“We're nuts for Nutsa!” judges Luke Bryan and Katy Perry both yelled together as they announced the controversial American Idol contestant was one of the two artists they were saving – and it was a shock, especially considering that there were some performances by the Top 20 that were also outstanding.
So, Parade spoke to the judges after the show to find out why they picked her following her performance of “And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going” from Dreamgirls.
“All the people that are going home tonight, I’m not worried about any of them,” Katy Perry told Parade. “Sure, winning American Idol is what some people want, but it’s really about taking this momentum. You see someone like an artist who is in our Top 20, or maybe even our Top 40, like Lauren Spencer-Smith, who is a new artist on pop radio, she has two hit songs right now. She made it to the Top 20 and now she’s popping off on her own. She really used it and it’s just about taking it and going with it.
“For Nutsa, I thought she really did great tonight. Both Lucy Love and she did amazing tonight. They want it so bad. I would not want to put them in the ring fighting because they would fight to the finish. I think there’s more layers to uncover with them both. And their stories, too.”
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Lionel Richie, who was a big supporter of Lucy Love and announced she was the other judges pick for the Top 12, also saw the drive in Nutsa, saying, “Nutsa is coming to clean everybody’s clock.”
And Luke weighed in as well, saying, “It’s tough to make the decision, but I think she’s really worked really hard and when you’re the judges’ pick, you’re already working on a deficit. So, on the next round, you’ve got to really work hard to battle back. So, we’ll see who survives and it’ll be interesting.”
As for Nutsa, she told Parade after getting the exciting news, “I am still in shock, honestly, because I was not expecting to get this far in the competition because of my background, because of where I come from. I am so happy I have one more chance to prove myself as a singer. It’s a big responsibility. To close the show and to get picked by the judges is a big responsibility.”
One disadvantage that Nutsa faces is that the majority of her support is international. She’s from the country of Georgia and she performs in Dubai, so her fans aren’t able to vote for her, which means she needs to win over American votes.
She also got a rough start during Hollywood Week when her duet partner Carina DeAngelo accused her of not wanting to rehearse and told that to the judges. It turned out that it was a misunderstanding on Nutsa’s part – English is not her first language – and when she heard that she was supposed to be rehearsing, she came back downstairs.
“First of all, I don’t like defending myself if I feel like I didn’t do anything wrong,” Nutsa said. “That was my situation because I really didn’t understand what I did wrong. I didn’t know we would have vocal rehearsal at 4 in the morning. If I had known, of course, I would have stayed because I am also performing. I want to do good. The drama started from there. I was trying my best not to be negative because like I said, ‘You can’t answer negative with negativity.”
But the fact that she was put through and Carina wasn’t didn’t set well with a lot of Idol viewers. Tonight will demonstrated if Nutsa can win America over.
American Idol airs Sunday and Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT this week on ABC.
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