As the credits rolled, Cook, who was a bartender before auditioning for "Idol," sang "Time of My Life," which won the the show's songwriting competition. He cried as host Ryan Seacrest announced his victory, proclaiming, "I am absolutely at a loss for words right now." - Read more and check out Billboard's interviews with the finalists

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Posted by  keavin on 2008/05/22 01:19:15
Dear RCA, Please keep Clive Davis away from David Cook. I skipped American Idol this season, last season, the season before. Besides being sick of Paula "Hack" Abdul's absolute stupidity, I got sick of watching generic singers butcher songs by covering up the fact that they do not have a great voice by using the bogus vocal masturbation technique of over-singing everything. But I caught a clip of tonight's show and was surprised by David Cook's jam with ZZ Top. While as a rock singer he's good, but not absolutely outstanding. It was still good to see someone up there that can sing rock, play an instrument and has the possibility to be a legitimate rockstar. So RCA how about it? Why not allow David to prove his credibility and let him write his own songs? None of that bs Avril contribute two lines and call them a songwriter; let him do the entire album on his own and see what happens. Let Clive take the bland little kid into the studio and make the cheesy music he seems happy with. That's a win-win, Clive can launch his new Wisconsin Records with the little David with a cheese filled album of music for 12-year-old girls and middle-aged house wifes, and David Cook can try to make a legitimate rock album and you might have a winner that can actually go double platinum. The Clive let's make em cheesy formula doesn't work. Just ask the last "rocker" to grace the Idol stage. Clive couldn't wait to get Bo Bice into the studio and look what happened, we got "the real deal" an album of warmed over Nickleback-lite trite. So again RCA, we've seen what you've done with past winners of Idol and their dismal record sales that result. Now that Clive is gone, why not take a risk for a change and let an Idol prove they are more than a karaoke singer? Who knows, he might come up with an album that I'd actually buy. That would be a first for me and probably the insane millions of others that may watch the show but can't be compelled to turn that into a CD purchase. It's a crazy concept, why not try and give them something they might want to buy instead of these same warmed-over generic pop that gave Clive his ego and sank so many shortsighted careers. Just a thought.

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