MUMBAI: Curtains were finally drawn for the much awaited grand finale of the American Idol Season 7. The season was going to end with one of the Davids crowned as winner. And after close to 100 million votes, it's David Cook, the 25-year-old bartender from Blue Springs, Missouri, who wears this year's American Idol crown.

Cook, 25, who was tending bar and playing in a band before he auditioned for the singing competition, stood back to applaud rival David Archuleta, a 17 year old teenager, and then bent over crying after host Ryan Seacrest said he had won by 12 million votes. "This is amazing. Thank you," said the overwhelmed rocker.

The dueling Davids garnered a record 97.5 million votes between them, smashing the previous record by 23 million. The contest was decided by a telephone and text-messaging vote in which Cook received 56 percent to Archuleta's 44 percent.Throughout this year's months-long competition, Cook wowed both the show's viewers and judges with updated, rock versions of pop classics like Lionel Richie's "Hello" and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean."

On Tuesday night's show, however, the judges said the babyfaced Archuleta had outperformed Cook with his pitch-perfect renditions of John Lennon's "Imagine" and Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me."

Acid-tongued judge Simon Cowell criticized Cook for choosing a song he had never performed before during his last chance to woo voters and called the evening "a knockout" by Archuleta. Cook sang Collective Soul's "The World I Know" instead of reprising one of his best-loved performances of the season, as Archuleta did with "Imagine."

In its seventh season, "American Idol" has grown from a cheesy summer talent show into a pop culture phenomenon that draws millions of viewers to News Corp's Fox network at least twice a week.

The show has produced mega-stars from both winners and losers, including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry.

'Idol' has also become a coveted forum for established artists to be seen. The star-studded show at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles included performances by George Michael, Donna Summer, Seal, Underwood and Bryan Adams.

The winning singer as well as the runner-up of the "Idol" contest gets a recording contract with the label Sony BMG, a partnership between Sony Corp and Bertelsmann.