Hollywood Week is the most “reality show” like round of American Idol, always filled with dramatic moments, including tears, triumph and catfights. At least one contestant gets a villain edit, which can be hard to overcome once the voting rounds start.
On Sunday’s Duets Challenge episode, Nutsa, an East European native who has competed in a ton of European talent shows, paired up with Carina DeAngelo, a singer she met in Las Vegas.
Nutsa shades Carina’s fashion sense
As Ryan Seacrest’s narration explains, they got along at first. But Carina is seen complaining that Nutsa went to bed, while she wanted to keep rehearsing. “It hurts my feelings when somebody doesn’t take it as seriously as I do,” Carina said. The pair had another session with the coaches, so Carina got Nutsa out of bed. “I know the song,” said Nutsa confidently, “But Carina really doesn’t know it too well.” Carina also accuses Nutsa of putting together an arrangement that favors only herself. Carina is edited looking frustrated, while Nutsa comes off as condescending. For instance, in an interview with Ryan, Nutsa shades Carina’s style.
The two sing “I Put a Spell on You” and the two have no connection as duet partners. The vocals feel disjointed and rough. Nutsa works the stage, while Carina just stands there looking unhappy.
Katy reminded Nutsa “not to forget about grace.”
In the end the judges decide to advance Nutsa, but eliminate Carina. “The energy was broken between the two of you,” said judge Katy Perry, “I think you’re better than that performance.” and then Katy reminds Nutsa “not to forget about grace.”
While Nutsa advanced to the Showstopper round, overall the clip framed the big voiced singer as an ambitious diva. And on these singing shows, if a singer doesn’t come across grateful, nice and humble, they don’t last long if they hit the voting rounds.
Nutsa took to social media to explain her side of the story
Nutsa took to Instagram to tell her side of the story.
“The biggest test of my life!” she wrote. “This is the first time in my life when I am not celebrating my win, instead I feel it’s right to explain myself. To begin with it is the rule of the contest to be present at each and every rehearsal on time – no participant has the right to skip it, not mentioning the fact that I am never lazy to perform, even if it means rehearsing many times – cause performing is my life, my biggest passion in life!”
She continued, “Frankly, I was mentally destroyed after this performance, even though I tried really hard to stay strong, you probably all noticed how upset I was. I thought it passed already but the video brought back those memories and feelings of sadness… and it’s hard to cope with it, but because this is a contest – not a concert but a contest I try to stay strong, otherwise it will be hard to go further – that’s life…”
“I sincerely hope that you will get to know me and my personality better”
Her journey to Los Angeles to compete in Hollywood was ardorous. She also swears that she didn’t know about the additional rehearsals. She writes: “I want y’all to know that I took a 17-hour flight to get to LA, just 1.5 days before the shooting. As scheduled, every day our shooting started at 7 am and lasted till 3-4 am sometimes. After the official rehearsals I did not know that we had additional vocal rehearsals, probably I missed this information , my bad. However, once Carina called me, I prepared myself and came back, as soon as I could, to rehearse even more.”
“I realized Carina was not feeling comfortable by that time and I did my best to rehearse as much as she wanted, I really wanted to make this experience unforgettable for both of us,” wrote Nutsa. “After all, we both had to enjoy this performance and the fact that Carina was not content, really upset me a lot. Because she is a very talented girl, with strong vocals and I am sure she will achieve a lot in her career life and I wish her all the best.”
And then she adds, “As a final note, I sincerely hope that you will get to know me and my personality better. I love you all very much! And thanks a lot for the support.”
It’s hard to come down on Nutsa without being a fly on the wall. Reality show editing can be deceiving. Maybe Nutsa was behaving like a professional, while Carina behaved like a whiny crybaby. We’ll never know what really went down.
Nutsa will perform as part of the Showstopper round next Sunday and Monday May 9 and 10.
