Just one week after the release of David Archuleta’s new Christmas album, “Winter in the Air,” Variety has an exclusive video premiere of the title cut.
The clip features Archuleta in a snowy forest, while dancers Ezra Sosa and Cassidy Forsyth — from the second season of NBC’s “World of Dance” (featuring former Idol judge Jennifer Lopez, who serves as judge and executive producer of the show) — celebrate the beauty of the season with a passionate routine.
“We decided to have dancers because there’s a grace in wintertime — a sacred stillness,” Archuleta tells Variety. “Being outdoors in nature to experience that was the obvious way to show that, but I thought having a couple’s dance to interpret that in a different way would be really beautiful.”
Released by The Orchard digitally and Shadow Mountain Records for physical product, “Winter in the Air” features Christmas classics and new songs co-written by Archuleta to reflect the spirit of the holiday season. The album includes nine standards (“White Christmas,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Mary, Did You Know?”) and three originals — lead single, “Christmas Every Day,” “He is Born,” and the title track, which he says captures “sharing that intimate moment of experiencing the crisp winter air with someone you love.”
Adds Archuleta: “While singing Christmas songs feels like second nature, writing them doesn’t. It was a good challenge, though. I wanted to write three different kinds of songs. One fun and bouncy (“Christmas Every Day”), a second spiritual one (“He Is Born”), and the third one more romantic (Winter in the Air).”
“Winter in the Air” is Archuleta’s second Christmas album. The first, 2009’s “Christmas From The Heart,” consistently charts every holiday season, and has sold 250,000 copies to date.
“Winter in the Air” explores new ground while completing what Archuleta wanted to record a decade ago, he said.
Archuleta, an “American Idol” favorite from the show’s seventh season, kicks off a month long tour beginning November 26 in Los Angeles and wrapping December 21 in his native Utah.