American Idol Season 7 winner David Cook launched his official YouTube page this week and left a message for all of his fans. Apparently, David is going to try and be a little more accessible than past Idol winners through his website and video blogs.

It’d be pretty sweet if fans got to go into the studio with him via YouTube so that they could check out the album’s progress, no? Either way, it’s a pretty cool way to get an already rabid fanbase to show even more love to this year’s American Idol.

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After a day of covering red carpet arrivals for American Idol and seeing David Cook leave most of us in stunned, yet pleasant disbelief after being named Season 7’s winner over David Archuleta, I headed off to the American Idol finale after party with memories of David Cook’s “Time of My Life” playing on repeat in my head.

I’ve been fortunate enough to attend both this year’s and last year’s finale parties. While the parties get extremely crowded, they always have good food, free drinks, and you end up running into some familiar faces, former Idols, and a bunch of other people who you’d otherwise never expect to see.

This year, a pleasant surprise was getting to meet much of the crew from last season’s So You Think You Can Dance, which premiered tonight on FOX, who were hanging out at a table together for much of the night.

While I saw the whole crew on the red carpet, I was working and wasn’t able to snap a picture of the side of their faces, let alone get a picture with them. As soon as I saw Lacey, who I believe to be the hottest dancer that I’ve ever seen, I couldn’t have been more excited and she was really cool about standing and smiling through some camera malfunctions.

Lacey, along with Ryan Seacrest, Lauren Conrad, and Eminem, is one of the few celebrities that I was still hoping to one day meet in real life. Somehow, I’ve been fortunate to literally have met most every celebrity that I’ve really dreamed of meeting, so getting to meet Lacey was an enormous thrill. I couldn’t be a bigger fan of hers!

Lauren Gottlieb and Sara Von Gillern hung out with one another for a good portion of the night. It was pretty cool seeing them just hang out and be regular, yet recognizable people.

The two went around taking pictures at the various sponsored photo booths and were really nice about snapping pictures with anyone who asked. I caught Sara’s mohawk on the red carpet earlier in the day and it definitely gives her a whole different look compared to what we were used to seeing! Both Lauren and Sara looked beautiful and took my admission that I lost all of last weekend to watching SYTYCD reruns on MTV in stride.

Lauren was actually a lot taller in real life than I expected! Not like she was a towering giant, but when she was always dancing with a male partner, it was oftentimes tough to tell that she’s actually pretty tall compared to the other girls in the competition.

Of course, Lauren is one of those girls who is so incredibly good looking that it’s almost hard to look her straight in the face because you know that you’ll pretty much just forget whatever you were about to say. So yes, I had nothing insightful to say to “Misha Chan,” but it was still pretty sweet to meet her!

Hanging out with Lacey, Pasha, and Anya for much of the night was hip-hop/breakdancer Hok Konishi. With his trademark ‘do, Hok is clearly impossible to miss. On the red carpet, he definitely looked happy to be hanging out with SYTYCD’s Dominic, who did some flares and halos on the red carpet right behind one of the TV Guide booths where Justin Guarini was taping a segment.

Ballroom partners Pasha and Anya were hanging out with the SYTYCD crew as well and I was hoping that they would bust out a few moves on the dance floor, but they didn’t as far as I know. I was outside with my co-workers for most of the night, so I might have missed out on a bunch of action.

I know that there will come a point in life when my luck runs out and moments like this won’t come up every couple months, so I really just tried to take it all in this year with less wide-eyed “oooooh Idol!!”-ness this time around.

Much of the Top 12 showed up to the party, but they were getting so mobbed with fans that it made it tough for any of them to really hang around. A bunch of them (Kristy Lee Cook, Jason Castro, maybe some others that I didn’t see) could only come in for a second, take a few pictures, then were quickly escorted away (to another party, I’d assume).

From this year, Michael Johns, Ramiele Malubay , Jason Yeager, Amy Davis, the night’s biggest celebrity Renaldo Lapuz (who took pictures all night long), along with Idol alumni Jasmine Trias, Sanjaya Malakar, and AJ Tabaldo braved the crowds, which actually weren’t nearly as bad as they would have been last year in the much more crowded venue next to the Kodak Theatre.

Amy Davis gave both Lacey and Lauren some competition for the title of “hottest SYTYCD/AI Alumna” at the afterparty. She had on a really pretty and glamorously short (if there is such thing?) white dress that made her impossible to miss all night. Amy was one of this year’s prettiest contestants. After meeting her, TV did not even get close to showing how beautiful the model and Idol semi-finalist is in real life!

The Idols all took the attention in stride and actually got to have some pretty normal nights, though Michael Johns was so instantly recognizable that a crowd seemed to follow him everywhere, but he was totally gracious about it. He made some half-jokes about how the second he stood still, everyone managed to find him, but if he kept moving, it was pretty normal.

I know a lot of people always wonder what the Idols are like in real life. While I didn’t spend an overwhelming amount of time with any of them, all of my run in’s with the Idols this year have all been beyond pleasant and it has been a joy to meet them.

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They never seem bothered to exchange a few words and it would be tough for anyone to be dealing with the fanaticism and huge crowds that follow them everywhere that they go. They are constantly doing press, rehearsing, and nonstop interviews, while running on little sleep. I have no doubt that it gets exhausting, which is what makes it that much better that they are always as nice as they are.

Before I left, I got to meet Jasmine Trias, who came in third place during Season 3 (Fantasia’s year). Jasmine was spending a bunch of time with Ramiele Malubay and AJ Tabaldo at the party, but she made a point to take pictures with any fans who wanted to meet her. I was a huge Jasmine fan during Season 3 and lost a lot of sleep voting for her, so it was very cool to actually meet her in real life.

All in all, it was a hectic, but unforgettable night. Meeting Lacey Schwimmer was one of those once in a lifetime moments that I’ll never ever forget, along with having the chance to microblog the red carpet arrivals on the site’s biggest traffic night of the whole year.

Seeing as So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol are by far two of my very favorite TV shows, having them come together in one place for the perfect storm of perfect finale party made for a really great night.

And of course, congratulations to David Cook, our American Idol!

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