Jordin Sparks Wins American Idol with This is My Now

The sixth season of American Idol was plagued with news of Antonella's photos, Haley's legs and Sanjaya's hair but nothing could be more important than knowing who gets the title American Idol following the steps of Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Hicks. In the end, Jordin Sparks grabbed the title away from beatboxer Blake Lewis.

Jordin Sparks is only 17 years old and the youngest American Idol winner to date. She hails from Glendale Arizona and a child of a former NFL player. She won over fellow contestant Blake Lewis from Bothell Washington by garnering majority of the 74 million votes that came in for the final two performances.

For the final showdown between the singer (Sparks) and the entertainer (Lewis), 3 songs determined their fates. On the first round, beatboxer Blake Lewis performed his own arrangement of Bon Jovi's song "You Give Love a Bad Name". Jordin Sparks, on the other hand, chose a song from Christina Aguilera entitled "Fighter". Although Jordin showed her vocal ability, Simon Cowell called round one to Blake Lewis.

Blake Lewis sang his own rendition of Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved" for the second round and Simon criticized his song choice. Meanwhile, Jordin Sparks brought the house down by singing Martina McBride's "Broken Wing". Round two obviously goes to Jordin.

For the third song, both finalists would have to sing the winning song that has been chosen amongst 25,000 other entries in the American Idol Songwriter Competition. The primary objective of the competition was to raise the songwriting abilities and again letting America decide the finale song the American Idol winner would record. The winning song voted upon by Idol fans came from the final 20 entries that were narrowed down by Simon Fuller and his 19 Entertainment music staff. The song entitled "This Is My Now" bested all and was written by Jeff Peabody and Scott Krippayne of Seattle, Washington. 50,000 votes came in for the song from Idol fans. Blake Lewis tried his luck with the ballad but it definitely proved that it is not his cup of tea while Jordin Sparks breezed through the performance. Sparks even did tear up in the final notes of the song like Kelly Clarkson back in 2002 when she sealed her victory with "A Moment Like This".

Although Simon Cowell awarded Blake the best performance of the night with his rendition of "You Give Love a Bad Name", he and Randy Jackson predicted that Jordin will win the title. Paula was just being Paula when she proclaimed that both are winners. Cowell and Jackson were both right, as Sparks bested out thousands of American Idol hopefuls including beatboxer Blake Lewis.

So what does Jordin think about her new single "This is My Now"? She describes the song as perfect and relates to all her dreams and the process of getting there. You can download Jordin Sparks' first single "This is My Now" from the American Idol website and iTunes. The American Idol tour will start on July 6, 2007 in Sunrise, Florida with the top 10 finalists.