Grand Finale (American Idol 6)

The Grand Finale of "American Idol" Season 6 aired on May 23, 2007, live from the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Jordin Sparks was announced as the winner at 10:05pm EDT (the show ran over its alloted time), with Blake Lewis as the runner-up.

Guest performers included Smokey Robinson, BeBe & CeCe Winans, Gladys Knight and Tony Bennett. Every past winner of "Idol" also performed, except for Fantasia Barrino who was appearing in "The Color Purple" in New York.

After Carrie Underwood performed "I'll Stand by You", Clive Davis gave a speech extolling the state of "the "American Idol" album franchise", then presented Underwood with a special award for achieving 6 million U.S. album sales for her album "Some Hearts".

2nd Annual Golden Idol Awards

The Golden Idol Awards are comedic awards given out to notably awful auditioners. The winners were Margaret Fowler, for Best Presentation; Sholandric Stallworth (who performed a bit of "Silent Night" "sans" amplification), for the Most Original Vocal; and Jonathan & Kenneth, for Best Buddies.

Performances

*Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks sang "I Saw Her Standing There".
*Gwen Stefani performed her single "4 in the Morning" via satellite.
*Kelly Clarkson sang her single, "Never Again".
*Top 6 male finalists sing "Ooh Baby Baby", then are joined by Smokey Robinson for a medley of "Being With You" and "Tears of a Clown".
*Blake Lewis beatboxed with Doug E. Fresh, performing variations upon "The Show".
*Top 6 female finalists sing "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", then are joined by Gladys Knight to sing a medley of "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" and "Midnight Train to Georgia".
*Tony Bennett sang "For Once in My Life".
*Melinda Doolittle sang "Hold Up the Light" with BeBe and CeCe Winans, with whom she used to sing backup.
*The 12 finalists sang "Time After Time" in a Ford Music Video which featured outtakes of the previous music videos.
*Carrie Underwood sang her charity single "I'll Stand by You".
*The African Children's Choir performed.
*Sanjaya Malakar performed "You Really Got Me" with Joe Perry of Aerosmith as well as an appearance by "The Crying Girl", Ashley Ferl.
*Green Day performed their charity single "Working Class Hero", from the "" album.
*Taylor Hicks performed his single "Heaven Knows".
*Ruben Studdard, with Jordin Sparks, sang "You're All I Need to Get By".
*Bette Midler sang "Wind Beneath My Wings".
*An ensemble tribute to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with the past "Idol" winners as well as the top 12. Included were portions of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" featuring Kelly Clarkson and Joe Perry, "A Day in the Life" featuring Taylor Hicks, "She's Leaving Home" featuring Carrie Underwood, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" featuring Ruben Studdard, and "With a Little Help from My Friends" from the top 12.
*Jordin Sparks performed the songwriter contest winning single "This Is My Now" after the announcement of her victory.