Wal-Mart has definitely made a footprint in the retail industry, thus becoming one of the world's largest profit organizations. Fortune Global 500 has named it the world's largest public corporation by revenue. The organization is governed by a fifteen-member Board of Directors, supported by a hundred shareholders who yearly come in for a gathering tagged Wal-Mart Shareholders' Meeting. This year's annual event was held at the University of Arkansas' 16,000 person capacity arena, where several musical artists have already performed. On June 6, the newly crowned American Idol of 2008, David Cook, graced the stage of the arena, where he was introduced by Queen Latifah.



David Cook sang two songs, the first being his rendition of Collective Soul's "The World I Know," which he sang during his last round with runner-up David Archuleta in the finals. Following his soulful rendition of the song, he acknowledged the audience, speaking of his gratitude for their support. He also cited Wal-Mart's influence on him as a young college boy, which garnered a few laughs and applause from the audience. Later he sang "The Time of My Life," which he admitted to learn on the guitar the day before. He charmed the audiences even more by saying, "If I screw up, I hope you'll still love me."

Other celebrities present at the event were American Idol alum Jennifer Hudson and British singer Joss Stone. Earlier this week, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and Journey were also on hand to perform in the pre-meeting events.

In other American Idol news, runner-up David Archuleta was set to perform in his hometown of Utah, as a thank you/charity stint for his fans, unfortunately the American Idol biggies squashed this idea, citing contractual issues. It was odd that an organization like American Idol, who make a big deal of Idol Gives Back, would not want to support an AI alum for charity.