Salt Lake Tribune

Regardless of David Archuleta’s performance Tuesday night at Abravanel Hall, the tweens and teenagers in the audience would still have shrieked and squealed in delight every time the 18-year-old pop singer from Murray sang a note.

Luckily for the rest of us, Archuleta launched his holiday tour in his home state with a rousing, accomplished performance that further illustrated how far he has come since he finished second in the 2008 season of “American Idol.”

Archuleta, who turns 19 in December, ably balanced a show that showcased his pop talent as well as a strong display of covering other’s material — most notably a collection of Christmas standards that closed the show.

While the show was advertised as Archuleta performing selections from his recently released album, “Christmas From the Heart,” the singer began his set with songs taken mostly from his 2008 debut self-titled album. With more confidence and stage presence than he has shown yet, he flexed his vocals through “Crush” and “A Little Too Not Over You” as well as performing his up-tempo rave-up “Zero Gravity.” Archuleta was backed by four musicians, but played piano as he covered Five For Fighting’s ballad “The Riddle,” showing an inkling of a direction his career could take him.

Illustrating a talent for building a solid, thematic set, Archuleta then performed two songs that served as a transition between his opening set and his closing set of Christmas tunes. The highlight was when he was accompanied only by an acoustic guitar, singing a rendition of Sting’s “Fields of Gold” that changed the vocal melody to make the song his soulful own.

It was then time for the main show to start.

The curtains pulled back to reveal about a dozen string players along with two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer. With dramatic on-stage lighting illuminating three conical Christmas trees and four ornamental baubles hanging from the rafters, Archuleta came out in a jet-black suit and immediately got going with “Melodies of Christmas,” a new song he said he helped write.

The show was not short on surprises. After starting a somnambulant rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” his mother Lupe joined him to duet, turning a sluggish retread into a poignant refrain. And during a stirring, reverent version of “Ave Maria,” Archuleta was joined on stage by a white-robed children’s choir as well as on piano by local composer Kurt Bestor, who produced and conducted many songs on Archuleta’s holiday album.

Whether singing in English, Latin (as on “Ave Maria”) or French (as on Bestor’s galloping arrangement of “Pat-a-Pan”), Archuleta showed not only a command of the material but an ability to connect with the audience with self-deprecating humor and sheepish but endearing half-waves to the crowd, which nearly sold out the symphony hall.

What was most impressive about the concert was that Archuleta and his team relied not on slick, overly produced Christmas music that would dull the experience, but on a real string section and a lean, stripped-down soft-rock sound that shows an authenticity to the teen, who is turning into a man in front of our eyes.