David Cook

'''Daniel 'Danny' Anthony Noriega' (born September 29, 1989 in Azusa, California) is an 19-year-old (18 at the time of the show) who auditioned in San Diego. He previously auditioned for Idol'' in season 6 and made it to Hollywood week but was cut in the first round. His elimination song was "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell. Shortly following his elimination, Noriega received an offer from Rosie O' Donnell to perform on her cruise. Danny is currently in the recording stage of an album, and his first single "24/7" will be released to iTunes in late July.

"Jailhouse Rock" (Elvis Presley)
"Superstar" (The Carpenters)
"Tainted Love" (Soft Cell) - Eliminated March 6, 2008

Female semi-finalists

Cleanup-section

Semifinals weekly song themes

Top 12 finalists

Weekly song themes

Week 1 (February 18): 1960s
Week 2 (February 25): 1970s
Week 3 (March 3): 1980s
Week 4 (March 11): Lennon/McCartney Songbook
Week 5 (March 18): The Beatles
Week 6 (March 25): Year They Were Born
Week 7 (April 1): Dolly Parton
Week 8 (April 8): Inspirational Songs
Week 9 (April 15): Mariah Carey
Week 10 (April 22): Andrew Lloyd Webber
Week 11 (April 29): Neil Diamond
Week 12 (May 6): Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Week 13 (May 13): Judges' Choice, Contestants' Choice, Producers' Choice
Week 14 (May 20): Clive Davis' Choice, Contestants' Choice from Idol Songwriting Contest 2008, Contestants' Choice

Results night performances

During the Hollywood weeks, "Hollywood's Not America" by Ferras played when contestants were eliminated, while "Best Days" by Graham Colton was the elimination song for the semi-finals round

. For the finals, season 2 winner Ruben Studdard remade Kenny Loggins' "Celebrate Me Home" as the exit song.

Group song

The contestants also performed medleys of songs from that week's theme.

Top 24: A medley of songs from the 1960s, including "Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk in the Room" by The Searchers, "Spanish Harlem" by Ben E. King, and "Bend Me, Shape Me" by The American Breed.
Top 20: A medley of songs from the 1970s, including "I Saw the Light" by Todd Rundgren, "It's a Heartache" by Bonnie Tyler, "The Things We Do for Love" by 10cc, and "I Feel the Earth Move" by Carole King.
Top 12: A medley of songs by The Beatles including "All My Loving," "I Feel Fine," "Can't Buy Me Love," and "Help!."
Top 11: A second medley of Beatles songs including "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Here, There and Everywhere," "Because," and "The End."
Top 10: "Right Back Where We Started From" by Maxine Nightingale.
Top 9: "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton.
Top 8: "Shout to the Lord" by Hillsong.
Top 7: "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey with Boyz II Men.
Top 6: "All I Ask of You" from The Phantom of the Opera."
Top 5: A medley of songs by Neil Diamond, including "Cracklin' Rosie," "Song Sung Blue," and "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show."
Top 4: "Reelin' in the Years" by Steely Dan.
Top 3: "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" by McFadden & Whitehead.
Final 2: "Hero" by Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott.

Other performances

In addition, songs are played during the elimination night to promote an artist, single, album, or the show itself. Included is a list of those songs with their Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Digital Songs reactions. This chart does not include finale performances.

*"Celebrate Me Home" was removed from iTunes the day after it was performed. It reached the top 60 before it was removed.

Elimination chart

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¹ Due to the Idol Gives Back special airing on the show's regular Wednesday results night, the results show was moved to Thursday.

² From this point forward, neither the bottom 3 nor bottom 2 contestants were explicitly identified.

Idol Gives Back

The "Idol Gives Back" initiative returned on April 9 for a second consecutive year, with a special start time of 7:30 p.m. ET, running for 150 minutes (the show ran several minutes late). Producers are hoping to exceed last year's $76 million raised. Again, proceeds will go to children's charities in Africa and the United States. Unlike "Idol Gives Back 2007" when no finalist was eliminated (and two were eliminated in the following week), Michael Johns was still eliminated during "Idol Gives Back 2008."

Finale

Controversies

Season 7 contestant Carly Smithson stirred up controversy due to a prior major label record deal she had with MCA Records. It has been reported
- David Hernandez was revealed by VotefortheWorst.com to have worked as a stripper in Phoenix, AZ. According to the owner of Dick's Cabaret, David's job included a routine featuring full nudity and performing lap dances for male clientele.
- On the April 29 show, the five remaining contestants each sang two songs. Diverting from their usual format, due to time constraints, the judges' critiques after each performance were instead to be bundled until after both songs were performed. However, after the first round had finished, host Ryan Seacrest asked for comments, and judge Paula Abdul, in discussing Jason Castro, delivered feedback on his second song before he had performed it. This has led to speculation that the show is scripted or rigged. The next day, Abdul claimed on Seacrest's radio show that she listened to the performance in rehearsal and in the rushed atmosphere of the show was confused and thought she was supposed to critique both.
  
  Releases
  iTunes
  This season, American Idol has partnered with iTunes to make available for sale exclusive performance videos and full length studio recordings of the songs contestants performed on the show. In order to keep the competition fair, these singles are not allowed to appear on iTunes sales charts until after the finale. As a result only David Cook and David Archuleta's songs charted.
  
  Releases
  - In chronological release date order
  Copyright Citations
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