Nutsa Buzaladze - Eurovision & American Idol | From Georgia to Hollywood Against All Odds

My first performance, it was in Hollywood Week. Nobody would expect me to win that contest. It was international. I was the youngest and I won. When I was that young, it kind of got to my head. Then I broke my leg. I thought I was winning that and that I couldn't dance anymore. And I realized, oh my God, look what God gave me. And then he took away everything. What if your dream was so powerful that no stage in the world could contain it? Nutsabuzalazi grew up in Georgia, a small country with a big spirit, but her voice carried far beyond its borders, from small competitions to America's biggest stages. We can have a lot of goals and a lot of dreams, but we don't have to forget what we live it for. There are certain things that you can buy with money, but there are so many things that you cannot buy with money. That's what people forget. When I say something, I make myself believe that. That it's possible. When you believe that it's possible, then it's just the matter of time. It's so important to be kind and caring and loving towards yourself. I do feel like that if person doesn't love herself, then she cannot love anybody. So it's the all starts from within. She turned rejection into resilience and resilience into success. Her story is about chasing the impossible and proving the world wrong. One performance at a time. This is Nutsabuzalazi. How did it feel to get a standing ovation from Luke Bryan, Katie Perry, and Lionel Richie? It felt like a dream come true, definitely, because I've been dreaming to be on this show since I was like eight years old, so for a very long time. The jury, they were like really iconic people that I admired for a very long time, and I would never in a million years imagined while I was performing that song for the first time. So in the live shows, on the live shows, I got standing ovation on every performance. But my first performance, what I did, it wasn't Hollywood week. When I saw Lionel Richie doing wow things like that, and then I saw all of them standing up and giving me standing ovation, I was crying the whole day. I couldn't stop because I felt such a big gratitude because of this moment, because one thing is when somebody does something to you, or somebody calls you there, but the second is when you reach out to every single person and you do everything on your own, it feels different than every success, every small step, even feels different. I was going to say that moment. Listen, when I saw, I was watching that moment on YouTube, and that was why, because I've seen American Idol and not everybody gets that kind of reception from the judges, right? But that moment, the more I learned about your life and how long you sort of been pursuing this dream, this was the culmination of years, and years, and years, of work towards this goal. Yes. And I'm assuming like when you started very, very young, when you were, what, eight or five or so I was eight when I first time went on a TV show, I was very young. Just still insanely young. I was very young, yeah, I was eight years old, but I knew that time that I wanted to be a singer on my life, and it never changed ever. Like there is not a single profession that I would trade in to have, like singing as my first priority. Oh, I can be actress, I can be dancer, I can, I can be entrepreneur, I can be producer, I can be songwriter, but performing is something that I, I love to do back eight years old. Um, how did you know that this is what you wanted to do? How did you know that this was your obsession and your focus and just what you were put on this earth to do? Well, because I had a lot of energy since I was a little, little kid, a lot of energy. And I would, like, I, when I would look at the singers on TV, we had MTV, right? So when I would look at this music videos and just like, I would always act as if I was on that music video, or if I was given an interview, or if I was putting, and I would, every week, I would put a show for my family and for my neighbors since I was like six years old. So, and like for two hours, like I would, I was not getting tired. And my mom was always very concerned about my health because she, she was like, no, like, she's got, like, she's got like, she's, like, breathing like that. Like, she's getting tired. But like, I'm like, mom, no, stop it. I love it. I want to continue singing. So it was like, they couldn't stop me from singing since I was a little girl. I was like, I have to finish my concert. Did your, did your parents ever, because I know that, I know that your mom early on was supportive, obviously. But were they ever concerned that you didn't have a backup plan? That there was nothing else that you were really interested in? Was that ever a concern or no? Um, it was never a concern to be honest. Well, I had big support from my aunt and from my mom. So my, uh, even bigger from my aunt, my aunt would always call me a Hollywood star. Like, even when I was six years old, she would see that energy. She was like, you are born to be a leader. You're born to shine and you're born to be on a stage. And she would also tell to my mom, my mom would say, oh, come on. Like, like, because my mom was not that big of a dreamer as my aunt. But, but then my mom also became very sure of whatever my aunt would say, because like, she was all the way with me, with all this, this baby steps we did together, me and my mom. And she was always there. And she saw every struggle, every win that I had and everything that I was telling her that I would do. I did. So my mom is my biggest, when my mom and my aunt, they are my biggest supporters ever. It's so, that's so important. It's very important. It's like, I think that a takeaway just for parents is like the, the, the ideas that you put into your kids. Yes. That forms their whole life for good or bad. Yes. Yes. Yes. 100%. It's so important. Well, I had a great relationship with my father. And, but, but I never spent so much time with my father that I would have his thoughts about about my, my career when I was growing up. But when I was like 18 or 19, he would also tell me, like, do whatever it takes to, to pursue your career because you have got given talent. So my father was also supporting you. Well, he's not a fan of me dressing up, you know, with this like high outfits on a stage. He doesn't love to watch that. But he's proud of, of the things that I did for my country and the success that I bring to my country. So it's also nice to have support from both of your parents and your family because then it affects your mental health a lot. So obviously your, your aunt, your mom, super supported. But when was the moment in your life because you've had so many wins along the way, like you mentioned before, like every time you set your mind to something, you just sort of accomplish it. And I don't want to gloss over the fact that there was an insane amount of hard work behind accomplishing each one of those things. Nothing came easy. But when was the moment when you, you and your mind, what was the thing that competition you won, the TV spot you booked when you were like singing is my life? I, I have unbelievable trust in myself now to do this. Yes, it was when I was 17. It was that night when like nobody would expect me to win that contest. Nobody ever would expect me to win that. I was 17. I was the youngest in that competition. It was international. It was like a lot of singers like 33 singers. And I was the youngest 17 because you were allowed to compete after your 17. I was the youngest and I won that competition. And I was like, it was so unexpected. This was my first big win because I won 50,000 euros. That's good for 17. When I was 17 years old, yeah. So I kind of do, this was my first time dealing with money. That big of a money because I started earning money when I was 16. So I also won a TV show when I was 16. So like, I won some money, but not that big. Well, I didn't birthday for my mom. I did birthday for my, you know, I did the small wins. But 50,000 euros for 17 years, I was still at school. So I, but you know what I started? I kind of, I think that when I was that young, it kind of get to my head a little bit because I got so famous. And I had money. I was famous. I was young. And then I wouldn't listen to my mom that much anymore. Like, mom, you don't know. You don't know. Like, let me do it. Let me think like whatever advice she would give me then, I kind of became, you know, a little bit aggressive to my mom. So we also mean my mom that one year, we also had a little bit hard time because I thought that, oh, because I'm winning so much. And now I'm on dancing with the stars. And you know, I'm dancing and I'm going to win that also. And then I broke my leg on the competition. Oh my God. So it was I think God telling me that you got to stop because it was too much in my head. I was like, oh my God, I'm so good. You know, and when you say that, I'm so good, you are done. You know, you never have to be satisfied with yourself or with your talent or what God gave you because he can take it. And he did took from me. I got like, then like after that, I broke my leg. So I dancing with the stars. I thought I was winning that and that I couldn't dance anymore because I was laying in bed for one month with my broken leg. So it was such a hard and I realized, oh my God, like, I was the kid going to church every Sunday and look what God gave me. And then he took away everything, you know, when that period when I broke my leg, and then I had to start over again. It humbles, it humbles you. It's wild. That's a wild timeline. It's so that's almost a little bit spooky because the second you're successful, you get like the ego, like, get into your own head. And then all of a sudden, like, you're not like disrespecting your mom, but you're not, you know, the same level of relationships you did. Yes. Yes. And it's so hard. And then break your leg. And it's like, God is just telling you, like, listen, you have to, you have to, okay, this is what I gave you. Slow down. Don't disrespect the people that supported you on the way up. Yes. Yes. That which competition was that? Because obviously that was still in Georgia. That was still in Georgia. Yes. And it's interesting how at that moment, obviously, you're probably second guessing, like, okay, so what am I going to do? I broke my leg. I'm out of the game for a little bit. You're not obviously completely out of the game. But what I find interesting is right after that, or closely after that is when you took your biggest sort of career leap and you're killing it in Georgia. And for everybody that is listening, this is Georgia that's very close to Russia, not obviously Georgia, Georgia in the US. And you're killing it in Georgia. But then you're like, I'm sort of a big fish in a small pond. Yeah. That's probably the best analogy. I'm going to restart and figure out how to dominate in the US. Yes. What makes you want to take that move after such a major step back? After that step back, first I went to Turkey because I know Turkish also. I can sing in Turkish also because I grew up there also. My aunt was living there. So I was like spending my holidays always in Turkey. So I went to Turkey and I went also to finals of the voice of Turkey. So I was 18. There was, there was after that setback. And I was kind of a little bit chubby that time. So I was not really feeling so confident. But I did my best in that competition. After that competition, I went to Russia's competition again. And then I went to Albania's competition. So I was like always like trying to showcase my talent and trying to, you know, get the deal with the producer and do my album and do my songs. Because in Georgia, it wasn't possible. I couldn't find anybody. But I still produced my album in Georgia. And I released it when I was 22. But I knew that with this baby steps in this country's, my neighbor countries, I would get to the bigger one. And after Dubai, after I was living in Dubai, was my last stop, I could say before coming to US. So after Dubai, I decided that it is, I was telling to my friends also when I was in Dubai. Next year, I'm going to go to US and I'm going to stay there. That's what I was saying. You just said it. You just like spoke it into existence. Yeah. Well, because when I say something, I make myself believe that that it's possible. So when you believe that it's possible, then it's just the the matter of time. So I learned that you are, I think one of the only, definitely the first non-Americans to get onto American Idol. I didn't, I guess like it makes sense that they don't look at a lot of non-Americans. It is called American Idol. Yes. So and I would only assume that it's a difficult thing because like, now there's like work visas and issues like without because if you want. But I've had. So, so if you want to go and work in America as a singer, you have to get extraordinary visa, which is a one. Yeah, which is called like alien visa. So if you have some extraordinary talent then and you're going to show them, this is what I've done, this is what I've done and I want to do the same in America. And so it's like you're you want to do good in the country, right? You want to create a music or you want to do concerts or you're a performer, whatever you want to do, you have to have that visa. Yeah, so this is actually the same visa I had to get to come down from Canada. But it's it's a lot of work to get that and I know, but I got it so quickly and easily. I think God every day it was meant to be. You say quickly and easily, but also you've been doing the work since you were eight years old. That's true also, but I do feel that everything I do if I do it the right way. And if I do it with my humble self and and and with good intentions, then God really helps me. You know, I do I do have that feeling a lot because there are some things that happened into my life, even that visa. I think it was like I got the answer. So it was I had very short period of time in American Idol wouldn't allow me to compete if I didn't have that visa. So I had the tickets book. I had everything booked already. And they were like, if you we don't have the answer that you have it now, you cannot come to sing the live show. You cannot. We are not allowed. No, they'd be a trouble. So so I literally had that one night too because the next day I had the flight. So that same night when it was like coming morning already when it was like the coming the next day, I got the email confirmation while I was speaking to my friend a nagging that oh my God, if I'm going to lose this opportunity, I'm going to die. And I get the email confirmation. It was the quickest the visa answer that I've ever received I think in my life. And they were even shocked. And I'm like, and that's what I had this thought, oh my God, this is I think destiny. Like this is meant to be I have to do this. There has to that's wild. That's that's that's wild. So there's been a lot of very like interesting like God moment, I had a lot, I had a lot, yes, I had a lot. And when I disconnect and when I start acting, oh, yeah, I deserve that. Oh, yeah, I'm so great. Oh, I'm so good. Oh, I'm a such and I'm after I have this thoughts in my because we're all human. I'm we might have this this thoughts in our heads all the time or judging some other people or or you know, having this like not a like negative thoughts as I call it, right? It's it's it's your ego. It's you thinking that you're better than ego thoughts. I immediately disconnect with that power of of miracles and with that power of God and with that power of love. So I'm learning a lot on the way and on the journey of my life that has humble as I stay and it's grounded as I stay, it's better for my soul and it's better for my well-being and it's better for to keep the love inside of my heart. NetSuite is a success story partner. Now what does the future hold for business? If you ask nine experts, you're going to get 10 answers, bull market, bear market, interest rates are rising. 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And we have to try to help them to get that. Because one time somebody helped us. So it's a lot of things definitely that I'm learning every day. So this is why I hate the idea of self-made. I don't like the idea of self-made because it doesn't matter what you've accomplished. It doesn't matter how hard you've worked. Yes. Whether or not it's your parents, your friends, customers, investors, like there's always somebody helping, helping someone help you in some way. Yes. It's impossible to do anything without other people. Exactly. But also I think that you cannot really preach that because then people are going to get lazy. So I always say that I had the initiative first to go for it. You know, like you have to have that motivation to go for it and try it out and ask for help. I asked so many help in my life. So many. It's crazy. Some people would be shy to ask, but you know, I'm not shy because I'm like, why should I be shy? Because of something that I feel like it's bright and I feel like it has to happen. So many helps I asked. I love it. So the reason why I mentioned that you called yourself a workaholic is because I don't want somebody to just think that things were handed to you at all. Because that's like I've seen like now I've sort of like going down the rabbit hole and I've learned your story. You work so fucking hard and I think that that's the other half of it, right? So there's opportunity, say there's miracles, say there's things that are that just seem to work out. But on the other side of that, like you mentioned before you asked for a lot of help, but also you put in the reps yourself. What is your thought about like workaholism or just putting in the work? Like how do you look at if I want to accomplish something? What are the steps that I'm going to take to get there? Like how do you look at I want to win, you know, a miracle. You didn't. Yeah, I didn't win. But you got on American idol and you got to the final, even for Eurovision. Like you have a project, you have something in your sites. And there's a whole bunch, I have a whole bunch of places where you've performed, which is just like fucking phenomenal Lakers Games Times Square Eurovision we mentioned. So when you set your sights on something, how do you deconstruct? How to get from where you are right now to the point where you can actually be successful at that thing? I write down. I have journals in my room. And if you see my journals in Georgia, since I was a little girl and the things I wrote down and how many of them came to reality, you're going to be shocked. I was crying when I read that because I was like, oh my god, like look at that little girl with I was writing it, even not believing that oh my god, I'm going to write it, you know, because I want it, I'm going to write it. Maybe it's not going to happen now. But you know, I'm going to write it. I writing and journaling really helps me a lot because it helps my mind to kind of come down and and write a plan how to do it. Obviously, I don't have the 100% plan. I don't know how to achieve that thing exactly. But I know that if I'm going to be filling my 100% energy, which is working out, eating well, dancing, keeping myself busy and working on myself, because I feel like that if I'm not working on myself, then I lose the fire inside of me. So it's very important for me to work on myself, to work on my vocals, to work on my dance moves, to like I also started taking acting classes. So I have to be learning something. So you're constantly, absolutely. I constantly have to do that. And I don't want to show it to people. I don't like to show off or brag about it, because it's something that you have to do in the backstage, you know. And if I don't do that, I really feel like that I am becoming very hard to say, like not so, like I'm not shining from way back anymore. I'm not at my best anymore. And I feel like, oh, like I don't like this, this feeling. I have to start moving. I have to do something. But it's good because the work that you do and the practice that you do is aligned with what you love. Yes. So it's not working anymore. I hate doing, if I do something I don't love, I hate it. But there are some things that you have to do that you don't love in order to get something that you never had, right? So when I realized that that newtsa, you cannot be doing everything you love every day and living in this pink bubble. So for example, like I started pushing myself more in fitness because obviously, I see that the fitness routine I had was not working. Then I start pushing myself in eating habits too, because I had that eating habits. And I'm like, newtsa, you cannot call this healthy lifestyle and don't lie to yourself or to anybody else because this is not. So I wrote down my reality, what I was lying to myself. And I said, I have to improve in those things. And then let me see if I can achieve or not. Because for example, I've been writing for like nine years or eight years, I want to have this like perfect body, my dream body that I have. But guess what? I was not making any steps consistently. I would take steps for one month and then give up. Then second two months and then give up. And that is not like, I've realized that in order for me to get something, it's so important for me to stay consistent and never lose spark. Well, I was going to say also like one thing that I love that you're saying is yes, you have your your craft, which is singing. But you also understand that like you're trying to sort of master all the other aspects of your life. Like I think a lot of people what I don't think is good is when they only focus on that one area of their life. I see it a lot with entrepreneurs. So they're very good at making money. They're very good at building a business. And then they're physical health declines and they're mental health declines and they have no spirituality in the life. They have poor relationships like, you know, three X wives, you know, they don't talk to their kids. They're like, well, I see some of them on the show. There's like two versions of exited entrepreneur on the show, right? People that have sold companies that are sort of living their best life healthy, great family. One of my favorite stories is Mark Randolph was a co-founder of Netflix. And he every single Tuesday when he was building Netflix, he stopped working at five o'clock and went on date night with his wife. That's how much he honored that relationship. That's very important. I also know guys that are worth, you know, a lot of money that are single and still acting single when they're like 55, 60 and there's nothing wrong with that. But I'm just saying like some people lose themselves in the process of only focusing on one thing. Yes. You're young, objectively young compared to some of the people that I've spoken to on this show. And you already understand the power in not letting one part of your life fall apart in pursuit of everything else. Yes. Yes. It's very, it's very important because we can have a lot of goals and a lot of dreams. But we don't have to forget what we live it for. I mean, the money, the obsession about money that people have, yes, it's good because we want to have a good life. And there's certain things that you can buy with money. But there's so many things that you cannot buy with money. That's what people forget because they become so obsessive about it. For me, the biggest foundation is the family. And that's why I'm 28. And last year I sat that next year I'm going to get married because I already felt that I'm ready to create a family. I partied a lot. I've seen, you know, a lot of countries I've traveled alone or with boyfriend or you know, but I felt that now I'm ready to take next step in my life. And I got engaged. I saw that. Congratulations. Thank you so much. So we got engaged. And you know, it's very important then to find a partner. And also the thing that you said to go on date nights is also very important. But for me, the biggest foundation is to take care of your soul because I feel like that it's great to live your legacy obviously and to change other people's lives. But what you have to take care of is your soul because that's eternal. Your soul never dies. And you have to nurture that. And as you brush your teeth every morning, you have to take the same care about your spiritual life and about your mental health. When you talk about not losing your soul, not losing your mental health, definitely part of this whole equation for sure. What does that really mean to you? And then how because you mentioned before, you got 50 grand when you were 17 years old. How did you not let this happen to you? Well, it's very, I think you have to kind of experience it on your own because when you experience it on your own, that's when you take action. And because you want to get out from that state of of mental health or whatever is going on in your life. And and I've spoken into my friends a lot of things. I would say do this or do that or do that. But they wouldn't listen until they're going to experience it on their own. So I feel like that if young people going to study some biography of like successful people and successful entrepreneurs, how they started what happened to them in their lives. It's going to help much more people to not have the same issues like to have the, for example, mentor that's going to tell you, you know, I've been through. I've been there. And this is how it happens. I mean, this is how I felt. Don't do that if you don't want to go through that hell again. So influence of other people that went through the same thing is so important. But but I feel like that you have to be seeking to have that knowledge and have a mentor. I think having a mentor is super important and having someone someone that you can call and ask for advice. Because if, if, for example, when I was 17, I would have a person that when I was going through that thoughts in my mind, I would like openly tell to other person that been through that and has more experience than I had. Definitely would have helped me. Also not just mentors, not just mentors in like a business context like mentors in like how do I approach life? How do I find the right people to spend time around? How do I, how do I not lose myself? How do I not let my ego get out of control? Yes. But but always when I have even small problems in my life or something that it's hard for me to tell, you know, in the family or outside of the family or my career or sometimes I feel stuck. For example, sometimes I feel like I'm putting so much work, but you know, where is it going? I do have sometimes this questions. But then when I do have this questions and I ask them and I answer them, I spend time with myself. I call to my priest a lot. I spoke with my priest. I spoke with my fiancee. I spoke with my mom. So I have this people around me that I can open up to and then I find my questions. So you, we have to realize that this is not an evil world. There are so many kind and good people. There's so many kindness and goodness around us. Just we have to be open to let them in and open to ask for help also like because some people have such a big ego, they don't want to ask for help. They want to say, Oh, everything is good. Everything is good always. There's no way that all your life, everything is like this because it has to be, you know, it has to be like sometimes low, sometimes highs, but you have to I think learn how to deal with that. What was a point in your life where you did have some sort of doubt about what to do and you sort of pushed your ego aside and asked for help from somebody and that sort of put you on the right track. What's the what's the moment that you can remember that was a major inflection point? I think the fact that I was going to church since I was 11 and my religion really helped me and my priest really helped me because because God says like you have to ask for help. I'm not I'm not telling you to ask for millions or something like like small help, whatever you need in life and in different parts of your life. Yeah, it really helped me but my biggest motivation to be honest was my mother. So she gave me the biggest because when I was growing up, you know, my mother was a single mom. My aunt was helping us a lot. My grandfather, my uncle and everybody, right? But since I saw like how good of a person she was and she would always do so good and so kind for other people, my biggest motivation was to make her proud and to make her happy and to do everything for her so that she has the life that she wanted to have. And that was my biggest motivation to be honest to, you know, do everything in my power to have that life that we dreamed of because me and my mom, we were like a team. I love that. And we were always going everywhere together and she was my biggest inspiration and my biggest motivation to do whatever I did in life. Shipstation is a success story partner. You know what separates successful online businesses from literally everyone else? It's not just having great products. It's delivering an amazing shipping experience that keeps customers coming back. 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Be part of creating it. Visit inbound.com slash register to get your ticket today. You mentioned your mom being a source of motivation when you're going to some of the more difficult times in your life. What was something that sort of carried you through? Was you mentioned God, you mentioned your mom, you mentioned like working hard. Is there anything else that you lean on that really helps you through hard times? I think also the fact that I worked so hard and I've been through so many things that gives me motivation to keep going to my goal because I always think, oh my God, I always go back and think where I started. And then when I feel and see where I am right now, this gives me the biggest motivation to never give up because I was like, oh my God, no, it's a you've been through so many things and you passed that. So now you're even stronger and now you're even smarter. So you can do it. Like I had two times the setbacks, the biggest setbacks after I had the experience when I was at my highest and the next day at my low. Was this like when you broke your leg? The broke your leg was the first one and the second one was when I finished American Idol and I went to Library of Congress in Washington and then I came back to Georgia. I had the biggest show there and everything and then I had some performance to do for my friend's birthday party and I went to Russia and people were hating on me so much because of going to my friend's birthday that the next day literally I received so much hate. I've never received in my entire life because of going to Russia. That was it was because of going to Russia. Yes. Yes. Just because of that. Yeah. So the hate is coming from the fact that like you are now representing your country. Yes. I'm assuming that there are not a lot of huge singers that have now built a massive name globally coming out of Georgia. So you're like a big deal coming out of Georgia. People are looking up to you. Obviously there's some animosity if you're going to Russia and Georgia's. Yes. Because Russia occupied my country and like we have big histories. Of course. So that's what they hate now. I understand the hate. The lesson is or the thing that I would love to understand is how do you deal with pressure because you've dealt with pressure on a stage in front of like celebrity a list of celebrity judges. Some of them being like the people that you idolized growing up and you look up to you deal with pressure because you represent your country. You do with pressure when you sing in front of thousands and tens of thousands of people. Yes. How do you manage pressure? It's stressful to be honest but I praying definitely helps me a lot in meditation and working hard. So when I when I'm under pressure, I can rehearse the same song for a hundred times. I'm not kidding. So when I was on a revision, that song with my dancers, my dancers were joking on me. They were like, are we going to dance for a hundred times really? Because when I'm under distress, I just like to work hard so that I'm not when I'm on stage, I'm not thinking about anything but I'm in that zone. And if I know that I rehearsed well, if I know that I put a lot of work into my performance, it doesn't matter where I'm performing. You know, that's the thing. People think that I'm performing differently. I'm front of in the millions or if I'm front of five people. It's the same performance for me. It's the same because I need to touch even one eye. My goal is to touch even one person. So it doesn't matter if I'm singing for millions and nobody's touched. I didn't do my job. So I love to put a lot of work when I'm under stress and also pray. So it's all it's preparation? Yes, preparation, prayer and the thing that I started working on is also when I'm stressed. I would have before I would have give it to other people also. So for example, I would scream or I would be anxious or angry. Like don't talk to me or something like that. So now I change that. So I started to whatever is going to happen. You have to be nice. When you're stressed, you'll have to be nice to the people that helped you all the way and they want the best for you. So that that thing I was guilty and I realized that I was guilty for it. So now I change that. How do you how do you outside of just like practicing preparing when you are in that moment? What's going like what's going through your head so that you aren't overthinking? You don't screw up. You don't fumble like what's the thought? I don't have that thought. So I don't have negative. When I'm on stage, I never think that I'm going to fall or I cannot hit that note. Never. I never had that thought because first of all, I worked so hard for it. I know that it's not going to happen for sharp and that's why I work so hard so that I don't have those thoughts. When I'm not so well prepared, that's when I might have this thoughts. Oh, because I because I didn't practice that much. So practicing a lot allows me then to enjoy my performance. So on every performance that I'm having, I'm enjoying it. And when I'm on stage, I love it. When I'm not on stage and there is some period of my life when I'm not on stage, I really get like sad because this is what I live. I love to be on stage. So when I'm on stage, I'm the happiest, excited. I'm like, this is what I was born to do and all the thoughts are going to my head. So I'm actually I'm very happy when I'm on stage. I love performing for people. Was there ever a moment where it didn't like work out where you didn't show up on stage? Yes. Yes. I had I had this moment like for in front of 10,000 people. That's a big audience. Big audience. Like in this huge arena, Georgians did first time ever musical in this huge arena. And I was singing the lead role. I was the lead. I was 20 years old and there is like this biggest song for this musical and there is a light coming out and you have to be already standing there to start singing. So light comes out and light comes in and I'm not there. I was on my backstage room because I forgot that it was my time to sing. So it was so like I was so ashamed and then people are coming to me. So where are you? Then I run into stage. It was really, really bad moment and funny, obviously. Funny, but obviously stressful and that doesn't happen anymore. No. No. When you prep for an event, how many hours, how many days, weeks, months, do you put into that? It depends on a show. For example, for Eurovision, I was preparing for three months because I needed to come up with the idea with staging and with everything. I definitely needed three months because it's big production. For American Idol, one week because we have one week to prepare another. So it's wild. Yes, it's wild. But for my shows and if I'm planning like my solo concert in Georgia, I definitely need two, three months to get ready for it and to start and plan it. If there is like a small gig, I need 10 days to get ready. So I could say for it, small gigs, I could say 10 days. That's not bad. So you do have, but that's after years of actually putting in the work so that you can only put 10 days towards something and so succeed. Yes. Yes. And once the band is built and once the band knows your song and everything, then if you have some gigs and concerts, you don't really, you really need like to rehearsal. Last thing that I think you've done exceptionally well is just overcome a lot of rejection because you've asked for help multiple times. I mean, you've... Yeah, a lot of people told me no multiple languages. Yes, yes. When you think about when you think about overcoming rejection, how when you are told no or you're told like this isn't going to work out or we don't want you to perform or whatever that rejection is, how do you sort of stay in the game? How do you like get excited about the next opportunity? Well, they give me motivation. Definitely. They give me motivation and I'm like, you're going to see, you're going to see in a couple years or in a couple months that you are very wrong. That's what goes into my head all the time because I've seen it. There are so many people that didn't thought that I would achieve so many things and I don't even remember them to be honest but they see me everywhere now and you know, I truly believe that you have to have that attitude that you know what? You are wrong. It's not that. No, you're right. I would say thank you and it doesn't it doesn't hurt my ego. If somebody doesn't like me or doesn't like the idea or doesn't like what I'm asking, it doesn't hurt me at all. It's their point of view. Everybody is different. You cannot have the same mindset as I have or you cannot believe the same things I believe in and I'm totally okay with that. So if I'm going to ask you something and and you're going to say no, I'm fine with it. I understand. You have different point of view. I have different point of view but there are many people that that's going to like my idea and believe in me or like there's many other people. You connect with other people. I connect with other people. There's plenty of people in the world. There's nothing to get mad or sad about. I just move on. What would be the hardest lesson that was a useful lesson for you to learn but you would never wish that lesson on anyone else because it was so difficult. I would say heaven and ego and after some success that you dreamed of thinking that you're on the top of the world and you're the best, it's not good because it really if something's going to get to your head and you're going to have those thoughts, it's going to make you feel depressed and it's going to make you life is going to humble you really fast and I don't like that because something happens in your life so unexpectedly and nobody is guarded from that because God sees everything in your intentions, your thoughts and everything and it's it's kind of like spiritual bottle in this world right now I feel like of bad and good and we as humans I think we always have to strive for kindness and love and goodness. It's hard in this time. It's really hard especially with social media. It made people jealous and envy of each other and I feel that and also judgmental. People are very judgmental and I feel like that when I'm judging other people, me myself, when I judge other people, I feel like that some joy from my life is taken away. You know, I agree. Like it goes some joy goes away and you kind of feel feed yourself and you're so with some negativity before what? You know why and that's I realized that one and I don't want anybody to do that ever again because it's so easy. We see all this pictures and all this people around us and we always judge them. Yeah. Why don't we stop judging? You've had tons of like mentors and people that have helped you along the way and whatnot. What would be one piece of advice from a mentor that's really really changed your life? I would definitely say to well my first mentor that I had told me that when you achieve your success also help other people along the way. So I would say that yes and because she told me I remember and I wouldn't see that because oh my god like now I'm like I'm struggling so much to achieve something. How am I going to be able to help other people along my way because I have so many things to do but she was so right because she helped me in that in that she was a very famous singer in Georgia and she helped me a lot in that period of my life and she told me that so like whatever has given to us it's a blessing but we don't have to forget also to share with others that needs it. If you could only pass on one lesson that you've learned to your kids because it's the most important thing that you've ever ever learned what would that lesson be in why? Be kind to other people and to be kind to yourself and not so strict. It's so important to be kind and caring and loving towards yourself because sometimes we want so much from ourselves we put ourselves in this bad mental situation that oh my god I have to do this I have to do that if I don't do that I'm not good enough I'm not good enough I'm not good enough and just like you know it takes away joy and I would say definitely to be kind to yourself and to be loving to yourself because it's so important to have that love for yourself it because then I do feel like that if person doesn't love herself then she cannot she cannot love anybody so it's the all starts from within so I would definitely work on on love with my kids. I love that and last thing please tell people where they can connect with you but also in the future what are you working on what are they going to get excited about I mean you're working on new music a whole bunch of new projects so social media where are they going but also everything else. So I have Instagram YouTube TikTok Facebook and you can find me as Nutsa Bousa so Nutsa is my first name Bousaladze is my surname but I shorten it so it's Nutsa Bousa now also in Spotify you can listen to my songs my music and by the way a week ago my song firefighter has reached 7 million streams so I was I was still a rating that yes so now I'm working so as I move to LA I connected with amazing musicians and I formed my band already and also I released my first single here in America all my life it's called and it's performing really good it's like very fun and very joyful song about love and then the next song is also about love because I feel like I'm in my like love era now it's then my next song is called Amen and it's going to be out for the end of August and it's also fun and very good vibe song