The American Idol finale surprised me better than a hideous jack-in-the-box would. The whole boxing theme and the annoying editing made it look like a lousy documentary with lots of old people in it. Instead of focusing on the two finalists, endless clips of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Clive Davis were shown as if we don’t already know they are important. The two legends both said their opinions on the song choices of David Cook and David Archuleta.

The two finalists sang three songs each. David Cook sang first, and being hailed as a rocker, he chose U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For while Archuleta took Elton John’s Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me. Initially it would be logical to think that Cook will sweep the house down with this song, but after Archuleta’s performance, Simon Cowell proclaimed that the first round went to the younger contender. It is another surprise, due to the fact that the resident meanie of American Idol appeared in the Ellen DeGeneres Show saying he truly wants David Cook to win, almost plunging Archuleta’s hopes into the stinky toilet.

The boys sang two songs written by the AI song writing competition finalists in the second round. Cook sang Dream Big while Archie did the ballad In This Moment. Although David Cook is one extremely talented guy, he missed on this one. It was a bad song. It sounded like a super cheesy Nickelback song with an amateurish melody. The lyrics were worse, Cook could have done better if he had taken Archluleta’s piece. The 17-year-old charmer sang the ballad beautifully, and like the previous round, Cowell gave it to Archuleta.

The third round was more relaxing for the two finalists because they had the liberty to choose whatever the hell they wanted to sing. Cook made a superb rendition of Collective Soul’s The World I Know and rocked the socks off everyone in the Nokia Theater. Randy Jackson gave his usual exaggerated reaction while Paula Abdul did her routine standing ovation while clapping her hands high, making her flabby arms dance. Simon wasn’t too happy with this one and even said Cook should have done his winning piece Billie Jean instead. Cook didn’t mind the bad news he just heard and proved his genuine skill saying he wasn’t thinking of doing the stuff he already did. David Archuleta closed the show with his familiar piece Imagine originally sung by John Lennon. He gained much praise when he sang this song during the early stages of the competition, a good choice to sing for the finals. All three judges were astounded by his performance. Cowell even said “You came out here to win, and what we have witnessed is a knock out”.

A lot have said that David Cook’s victory is right in the bag, but after seeing tonight’s finale, he might have a little reason to step back a little. No matter how things turn out, it’s sure that these two will be around in the music industry for a while. We’ll all have to wait and see after the Grand Finale tonight on Fox.