this and this and this and this,’ and then say, ‘Well, just don’t put it in my face,’ … I was like, ‘OK. I won’t put it in your face. I’ll keep it to myself.’ And then just because people knew I was gay, they’re like, ‘Well, you’re still that.’
And I’m like, ‘OK. So it isn’t really about what I’m doing. You just don’t understand what it is, what it means to be gay or queer, and that’s not on me anymore because I’ve done all my best to respect you, not be in your way, not do anything that might you might take the wrong way.”
But I’ve realized just because you know that about me, you will take anything I do the wrong way because that’s your own prejudice, and that’s not on me. And so I would say people will think a lot of things and say a lot of things about why the queer community is bad, and they are usually wrong. Almost always they are wrong because they were just taught anti-LGBT extreme propaganda, essentially, and that does not make you a bad person. It’s not on you. And there’s nothing wrong with you being queer.
Visit davidarchuleta.com.
This article appears in deadCenter Film Festival 2025.