The finale of Season 7 of American Idol took place on May 20th and 21st 2008. It featured David Archuleta and David Cook competing for the title of winner of American Idol.
David Cook was declared the winner after over 97.5 million votes cast. Cook won by 12 million votes over Archuleta, with a voting split of 56% for Cook and 44% for Archuleta.
Contestants' Performances[]
The final two contestants performed three times.
| David Cook | "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (U2) | Winner |
| David Archuleta | "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" (Elton John) | Runner-Up |
| David Cook | "Dream Big" (David Cook) | Winner |
| David Archuleta | "In This Moment" (David Archuleta) | Runner-Up |
| David Cook | "The World I Know" (Collective Soul) | Winner |
| David Archuleta | "Imagine" (John Lennon) | Runner-Up |
Guest Performances[]
| David Archuleta, Jason Castro, Chikezie David Cook, Kristy Lee Cook, David Hernandez, Michael Johns, Ramiele Malubay, Syesha Mercado, Amanda Overmyer, Carly Smithson, Brooke White and So You Think You Can Dance contestants | "Get Ready" (The Temptations) |
| David Archuleta and David Cook | "Hero" (Chad Kroeger, ft. Josey Scott) |
| Seal and Syesha Mercado | "Waiting for You" (Seal) |
| Jason Castro | "Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen) |
| Kristy Lee Cook, Ramiele Malubay, Syesha Mercado, Amanda Overmyer, Carly Smithson, Brooke White and Donna Summer | "She Works Hard for the Money" (Donna Summer)
"Hot Stuff" (Donna Summer) "Stamp Your Feet" (Donna Summer) "Last Dance" (Donna Summer) |
| Carly Smithson and Michael Johns | "The Letter" (The Box Tops) |
| David Archuleta, Jason Castro, Chikezie, David Cook, David Hernandez, Michael Johns and Bryan Adams | "Summer of '69" (Bryan Adams)
"Heaven" (Bryan Adams) "I Thought I'd Seen Everything" (Bryan Adams) "Somebody" (Bryan Adams) |
| David Cook and ZZ Top | "Sharp Dressed Man" (ZZ Top) |
| Brooke White and Graham Nash | "Teach Your Children" (Graham Nash) |
| The Jonas Brothers | "SOS" (The Jonas Brothers) |
| Renaldo Lapuz and the University of Southern California Marching Band | "We're Brothers Forever" (Renaldo Lapuz) |
| David Archuleta and OneRepublic | "Apologize" (OneRepublic) |
| Jordin Sparks | "One Step at a Time" (Jordin Sparks) |
| Gladys Knight (with Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr. and Jack Black as The Pips) | "Midnight Train to Georgia" (Gladys Knights & The Pips) |
| Carrie Underwood | "Last Name" (Carrie Underwood) |
| The Top 12 | "Faith" (George Michael)
"Father Figure" (George Michael) "Freedom" (George Michael) |
| George Michael | "Praying for Time" (George Michael) |
| David Cook | "The Time of My Life" |
Trivia[]
- Ruben Studdard sang "Celebrate Me Home" at the end of the Performance Show.
- This was the most-voted for Finale in American Idol history, with over 97 million votes cast.
- During the Performance Show, both contestants chose one of the ten winning entries in the American Idol Songwriting Contest to perform, neither one of which were actually the coronation single, The Time of My Life.
- Michael Buffer, Jim Lampley, Clive Davis, Andrew Lloyd Webber all made appearances during the performance telecast.
- Ruben Studdard, Mikalah Gordon, Matthew Rogers, Mike Myers (in character as Guru Maurice Pitka as promotion for The Love Guru), Jimmy Kimmel, Sanjaya Malakar and Bo Bice all made appearances during the Season 7 Finale.