And the Soul Train dominates!

It was a magical night for your new "American Idol," 29-year-old Taylor Hicks, who beat Katharine McPhee for the title Wednesday night.

The final two, who sang a duet together to end the special two-hour show, beat more than 300,000 hopefuls and received more than 63.4 million votes together, which, as host Ryan Seacrest pointed out, is more than any president in any election.

Seacrest also pointed out that Hicks breaks the girl-guy tradition. In season one Kelly Clarkson beat out Justin Guarini, and last season Carrie Underwood won over Bo Bice.

All 12 of the finalists sang performances, ranging from solos to girls and guys. Guest singers included Mary J. Blige, Prince, Clay Aiken, Underwood, Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick.

McPhee and Hicks performed duets with Meat Loaf and Rhianna. In the audience, stars Bo Derek, David Boreanaz and Tori Spelling made appearances.

Wednesday night also marked the first Golden Idol awards, which included categories such as Best Female and Best Male Vocalists, the Jackson Award for public speaking, Best Impersonation and Best Male Bonding.

Finally, after four months of intense vocals, some inspirational, some not, season five crowned a new Idol King — Taylor Hicks, the man who got Americans of all ages to embrace gray hair.

So what do fans think of the results?

Brigid Crystal, a freshman at Parsippany Hills High School, favored McPhee, but feels eliminated Chris Daughtry should have won.

"I don’t agree at all with Taylor. ... Chris I think should be in the finale too. I didn’t watch it as much after Chris left — I went on strike," she said.

Denville resident Pam Wingren was a fan of Hicks.

"I’m happy with the two people left. ... The last songs weren’t great. The songs weren’t for them," she said before the show. "I don’t think Katharine sang that last song well, either, so overall, I think Taylor is going to win, and I’m OK with that."

Tuesday night, with more than 3,000 in attendance at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, was a true competition consisting of three "rounds": personal choice, best performance song and debut single written for each contestant.

Before each final performance, the parents of the two shared stories about the singers’ childhood as young starlets.

Judge Simon Cowell’s advice for the twosome? "I would suggest that the contestants pray that the other one forgets the words." Neither did.

However, McPhee started the night off shaky with "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree."

"It was a fun opening, but I know there is more of you and better of you to come," judge Paula Abdul said.

Cowell said, "I’ll give that a good with a small ’g.’"

However, "McPheever" set in with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," which Cowell chose for her to sing last week.

"It’s no mistake that it is God-given talent that you are possessed with, that you are possessive of, that every father around this country are feeling the tears down their face as your father does. ...You’ve made everyone proud of you, and every little girl proud who wants to dream and aspire to be you," Abdul said.

Both renditions brought McPhee’s father to tears.

Her final song, and potential single, "My Destiny," was called "average" by judge Randy Jackson, who said her actual performance was better than the song.

Cowell said McPhee "went from brilliant to quite good within one song," and she was a "great, great, potential artist." He advised fans to remember her second performance.

Hicks was consistent all night, beginning with "Livin’ for the City," in a bright purple velvet jacket.

"You don’t care who sings it. You don’t care where it’s from. You don’t care what it is, because you always make it your own,"Jackson said of Hicks.

For his best performance song, Hicks chose "Levon,"which caused Cowell to eat his own words and applaud the 29-year-old.

This time, Cowell said, "probably not as popular as the first song. I think you walked the first round. I think Katharine has taken the second round, and I think it’s all to play for."

Taking Cowell’s words to heart, Hicks debuted "Will I Make You Proud?" and Cowell told him, "Assuming that I was right — that the show was tied —you’ve just won ’American Idol.’"