And The Winner Of American Idol Is…
May 24 2012, Published 8:00 a.m. ET
It's been a long road for American Idol finalists Phillip Phillips and Jessica Sanchez, but one of them was finally crowned the Season 11 winner during a live show on Wednesday night, and RadarOnline.com has the results.
Phillip Phillips won over judges Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson -- and the hearts of America, winning American Idol!
A world record-setting 132 million votes were gathered after Tuesday night's live performance show with the results being read by host Ryan Seacrest during the grand finale held at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.
Superstar Rihanna hit the stage and got the crowd fired up with her new single Where Have You Been and as RadarOnline.com exclusively reported she would, J. Lo took the stage to perform her new single Follow The Leader.
But J. Lo wasn't the only judge to show off -- Steven Tyler also performed on the finale with the boys of Aerosmith.
The top 12 contestants paid tribute to the late disco queen Donna Summer, who died last week of lung cancer at the age of 63 and then later did a Bee Gees medley as tribute to Robin Gibb, 62, who died earlier this week after also losing his battle with cancer.
One unexpected moment was when American Idol alumni Ace Young and Diana DeGarmo got engaged on stage. The two met in 2010 when they costarred on the Broadway hit Hair.
In typical American Idol style, the show was packed with celebrity appearances and performances and both finalists were gifted brand new cars from Ford.
Phillip performed a duet with John Fogerty and runner up Jessica sang with the Tony Award-winning singer Jennifer Holliday.
The season's second runner up, Joshua Ledet, sang with his favorite American Idol Fantasia Barrino garnering a standing ovation from all three judges.
Chaka Khan sang a medley of her songs including her hit I'm Every Woman with the girls of the top 12 while the boys sang a medley with Neil Diamond.
Finalist Jessica Sanchez sang her highly acclaimed rendition of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You, country legend Reba McEntire performed with former contestant Skyler Laine and former contestant Hollie Cavanagh sang with her idol Jordin Sparks.
You can catch the winner Phillip and the rest of the top 10 gang this summer when they tour North America, kicking off in Detroit on July 7.
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