an idol-free tuesday. ACK!!...

It's Tuesday. Do you know where your Idol is?

Oh the first Tuesday after the last Wednesday is so melancholy. On one hand, it's a relief that the competition is over and a winner has been crowned, but on the other hand I'm always left with the feeling: What the hell am I gonna do on Tuesdays now??

So, I'm hauling back out a custom that I abandoned last season - because I prefer to think season six was just a nightmare that I've long forgotten.

Yes, that's right. I'm gonna count down my fave performances of the year. Remember, they're my favorites, not necessarily the "best." And while I could easily fill all ten spots with David Cook, I'm going to impose a limit of three performances per contestant in the top ten. Otherwise it would be all David Cook. With honorable mentions going to, well, David Cook.

Here we go.

Honorable Mentions: We Are the Champions (Michael Johns). And So It Goes (David Archuleta). One Rock & Roll Too Many (Syesha Mercado). Superstar (Carly Smithson). The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (David Cook). You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (Ramiele Malubay).

10. Come Together (Carly Smithson). At the time I wasn't real thrilled with the idea of the top 12 diving into the Beatles songbook, and half of them proved me right, but the other half of the field saved the day, most especially Carly who, for the first time, actually wowed me with this rousing and gritty performance. I never ended up being a "fan" of Carly, but after three disappointing performances in the semi-finals, this was the first time I saw how much talent and potential the girl had.

9. Let it Be (Brooke White). This was Brooke's defining moment. I heard it described elsewhere as "organic." That word fits this performance perfectly, as it was raw, but restrained, performed simply as it should be and, most importantly, she remembered the words!

8. Imagine (David Archuleta). In his semi-final performance, Archie made his first step in proving that he was capable of living up to the pre-show hype about him. Yeah, he got hammered for skipping over the first verse and yeah he got skewered for the runs and the riffs (moreso during his finale reprise), but, surprisingly, until his final performance night, this performance was his best and carried him through some of the pitfalls he was yet to encounter.

7. She's a Woman (Chikezie). Who knew the one-named Eze guy had it in him? Despite flashes of true talent in the semi-finals, no one really gave Chikezie much of a chance to make the tour, and many were shocked he had made it into the finals. But this performance made it clear that the man was a lock for top ten. I still smile watching it. It was his finest moment (and one of Ryan's weirdest). It's just too bad that two weeks later he would venture back into ballad-ville and get drop-kicked in 10th place.

6. God Bless the USA (Kristy Lee Cook). This performance will not go down in the annals of showstoppers, but after the horrid thing she did to Eight Days a Week, and having homesteaded one of the bottom three stools, Kristy showed her mettle by playing the game as strategically brilliant as any other contestant in history, pulling out the apple pie, the flag and Mother's Day all in one, securing her a vacation from the stools and buying her a few more weeks than she probably deserved. And it was a turning point for her, a transition between her time as season seven's punching bag to become the contestant people began rooting for, however reluctantly.

5. Hallelujah (Jason Castro). The dreadheaded surfer dude was certainly one of the most unique semi-finalists this show had ever produced, but with this beautiful performance, he also became one of this season's early favorites, at least to make it deep into the field. It was so memorable, in fact, that he was asked to reprise it, alone, on the big finale stage.

4. Eleanor Rigby (David Cook). I battled with myself whether to choose this performance or Hello, the one that immediately preceded it, but what tipped the scales on the Beatles side was the end. I knew by final 20 week that Cook was my favorite contestant of the season. By top 16 week when he remastered Lionel Ritchie, I thought that Cook might be, potentially, my favorite contestant ever. But Rigby sealed the deal. Perfectly performed, exquisitely directed and lighted, watching David #2's pure glee at the end of the performance, as the lights went up on the big stage after weeks of the tiny studio, is a moment that will live in my mind for a very long time.

3. Billie Jean (David Cook). I went into this episode knowing that Cook had chosen, for his birthyear night, this Michael Jackson classic and scratched my head wondering why on earth he had chosen such a strange selection. Of course, I had never heard of Chris Cornell or his version, which would have answered that question. It was one of those once-in-a-season moments, and proved that, by finding little-known arrangements of well-known songs, David was going to be the season's biggest risk taker. And he was going to be around for a very long time.

2. Over the Rainbow (Jason Castro). Jason was an enigma. When he was off, he was off. But when he was on, he was brilliant. And this was Jason at his finest. Of all of the iTunes purchases I downloaded over the course of the season, this is the one I listen to most often.

1. Always Be My Baby (David Cook). When observers of the show point to a contestant's defining moment, usually Cook's is measured by Billie Jean. But for me, this was the week that David proved to the naysayers that he was more than just a musician who ripped off covers of covers, taking this saccharine pop ballad and turning it, himself, into a smoky, sultry masterpiece, and he did it with his ailing brother in the front row, receiving rave reviews not only from Mariah Carey but the three judges, ending the evening teary-eyed. And that, to me, was a storybook moment, my favorite of the season.

So now it's your turn. What were your favorite moments?