After months of hard rock, soft pop, cute faces and ugly choices, "American Idol" comes down to this:

On Tuesday, Adam Lambert and Kris Allen sing and viewers vote. On Wednesday, one of them will be the "American Idol" winner.
"They are exact opposites," said Kimberly Caldwell, who co-hosts "Idol Tonight" on the TV Guide Network . "I think it's going to be great."
Allen, 23, is the Arkansas church kid. "Kris is very mellow," said Danny Gokey, who finished third this year.
Offstage, Lambert, 27, may be similar. Justin Guarini, an "Idol Tonight" co-host, calls him "a stand-up guy"; Gokey calls him "just an all-around good guy."
The difference comes at show time, when Lambert transforms. "He's very creative," Gokey said. "He dresses creatively, does everything creatively."
A Lambert song often becomes a 90-second epic. "It gets really over-the-top crazy, with all the lights and the costume and the band," Caldwell said.
Allen sometimes goes in the opposite direction. For his second song last week, he had no back-up.
"It was just him and a guitar," Guarini said. "He is a phenomenal guitar player ... It was so clean and clear. It was his saving moment."
These opposite approaches reflect their backgrounds.
Allen grew up near Little Rock, then went to the University of Central Arkansas. He has stayed in the college town of Conway, where he became a worship leader.
This is a quietly charismatic guy. One "Idol" judge, Simon Cowell, speculated that he does well with the ladies; Allen, who married last fall, shrugs that off. "I've actually been with the same woman for the past seven years," he said.
For Lambert, the style is big-city and flashy. At 10, he was Linus in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," in downtown San Diego. He stuck with theater, moving after high school to Los Angeles.
He found success there, even understudying the romantic male lead in "Wicked." When he wasn't in a show, he said, he kept a sort of hard-rock, Goth look.
"The other kids looked at me like I was a freak, because I was dressed like that in rehearsal," Lambert said. "That has always been my style."
It brought him instant attention at the "Idol" auditions, Caldwell said. "You could tell that he's been on a stage his whole life. He knows how to hold an audience."
And Allen? "He didn't get any (TV) time in the early stages," Caldwell said.
That was fine with him. "I love being the guy who's kind of in the background," Allen said.
Both men have fine voices, people agree. "Kris is really soft and smooth," said former contestant Sanjaya Malukar. "Adam is very raw."
At times, Lambert does amazing things with the higher pitches. "Like the greats — Steven Tyler, Freddy Mercury — you start to take it for granted," Caldwell said.
Yes, she's comparing him to the lead singer of Aerosmith and the late lead singer of Queen. "He's a rock star," Caldwell said.
And he came at the right time. In the early years, "Idol" had no room for innovation, recalled Caldwell, who finished seventh in the second season. Instrument tracks were recorded in advance. "It was more like karaoke then."
Back then, Guarini said, "it was an experiment. Nobody thought it would go anywhere."
By the first-season finale, everyone knew it was big. Kelly Clarkson won and became a star. Guarini was runner-up; he's preparing an album now, as is Caldwell.
First is the "Idol" finale.
"It's like prom night," Caldwell said. Except this prom king may become a rock star.