Missouri native David Cook who is known as the weeping rocker won the competition after garnering more votes than David Archuleta.
- May 22, 2008
AceShowbiz - Finally, the battle of the Davids on the seventh season of American Idol was won by a rocker. David Cook successfully sucked in a larger number of votes than David Archuletta, a 17-year-old Utah native. Cook took the winning, which was announced on Wednesday, May 21, with a weep and disbelief.
Host Ryan Seacrest said that the votes for Cook and Archuleta was not even close. The finale drew in a total of 97.5 million votes from phone lines and text but Cook himself owns 56 per cent of it while Archuleta took the remaining 44 per cent.
On Tuesday, May 20, Cook sang three songs, namely "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" which was Clive Davis' choice, "Dream Big" which was one of the entries of songwriting competition, and "The World I Know" which was his own choice. He received generally harsh criticism from the three judges for his choice on the last song with Simon Cowell thinking it was a wrong call. However, Cook stood up to his belief and said that he wanted something "different". Later on the result show Cowell apologized to Cook for being disrespectful towards him the night before.
The finale itself witnessed a star-studded performance that paired up the contestants of the season with a number of renown singers. Syesha Mercado did a duet with Seal on "Waiting for You" while Cook tackled a rock song with ZZ Top. Archuleta, known for his ballads, took a OneRepublic duet while Brooke White was paired with Graham Nash. The other top six male singers also got a share of spotlight with Bryan Adams. George Michael became the special guest of the night, so did Jonas Brothers.
The crowning of David Cook on the Result Show:
