"I can't believe this many people turned out," Archuleta said. "I thought I was just going to be at a little table down there and just say hi to a few people.... I don't think you realize how much this means to me. Thank you so much for you guys' support."

At which point he turned his back, trying to hide the tears that welled up in his eyes as his mother, Lupe, put her arms around him.

"I can't believe this," Lupe Archuleta said. "I'm so proud of him. I never thought anything like this would happen."

Archuleta's appearance was like a combination of the Beatles invading America and Barack Obama making a campaign appearance. The most-heard phrase of the day (after "I love David") was "Isn't this crazy?"

The crowd was spread out through the Gateway Center, but it easily numbered in the thousands. It may have been the biggest crowd of screaming fans for something other than a football or basketball team anyone had ever seen — and this was hours before the big pep rally scheduled at Murray High later in the day.

"I've never been to anything with this kind of enthusiasm," said Marty Clark, director of sales for AT&T in Utah. "I've seen big crowds, yes. But not this enthusiasm."

Attendance must have been way down at quite a number of local schools Friday. The crowd was at least 90 percent teen and pre-teen girls. And if you don't count the fathers who were there with their daughters, it was probably more like 98 percent girls.

(And that bodes well for Archuleta in the "American Idol" voting, because research indicates that's the demographic most likely to phone or text in their "Idol" votes.)

One of the few boys who was there without any girls, 17-year-old Karlo Velez of West Jordan, was there on an errand.

"My cousin in Hollywood wanted his autograph," he said.

Maddie Hansen, Tiffany Harding and Maddee Hales, classmates at Fremont High in Plain City, were first in line and were among the few who got autographs — but they arrived at 4 a.m. "because we are so excited to meet him!" Hansen said.

"I'm probably going to pee my pants," Hales said.

There were "I Love David" shirts everywhere you looked — some professionally printed, some hand-made. One girl held up a sign plastered with pictures of Archuleta that read "My Future Husband."

Surrounding Archuleta was the kind of media crush you see in television shows and movies. In addition to camera crews from "American Idol" (which will use the footage in next week's shows) and Fox-owned KSTU-Ch. 13, there were cameras and reporters from competing local TV stations.

(And local television stations are loathe to report on a show that airs on any network other than their own.)