American Idol Crowns David Cook - The First American Rock Idol

While heading into the big night it seemed as if this may be one of the closest outcomes in the history of American Idol, rocker David Cook won rather easily over soulful teen David Archuleta. Cook was victorious by a margin of roughly 12 million votes out of a total of nearly 100 million votes cast. He becomes the first rock-oriented performer to win in the 7 years of the show's existence.

The result was announced after a slick and mostly professsional 2 hour finale. Among the highlights were contestant Jason Castro giving a second powerful performance of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and Brooke White dueting with Graham Nash on an intimate version of "Teach Your Children." Major recording artists were present as well. The Jonas Brothers thrilled young fans while George Michael promoted his upcoming US concert tour with a powerful version of "Praying for Time."

David Cook's win seemed to be imminent after Simon Cowell issued a very unusual apology for his judging comments about Cook the night before. David Cook has proved this season to be one of American Idol's most consistently creative and versatile contestants ever. Congratulations to him, and we will all look forward to his first post-Idol studio recordings.

_{Photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images}