Earlier in the week, it was announced that the final three "X Factor" contestants would sing with "superstars" this Wednesday--an exercise, I assume, intended to help the finalists elevate their game, kind of like when the "So You Think You Can Dance" contestants pair up with allstars. Or maybe it was all just to elevate ratings. Anyway, soon all the Interweb was aflutter with speculation as to who the A-list duet partners would be. Melanie Amaro had been seemingly set up for a Mariah Carey pairing all season long, ever since Mariah's flight to Simon's Judges' House in France got rained out, and certainly since Melanie started bombarding Mimi with love-tweets all over Twitter. Chris Rene would have been a natural pairing with any big rapper out there, or maybe an R&B-crossover star like Bruno Mars. And I was personally rallying for a Josh Krajcik/Foo Fighters collabo, since Josh's Foos cover was one of his best performances of the season.

Monday night, onstage at Salt Lake City's Abravanel Hall in his home state of Utah, Season 7 "American Idol" runner-up David Archuleta made the shocking and emotional announcement, in front of 2,000 fans, that he is taking a two-year break from music. And yet, all of those fans were more elated than disappointed, cheering on the news and giving David a standing ovation.

While performing the second-to-last date of his "My Kind Of Christmas" holiday concert tour, David told the audience: "I would like to make a special announcement--that I've chosen to serve a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."

While the first U.S. season of Simon Cowell's "The X Factor" certainly had its share of amazing musical performances, often the focus this season was not on the talented contestants themselves, but on scandals, shockers, and controversies. (This is how the U.K. version of the show, in tabloid-obsessed Britain, has always operated.) From the judges' petty infighting to claims of behind-the-scenes shenanigans to crazy onstage meltdowns, "The X Factor USA" brought the drama week after week. Was this the best way to launch the career of a singer who'll be handed a $5 million record deal? Honestly, I'm not so sure--I personally would have preferred a little more focus on the music. But hey, I'll admit it...all this drama made for great television.

Adam's new singleEarlier this week, Adam Lambert tweeted a link to a photo of the new artwork for his single "Better Than I Know Myself," along with a 27-second audio snippet...and Twitter's infrastructure pretty much collapsed. Well, now the good people over at Soundcloud headquarters better batten down the hatches and back up their servers, because the FULL audio of "Better Than I Know Myself" is out...and I suspect that compulsive repeat listenings from thousands of giddy Glamberts might be enough to break the Interweb itself. I know I certainly plan to have the song on a constant loop this weekend, trigger-fingeredly hitting the "play" button repeatedly, like a hungry rodent in a lab experiment whacking a lever to get another food-pellet fix. Or, to utilize a different metaphor/simile, I plan on listening to "Better Than I Know Myself" until I know it better than I know the back of my excitedly typing hand.