Well, here we are at the American Idol finale and Adam Lambert and Kris Allen have just finished performing. Tonight, each contestant sang three songs: one of their own choosing from their previous performances, one chosen by American Idol creator Simon Fuller, and finally the obligatory American Idol shmaltzy single. For us, there was a clear winner, but we acknowledge that each of the two finalists has his own devoted and rabid fanbase. Who will win? We'll find out after 10pm Eastern time tomorrow night.

Kris Allen won the coin toss that took place right after last week's results show, and he chose to perform second (always a good strategy because that means that the last performance of the night and the final impression on the audience will be from Kris).

(1) Adam Lambert sang "Mad World" by Tears for Fears (1982). Adam sang this song earlier in the competition back in the Week 5 performances. When Adam sang this the first time, it was such a restrained, melancholy performance -- and such a surprise from an artist like Adam -- that he clearly overshadowed everyone else in the competition from that point forward. Because that performance was so vivid for us, we found this retake to be somewhat less effective. That's no wonder, the surprise factor was gone, and the audience was forced to judge tonight's performance against his season best. Still, Adam's version of the song is wonderfully evocative and stands up to repeated viewings. We give Adam credit for making subtle changes to the melody this time so that it wasn't an exact Xerox of what he did earlier. Curiously, Simon critiqued Adam for being too theatrical this time, which may have had the unfair effect of taking the wind out of Adam's sails early on. We're thinking that Simon may also have been comparing this version to the first time and simply preferred the more restrained staging of the prior go-round.

(2) Kris Allen sang "Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers (1971). Kris previously sang this song during the Week 4 performances ("popular iTunes downloads night"). This was one of our favorite Kris Allen performances of the season, and Kris showed some smarts by not picking his Kayne West song from last week because even though that was better, it was done too recently to generate the same level of excitement all over again. We liked this performance from Kris tonight. However, while there was certainly nothing to complain about with his rendition, we didn't feel any overwhelming excitement this time around. The judges gave Kris effusive praise on this, and Simon declared that round one went to Kris, which we think will be very influential with the home audience.

(3) Adam Lambert sang "A Change is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke (1964). Interestingly, the two songs chosen for the contestants by Simon Fuller were both songs that delivered a powerful message about the state of America at the times they were released. "Change" was written by Cooke and inspired by the racial struggles that were still going on in pre-Civil Rights Amendment America. Dressed down in a grey-silver suit, Adam rebounded nicely from his (perceived) loss in round one, and delivered a powerful vocal that impressed all four judges and had the audience roaring its approval. Both Kara and Paula proclaimed it his best performance of the competition. For us, we actually preferred Adam's "Mad World," but what do we know? Still, we don't want to take anything away from Adam's triumphant vocal.

(4) Kris Allen sang "What's Going On?" by Marvin Gaye (1971). Another socially conscious song, this classic by Marvin Gaye serves as a commentary on both the Vietnam War, which was in full force at the time, as well as the rise of black-on-black crime in the inner cities of late 1960s America. While it was a good vocal by Kris, we felt that this is where Kris started to lose steam in tonight's showdown. We agree with the judges in that the deliberately intimately staged performance sounded more like a jam session in a garage or a bar than something that was suitable for the big stage of the American Idol finale. Kris gets good marks for his vocal on this song, but in terms of memorable showmanship, this performance was noticably lacking.

(5) Adam Lambert sang "No Boundaries" co-written by Idol judge Kara DioGuardi with Kathy Dennis and Mitch Allen (2009). What would an American Idol finale be without some tugging-at-the-heartstrings, sugary, inspirational ditty? We wouldn't know since it's never happened. Given that this song was all but mandated by Congress, we felt that Adam did a fine and respectful job on it. This song will be released by the winner, but will most likely be recorded by both finalists -- so double your fun! Randy called it "pitchy," which is his go-to critique, but frankly it didn't apply here. We felt that Adam lifted a quite average song to a higher level.

(6) Kris Allen sang "No Boundaries" co-written by Idol judge Kara DioGuardi with Kathy Dennis and Mitch Allen (2009). For the first verse of the song, we agree with Randy in that it sat better within Kris's vocal range than it did in Adam's. However, once the song needed to go higher and take off into the refrain, the limitations of Kris's voice really showed and he was visibly struggling to wrap his voice around all the notes of the song. What seemed so effortless for Adam seemed very much beyond the scope of Kris's talent. While Kara practically declared that it was an honor for someone like Adam to sing her song, she said that she didn't want to judge Kris on his rendition, but rather judge him on his overall season performance. Frankly, that speaks volumes when the songwriter backs off from critiquing the artist. We agree with Simon in that the highlight for Kris was in his first performance and his remaining two songs did not sustain that initial momentum.

We aren't going to bother predicting for whom America will vote. Last week, Ryan said that only one million votes separated the two, so it really is anyone's game. A lot of other factors go into people's voting rationale than pure vocal talent.

Therefore, we are just going to give our own opinion based on what we saw tonight as well as what transpired during the season overall. For us, we'd agree with Simon in that Adam Lambert is one of the most original contestants that Idol has ever seen. He's never veered from who he is as an artist in order to garner audience support. His vocal skills are undeniable, but he goes beyond that with a unique and identifiable look and style that elevates him from just another game show contestant to true artist.

We don't want to take anything away from Kris Allen, who is a fine vocalist, but the original subtitle of this series was "The Search for a Superstar." We think Kris is much like Taylor Hicks in that he's a popular guy, but really does not possess that sought-after "It" factor that Adam does. While there were a lot of popular contestants on this season of American Idol, Adam is one of the only ones that we're sure can actually sell records both here and around the world.

This show is not a popularity contest, although both finalists are extremely popular, but a contest to find the next big thing. It must be remembered that the winner receives a recording contract potentitally worth millions of dollars, and the only one of the two finalists truly deserving of that award is Adam Lambert -- our pick for the winner of American Idol 8.

Who is your pick? Who will really win the contest? Ryan reminded everyone that tomorrow's results show will run more than two hours beginning at 8pm eastern, so set your DVRs for at least a half-hour past 10pm so that you don't miss the results if you can't watch it live.

Good luck to both Adam Lambert and Kris Allen as well as the rest of the top 13. This has been one of the best Idol seasons in the show's history.