Review of David Archuleta and David Cook from the Manila Concert

This is a review of the Cook/Archuleta concert from the Manila Bulletin, and from the looks of things, this reviewer is not a Cook fan. (Or maybe it was past his bedtime?) I’ve read many personal accounts from the concert, and not one of them was negative. In fact, every account raved about both Archuleta and Cook. After watching a lot of concert videos, it certainly looked like a very happy crowd to me!

From the Manila Bulletin:

“American Idol” champion David Cook disgruntled some of his Filipino fans by excluding “The Time Of My Life” in his Manila concert set list last May 16.

“The Time Of My Life” was the coronation song of “American Idol” Season 7 which Cook won. The song went as high as number three in the US Billboard charts and became an even bigger hit in Canada (#2) and in the Philippines (#1).

Instead, Cook performed a barrage of unreleased tracks from his self-titled album that left the crowd lethargic. Songs from “Analog Heart,” an album he released during his pre-“Idol” days, made the crowd even more listless.

“We’re playing songs you’ve never heard before,” Cook explained, noticing the lull. “Is that okay?”
The only familiar songs from Cook that night were “Light On” (first single off “Cook”) and his remake of “Always Be My Baby” (originally by Mariah Carey).

“Little Lies” (Fleetwood Mac), although a charter in the US back in the 80s, received little airplay in the Philippines, thus, was hardly recognized when Cook performed it.

The rock singer opened his set somberly with just a guitar accompanying him in “The World I Know;” perhaps in honor of his brother, Adam, who died of brain cancer in March.

At one point, the “Idol” champ mingled with the audience and took a picture of himself using the camera of a fan.

He asked for a show of hands of those who bought his album. Cook, however, must have been let down when the audience couldn’t sing along.

“You guys are still having a good time…right?” he’d check on the crowd from time to time.

To catch the audience’s attention, the singer uttered the Filipino words “Salamat!” and “Magandang gabi!”

“I hope I didn’t butcher ‘em,” he said good-naturedly.

His latest single, “Come Back To Me,” Cook dedicated to newly weds. His doing so had some people scratching their heads.

Part of “Come Back To Me,” after all, goes, “You say you’re leaving as you look away/I know there’s really nothing left to say…”

Cook only gave an encore. Few fans shouted for more the second time he left the stage. Many were more interested in leaving The Mall of Asia Concert Grounds as fast they could to beat the expected traffic jam.

“American Idol” Season 7 runner-up David Archuleta served up a more balanced repertoire.

Although with fewer hit songs (two to Cook’s three), Archuleta was able to keep the audience interested by peppering his set list with four remakes: “Stand By Me” (Ben E King), “Angel” (Robbie Williams), “A Thousand Miles” (Vanessa Carlton) and a snippet of “Beautiful Girl” (Sean Kingston).

The remakes were performed successively at the latter part of the show, thus, establishing a sense of climax. Archuleta also wisely alternated between fast and slow songs instead of a stream of songs that had the same time signature and arrangement.

Archuleta was all over the stage. That’s why after doing certain fast numbers, he would reach for his bottled water and drink which, oddly enough, earned hoots of approval from the audience.

He also accompanied himself on the piano in some songs (e.g. “To Be With You”) and even whistled the instrumental hook in “Your Eyes Don’t Lie.”

The 18-year-old singer had some breathing issues in a couple of the fast numbers. Nevertheless, he was pitch-perfect in most and he was able to reach the high notes especially in “A Little Too Not Over You” and “Crush.”

Other songs that Archuleta performed were “You Can,” “Barriers,” “Don’t Let Go,” “Zero Gravity” and “Waiting For Yesterday.”

By JOJO P. PANALIGAN

SOURCE

Last 3 posts by Deb

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~ by Deb on May 18, 2009.

David Archuleta

Tags: David Archuleta in Manila, David Cook

28 Responses to “Review of David Archuleta and David Cook from the Manila Concert”

GO DAVID ARCHULETA! AWESOME! Yes, I believe DC mentioned to Ryan Seacrest during an interview that he was excited to go to his first solo tour in the Philippines, of course he forgot to mention during his conversation during Ryan’s interview that David Archuleta was given equal time. No disrespect to DC, I think he is very talented, but let’s not get carried away. Taking pictures of himself seems something like he likes to do. When I say him live last year at the AC AI concert he was the only performer who took a picture of what he called “his audience” and himself. I shouted, I am here for DAVID ARCHULETA. SORRY!!! Just kidding in good fun of course.

Anonymous said this on May 18th, 2009 at 1:37 pm (Quote)
I agree with you. Cook is so into himself. He will never mention
Archuleta in his limelight not unless it is more of David than him. Let’s not get carried away! Excuse me, but that is the character of cook. He does not care about others. He pretends for his benefit and it’s difficult for him to include David in interview conversations. He does not want David to get any coverage or attention. Cook is so into himself it’s pathetic. He has always been that way since idol. I try to leave messages for archie to distance himself from him. Cook is a two faced person and will manipulate innocent David by trying to make Archie look less than him and then laugh if off like it’s funny. How I wish Archie would open his eyes to see the true character cook is. If not him his I hope his dad would see it. Cook will alwyas be jealous of Archiebecause he knows that he is not the REAL AMERICAN IDOL. He knows the title belongs to Archuleta. The commentor above, you don’t have to sugarcoat your feelings about how you feel. I agree one hundred percent. It’s obvious everyone at the manila concert was there to experience “The One And Only” David Archuleta not so much cook. Thank God this concert is over. Never, Never, Never put Archie with this cook character again.
Most importantly because he should never be advertised second
regardless of the rigged results from AI corrupt voting system.
Everyone knows Archuleta really won.

tori said this on May 18th, 2009 at 3:12 pm (Quote)
Why was this writer so negative. I may not be a cookie fan but hell no!!! that was rude of him especially in the wake of Adams death.

Why do people wonder why david drinks water in between his performances.it just shows how unelightened the writer is as regards music training. water is to a trained musician what oil is to a wheel.water helps to moisten the throat so that a singer can belt out and hit their notes.a dry throat destroys a singers ability to hit their notes well.

i hate that article and to me its just plain rude.

AJ said this on May 18th, 2009 at 4:29 pm (Quote)
The writer is a non-fan of the two Davids. And many who went to the concert are non-fans too. My two friends watched the concert in the Silver area. And before the show finished, they told me there were a lot of people already trickling to the exit without finishing the concert. Some came back when DA name was mentioned for the final song. I have a platinum seat with my friend. So I don’t have to see what they saw. Anyway, it is good that the two Davids got a non-fan perspective so that they can improve on their craft and performance. Among the newspapers here in the Philippines, the Manila Bulletin always does its report as non-partisan and most often non-exciting as possible.

Au said this on May 18th, 2009 at 7:11 pm (Quote)
I have watched almost all of the videos on Youtube of both of the David’s concert and yes, this guy has it all wrong. I think everyone was excited for both Davids. I think they both sang songs off of their album and many songs that were huge hits there including “Always be my Baby” and “Avalanche” and “Light On”. Also, David did not take a picture of himself, I saw videos of when he went into the crowd and he took pictures of the audience for each of those people with cameras. I just don’t think what he said about the audience not singing along with Cook was all wrong. At least he could have been truthful. Of course all audiences aren’t going to know the words to ALL of an artists songs. When I went to his concert in Virginia at a college recently, I didn’t know the words to “Straight Ahead” and “Make Me” but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it immensely and now they are some of my favorite songs. I mean this guy got everything wrong, except David A. was really good too. But the whole thing about Come Back to Me and “newlyweds” OMG it’s right there on tons of videos on Youtube… Here’s what happened. David saw a girl holding a sign that said “I want to marry you Neal”, so David calls Neal over and says look, that girl wants to marry you, what do you have to say? And Neal says “OKAY”! LOL And David goes, “who knew that we’d find love in the Philippines” or something like that and then says “so now I have to dedicate this next song to the newlyweds” as he points to Neal and the girl. Yup, this writer is definitely not a fan of Cook and was seriously rude especially considering he got all of his “facts” wrong.

Billie said this on May 18th, 2009 at 8:01 pm (Quote)
This is so not impartial! He’s raving about how great Archuleta is and dissing on Cook! Oh, come on! How obvious and biased can one get? DIdn’t he get the message of the concert? AI season 7 is a year over, and there’s no more competition between DC and DA. No REAL COOK fan went home disappointed. Au contraire, we’re still talking about what a fantastic and unforgettable night it has been! We sang from the top of our lungs because we are all familiar to his songs from watching youTube postings of his college tour in the US. We sang at the top of our lungs! The World I Know was the last song he performed in the finals of AI, Straight Ahead is a song from his independently produced Analog Heart album, Little Lies is always included in his setlist, Make Me is an original song by MWK, made up of Andy, David, and Neal. The rest of the songs he sang were from his self-titled album. He was done singing TOML as soon as the AI concert tour was over. You know, we could say the same for Mr. Archuleta if we want to be instigating and mean. We don’t know any of his songs except maybe Crush and ALTNOY, but we respect DA and so we cheered him on and actually enjoyed his performance. Why can’t everybody display the same class? FYI, Archuleta fans who were objective and weren’t so die-hard as this writer seem to be, actually have very nice comments about Mr. Cook. They were amazed, impressed, and happy. From a radio DJ who was an Archuleta fan: “Both Davids were good! DA was more pop and R&B, energetic, jumping and giddy from the massive turnout and support . Who wouldn’t be? David Cook, on the other hand, is what every rock star should be, dark and dreamy, and too sexy for his own good! My favorite song he performed was, Kiss On The Neck.”

myndi said this on May 18th, 2009 at 9:26 pm (Quote)
But thank you, David Archuleta fans for the first part and for being fair and just.

myndi said this on May 18th, 2009 at 10:00 pm (Quote)
Wow, that was a rude article. And inaccurate in many parts about Cook’s set, judging from 99% of the reviews from Cook and Archie fans. The writer obviously had some kind of chip on their shoulder. I’m glad that they liked Archie, but the rest was uncalled for.

Brooke said this on May 18th, 2009 at 10:49 pm (Quote)
To Tori: You try to leave messages for Archie to distance himself from Cook? I think Archie would want to distance himself from crazed-fans like you.

myndi said this on May 18th, 2009 at 11:30 pm (Quote)
To Tori and all the Cook haters: It is apparent that you don’t know what you are talking about. Cook has always showed the upmost respect for Archie. The fan war is over. You need to understand that Cook won. If Cook is as you say “so into himself” why does he volunteer to raise money for cancer research? Why is he alway complimenting what a good friend Archie is? You need to get on with your life. Cook is has a platinum single, a platinum album and another single about to go platinum so I think America got it right! He is the American Idol and a wonderful, caring person.

JJ said this on May 18th, 2009 at 11:44 pm (Quote)
I’m an Archuleta fan, and yes, Tori, you’re scary. Please don’t give us a bad name or turn us into Claymaniacs!

miko said this on May 19th, 2009 at 12:15 am (Quote)
Too late. It’s been over a year and the archifanatics are still at it. Too bad. Archie’s a good kid. Just a shame some people can’t get over he came in second. Cook is an exceptional man and thinks of Archie as a little brother. Too bad some can’t be as gracious as these two artists are.

klw said this on May 19th, 2009 at 12:22 am (Quote)
TO JOJO P. PANALIGAN — U better think first a million times before you write something especially about the concert. OF COURSE, DC WILL SING SONGS ON HIS ALBUM, NOT SONGS THAT HE SANG DURING THE AI7. What do u expect him to sing?! i wonder why manila bulletin gave u space on their paper…

CHEEZ said this on May 19th, 2009 at 6:14 am (Quote)
at least no reporter in the Philippines asked archie about the gay issue! unlike when he was in Malaysia where in a reporter aak archie personally about this.. that to me is rude.. the writter on this article just want to give a review about the concert and its a fact that some of the songs that David C. performed in the concert are not that familiar to some who watch the concerts! they are really expecting that he will sing TIME OF MY LIFE.. anyways they are both very good and they have difffent kind of music!

0902 said this on May 19th, 2009 at 6:15 am (Quote)
I watched the their concert last Saturday, and had a great time! The two Davids are incredibly talented! I know a lot of Archie fans also enjoyed Cook’s set (and vice-versa). You don’t have to sing along to all of his songs to show your appreciation. I may not know all the lyrics to all of their songs last night, but I surely enjoyed each and every song. David Archuleta has such a smooth and fantastic voice, while David Cook is indeed a great performer! And those who don’t get DC’s performance/music are probably better off not watching him anyway. I very much admire DC for sticking to who he is as a musician, and still somehow giving in a bit to fans’ request (think Always Be My Baby). But honestly, the Manila Bulletin writer was the first one I know who didn’t enjoy DC’s perfomance. It’s like trying to get a nun to review critically-acclaimed but R18 films.

Veronica said this on May 19th, 2009 at 6:34 am (Quote)
Oh, and the writer seriously doesn’t have a sense of humor. Picking on the part where Cook was being light=hearted and teasing Neal with the girl who had a “marry me, neal” poster. I honestly loved these parts where Cook was interacting with the audience. It made the concert more intimate (if being intimate is even possible for such a huge venue/crowd)..

Btw, David Cook is so not full of himself. If any of you have listened to DC’s interviews (e.g. Magic 89.9), he would always say that he and Archie are good friends. I remember hearing DC say that DA is one of the genuinely good persons he knows, and that how could anyone like DA go wrong if he has a great attitude and talent (sorry, could no longer remember the exact phrasing, but the thought is similar to that)..Seriously, there’s no competition between the two guys, it’s just the fans who are creating this friction.

Veronica said this on May 19th, 2009 at 6:55 am (Quote)
I doubt whoever wrote this article is an Archie fan too.

no need for cookie fans to disrespect anyone here.

the writer was rude to both Davids; pure and simple but for people to come to David archuelta fansite to list cookies achievements saying that America got it right is equally rude. you complain about a rude article yet your reply to an equally bad comment[saying cookie is so full of himself is just uncalled for] was very rude.

please enough of this.as i said I’m not a cookie fan and will never be but cookie is talented and to everyone one his own.that writer is blatantly very very rude.

i hate that article with a passion.

AJ said this on May 19th, 2009 at 7:42 am (Quote)
So the DC and DA fans want all writers to write all praises in their reviews? I don’t think the Manila Bulletin writer was the only one who have opinion with the performance of Cook. It so happen that some people do not bother to write about it. Just because one won the AI reality show means he is above criticism. A person can improve himself and be critically acclaimed and successful, irrelevant of the previous awards. Taste for music varies from country to country also. What happens in America does not always apply in other countries.

Anonymous said this on May 19th, 2009 at 8:10 am (Quote)
To Anonymous: We respect the fact that Mr. Panaligan is entitled to his opinion, but we take issue when he writes something with no factual basis and when the review is a shoddy piece of work he didn’t bother studying further. For this reason, we are free to set right the record. Yes, he is a lone reed. So far, I haven’t read anything negative about Mr. Cook’s performance the night of the concert. If you are a critic yourself, then don’t hide behind the mask of anonymity. If you do not want Cook fans viewing this page and commenting, then don’t tag this article with “David Cook.” You can be sure that we will not be returning here.

myndi said this on May 19th, 2009 at 6:40 pm (Quote)
My friends and I have nothing against David Archuleta who we find adorable and incredibly gifted. The last thing we want to do is disrespect him and his fans. So peace everyone!

myndi said this on May 19th, 2009 at 11:21 pm (Quote)
well i think the writer is not really in the concert grounds when he decided to write the article!
both the DAVIDS perform VERY WELL
and the people are amused
i think the article sucks because its a LIE and it put d.c so down!

to the people up there who says d.c uses d.a
well for what?
cook’s song rocks and on the charts
he made a name for himself by himself!!!!
and in all the interviews david c. and david a. ALWAYS mention the name of the other!
it came from both davids thet they were best of friends

and did you know that cook will perform in the finale of the season 8 of a.i
AND he also asked archuleta to come and watch it
and supposed to be archuleta will not come
but because cook invited him he will do!
isn’t that a pfoof that they are friends?!

for me
i just know that the davids concert here in the philippines was such a success!
and none of cook and archuleta are using each other THEY WERE FRIENDS!!!!
and i think there is no competition between them!

i will fight if someone is trying to destroy DAVID ARCHULETA and DAVID COOK!!!!

selle said this on May 20th, 2009 at 8:07 am (Quote)
the review so sucks
telling that d.c’s “so into himself”
what do you know?
the orange badge of david was for a young girl fan with leukemia
and the grey is for his brother with brain cancer
also we see that there really are many cameras trying to took a picture of cook when he went in the crowd
its not cook being self-centered but also THE FANS WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A PICTURE OF HIS IDOL TAKEN BY HIS IDOL HIMSELF!!!!!

cook fans enjoy archuleta’s performance
and archuleta fans enjoy cook’s!

thats the way it is!
its fair
no bias

and he always wear them
the crown enjoy both of the performance!
its so annoying that the fans are creating a gap between the two
while the review is so 99.9% untrue!

selle said this on May 20th, 2009 at 8:20 am (Quote)
All you have to do is watch the YouTube videos and see and hear the reaction of the crowd to realize what a lie this is about David Cook.

Love David Cook said this on May 27th, 2009 at 10:35 am (Quote)
I don’t like this review at all. I love both Davids tons and I love there friendship they have with eachother. I believe the people at this concert had a GREAT time listening to BOTH Davids. I guess you can say I’m a bigger fan of Archie (voice of an angel) but I have always loved Cook and was thrilled they made the finals togeter. To the poster that said Cook is using Archie. well that is sooo wrong on so many levels. Please don’t judge all of us Archie fans for that one. Cook is a great friend to Archie and Archie is a great friend to Cook. If you are an Archie fan then never say a negative word about his bro. He would not be happy at all.

Anonymous said this on June 2nd, 2009 at 9:17 pm (Quote)
DUH?!!!! IN OUR AREA MOST OF THE PEOPLE ARE SINGING ALONG WITH DAVID COOK’S SONGS! YOU DON’T NEED TO SAY NEGATIVES ABOUT COOK ‘CAUSE I BET YOU DON’T KNOW HIM AT ALL. GOSH. IF YOU JUST KNOW THAT HE WAS SO SINCERE ABOUT ALL OF THE FILIPINOS. HE IS SO INTELLIGENT ‘CAUSE HE KNOWS HOW TO HANDLE THE CONCERT. THERE’S AN AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION! DID YOU GET IT? YOU, IDIOT!

Anonymous said this on June 5th, 2009 at 4:02 am (Quote)
JUST LOVE THE TWO DAVIDS, THEY ARE GREAT SINGERS AND PERFORMERS, BOTH WINNERS IN THE AI AND LET’S HOPE THEY WILL COME BACK AGAIN IN THE PHILIPPINES, NEVER MIND THE NEGATIVE WRITE-UPS, IT’S JUST AN OPINION…

JULIET CRUZ said this on June 11th, 2009 at 5:50 am (Quote)
YOUR SO RUDE! ACTUALLY! I WATCHED THE CONCERT AND IT IS NOT TRUE THAT NO ONE CAN SING ALONG TO THE SONGS OF DAVID COOK! I’m a fan of the both davids and i enjoyed the concert of them here in manila. And i ould just want to say to you that you should accept that DAvid Cook won the AI7 and they are so good friends and it doesn’t mean that you like archie more your gonna throw out bad comments to cook.

david c. david a. fan said this on August 19th, 2009 at 3:32 am (Quote)
AND ALSO IF DAVID COOK IS JUST INTO HIMSELF HE WOULD NEVER SAY THAT HE AND ARCHIE ARE GOOD FRIENDS. ACTUALLY HE ALWAYS TREATING ARCHIE LIKE A LITTLE BROTHER. AND DURING AI7 IN THE FINALE DAVID COOK SAYS BEFORE THE COMPETITION BEGUN “IT DOESN’T MATTER WHO WILL WIN BECAUSE THEY ARE JUST ENJOYING WHILE SINGING INFRONT OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE” I CAN’T REMEMBER WHAT HE ACTUALLY SAID BUT I’M PRETTY SURE IT IS CLOSE TO THAT…I HOPE NEXT TIME WHEN YOUR COMMENTING TO A CONCERT YOU SHOULD WATCH IT LIVE INABLE THAT YOU WILL KNOW WHAT EXACTLY HAPPEN. NOT THAT YOUR JUST TELLING STORIES THAT ARE SO UNTRUE!! AND I HOPE ALSO THAT YOU WILL STOP ABOUT COMPARING THE DAVIDS BEC. THEY ARE JUST BOTH VERY TALENTED SINGERS!

david c. david a. fan said this on August 19th, 2009 at 3:43 am (Quote)