17 year-old Arizona native Jordin Sparks is the youngest winner of American Idol yet. She has no vocal training and beat runner up Blake Lewis from thae state of Washington to win the title. Sparks is the daughter of a former NFL player and has been singing since she was a little girl.

Sparks was the favorite to win, and was predicted to win by the judges. Simon noted that it was the better performer Lewis up against stronger singer Sparks. Lewis was known for beatboxing along to his songs.

Last night’s two hour results show on Fox featured performances by Gwen Stefani, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight and Green Day.

While Idol is still a number one hit from Fox, it is not as wildly popular as it was last year, with the ratings down somewhat. It may be due to the “Sanjaya factor,” with less talented singers making it farther into the finals, or the series might just be running out of steam.