AFTER months of tears, tantrums and some stand-out performances, the nation will finally pick the winner of this year's Australian Idol tonight.

The final week of the reality singing competition was overshadowed by controversy about the choice of song for the winner's single, Here I Am, which is released digitally tonight and will be in stores this week.

The final two contestants, Matt Corby and Natalie Gauci, performed the song in last Sunday's penultimate performance.

Corby was reduced to tears after judge Mark Holden labelled the 17-year-old a "spoilt brat" for his half-hearted version of the song and backed Gauci to win the series.

In a further blow to Corby, Holden labelled the youngster as a "beauty pageant contestant".

"I would like to have seen him be straight up and honest about the winner's song and not be a beauty pageant contestant," Holden said.

Fellow judge Ian "Dicko" Dickson agreed the song was better suited to Gauci's voice and urged producers to consider allowing contestants to choose their own song for the next season finale.

"I would prefer in future for our Idols to be able to pick a song just for them," Dickson told The Sunday Telegraph.

"I don't think there is anything wrong with the song but I think Natalie has embraced it and it has fitted her more as a result.

"It has had to be re-tooled somewhat to fit Matt as well as it could do. In future it would be good if we could maybe choose a song appropriate for each individual Idol."

The latest controversy comes after a lacklustre year of ratings for the Network Ten reality singing competition.

In previous years, episodes have drawn audiences of up to two million people while this series has struggled to achieve as little as 1.4 million people each week.

The show will return for its sixth series in 2008 and Dickson said producers were always looking for ways to tighten and improve the format.

"It is not really the time for panicking or knee-jerk reactions. People still like this show," Dickson said. "Everyone is always predicting the demise of these big shows because it is good sport."

Corby remains favourite with odds of $1.57 from Sportingbet Australia. Gauci's odds have tightened from $2.60 to $2.35.