American Idol now has a rock star to add to its roster of talented #1 musicians.  Season Seven's winner is David Cook, a self proclaimed "word nerd" who came to the auditions with his brother -- not to audition -- but for moral support.  David, not his brother wound up getting that golden ticket.  And he didn't stop there.  Cook's strategic performances took him all the way to the top. 

This is one proud moment for the Kansas City bartender and his family.  And this is really the fresh rejuvenation that American Idol needs to jumpstart its otherwise monotonous reality performance show.  Ryan Seacrest noted "we're going to do it all over again" in January.  So an eighth season is expected.   

With the highest viewership ever -- 31.7 million -- a record setting 97.5 Million votes came in for the David Cook vs. David Archuleta sing-off.  Cook received 56% of the vote while Archuleta got a respectable 44%.  A twelve million vote lead wasn't a total wipe out, but many predicted (even judges Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson) it would be Archuleta with the mic in his hand ending the season.  

Cook's coronation song, "Time of My Life"  was written by the winner of AI's second annual songwriter contest, Regie Hamm.  As much as it was Cook's moment - it was also Hamm's (who was in the audience watching).  He says, after some prodding from his wife who watches American Idol, he wrote "Time of My Life" specifically for the competition.  The tens of thousands of people who voted for it felt the connection and thought so too.  The contest brought in thousands of songs, but by the time we got to hear and vote on any of them -- AI had it narrowed down to 20.

Season Seven's grand shebang was jam packed with entertainment.  I was amused from start to finish.  Bravo, very well done. 

Third place finalist Syesha Mercado looked like she had the most fun of the night.  No pressure, she didn't have to worry about competing.  And she got to perform solo with Seal and Donna Summer! "Stamp Your Feet" is Summer's new hot single.  The Queen of disco even handed Syesha her diamond microphone so she could sing her part of the song with bling!