Megan Joy - the pride of Sandy, Utah - wasn't just singing a country song on Tuesday night's "American Idol." She was living one.

Joy - notice that the recently divorced 23-year-old mom has dropped her married name, Corkrey, adopting her middle name as a stage name - was on the bubble last week, and has been roundly criticized by "Idol" wags on the Internet. (The notorious VoteFortheWorst.com - the folks who lobbied for Sanjaya Malakar in an effort to take down "Idol" from within - has chosen Joy as their favorite this season.)

On Tuesday, Joy fought off a bad case of the flu - which put her in the hospital on an IV bag, and forced her to miss the show's dress rehearsal earlier in the day - to sing a passable rendition of Patsy Cline's "Walking After Midnight."

The judges were impressed with the effort. "You should have flu every week," said Simon Cowell, "because you were better this week than last week. And you look gorgeous."

(Cowell was also right that whoever is styling Joy is detracting from her tattoo-flavored quirkiness. She needs to wear something with a bra - the halter-top gown she was wearing does not pass the "pencil test.")

Of course, the strangest performance of the night was Adam Lambert's ill-advised attempt to turn Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" into a Depeche Mode song. Cowell again called it right: "What the hell was that?" (Randy Jackson, on the other hand, should be ashamed for his positive comment that it sounded like "Nine Inch Nails doing a Johnny Cash song." Randy should be forced to listen to Cash's late-career cover of Trent Reznor's "Hurt," to be reminded of what a Cash/Reznor collaboration really sounds like.)

If Joy survives tonight's results show - a big if, though Scott MacIntyre's uncanny ability to turn everything into a Bruce Hornsby song makes him a prime candidate for dismissal - she'll be in the Top 10, which means she'll go on the "American Idols" tour his summer.

Labels: American Idol, Megan Joy Corkrey, Reality show