"American Idol" finalized its Top 13 (not 12, but 13, in a "surprise" twist) Thursday night, and Megan Joy Corkrey - the 23-year-old single mom from Sandy, Utah - made the cut.

Unfortunately for Corkrey, her big moment of triumph was upstaged by another singer's hissy fit.

Corkrey impressed the judges with a fiery cover of KT Tunstall's "Black Horse & the Cherry Tree." Simon Cowell, while saying it wasn't the best vocal ever heard, heaped praise on Corkrey.

"What I like about you is that you're current," Cowell said. "Sometimes this show can get a bit karaoke, and I don't get that from you. You've got originality, you're quirky, you've got your own thing."

(Cowell's comment drew this rebuke from Michael Slezak, who's recapping "Idol" for Entertainment Weekly: "What is it about her that's so current? The fact that she's going to need serious help from Auto-Tune when she goes in to cut her debut album?")

When Corkrey got the word in the episode's final minutes that she would be moving on to the Top 13, she had to share the stage with drama queen Tatiana del Toro - whose meltdown in front of the judges when she was eliminated stole Corkrey's thunder. (On the plus side, Corkrey is almost guaranteed a supporting role on tonight's episode of E!'s "The Soup," when Tatiana's crying fit gets played over and over again.)

Also, did you notice that when Corkrey tried to give a high-five to fellow Top 13 pick Jasmine Murray, she got left hanging? Welcome to Hollywood, indeed.

(By the way, Corkrey has her own website now. Here it is.)

Labels: American Idol, Megan Joy Corkrey, Reality show