And the Winner is...

David Cook!
A surprising upset! Utah native, David Archuleta, was thought to sweep American Idol, but wow, David Cook clenches the title!

Last night, Archuleta sang his heart out and it was absolutely amazing! But I must say, since a friend of mine convinced me to get sucked into this season of AI in April, I have been a fan of Cook. His sound is much more similar to the music I love and he has such and incredible ability to rearrange songs to be perfect for him. In addition, he makes this little smirk when he sings that I love!

I guess since I'm a Utah native myself, I should have just naturally been voting for Archuleta, but lets be honest... he's really young. How would he maintain his young innocence that made him so lovable if he were to win and spend the next year and a half in LA recording albums? I guess he'll probably be doing that anyway, but that will most likely change who is. I do agree that he has an incredible voice, but he's so young and his voice and image could change so drastically over the next few years. David Cook is just the more mature and substantial artist...right now. Archuleta can potentially becoming something very incredible when he's a little bit older.

More than anything, I will be interested to watch as Archuleta ages and makes a decision to serve an LDS mission or not, and how the media reacts to it. He has been such a role model thus far, that I'm sure the media will talk something about it if/when that time comes.

This year's AI contestants were very talented. I am very happy with the results of tonight and the overall fact that it came down to David and David. Go David!