Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Nutsa Buzaladze and Carina DeAngelo discuss their Hollywood Week duet on American Idol. (ABC Photo)

Nutsa Buzaladze felt the need to take to social media to explain herself after American Idol aired its Season 21 Hollywood Week episodes Sunday and Monday.

On Sunday’s show, we saw Nutsa impress the judges with a powerhouse performance of Celine Dion’s “I Surrender.”

The duet round, aired Monday, didn’t go as smoothly. Carina DeAngelo and Nutsa apparently didn’t see eye to eye on their arrangement of “I Put a Spell on You.”

And at one point, Idol filmed Carina saying she wanted to continue to practice, but that Nutsa had gone to bed, leaving the former “pissed off.”

Judging from their feedback, the judges were clued in to the friction. In the end, Carina was cut; Nutsa advanced with a reminder from Katy “not to forget about grace.”

“This video brought me to tears, not the tears of joy though,” Nutsa wrote on Instagram next to a clip the show aired. “This is the first time in my life when I am not celebrating my win.”

Nutsa, from the country of Georgia, admits she missed a notice about a final vocal rehearsal.

“However, once Carina called me, I prepared myself and came back, as soon as I could, to rehearse even more,” Nutsa writes.

“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. 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.

“I am never lazy to perform, even if it means rehearsing many times – cause performing is my life, my biggest passion in life!”

She ends her explanation, which you can read in its entirety here, by writing: “As a final note, I sincerely hope that you will get to know me and my personality better.”

My advice to Idol viewers: Don’t put too much stock into anything you saw in Monday’s episode.

American Idol has rounded up an incredible amount of young talent for Season 21. It should be proud of that. It should showcase that.

Instead of letting the talent speak for itself, producers aired a Sunday night episode chock full of drama, an episode clearly edited to play up drama.

What struck me as odd is how some contestants — like Zachariah Smith and Isaac Brown — advanced despite blowing their duet. I mean, completely blowing it.

Why put the contestants through so much pressure, American Idol, if the performances don’t matter? If you’re just going to advance your favorites anyway?

As for Nutsa, her resume screams determined young woman, from all the televised competitions she’s been a part of to all the music she’s released to the way she presents herself on stage.

And Carina couldn’t have been too upset.

In spite of the fact that Hollywood Week was filmed back in December, in spite of knowing how the duet played out, she posted a pair of Instagram videos featuring her and Nutsa smiling at the camera to promote the episode.

So keep it in perspective, Idol fans.

And if you need help doing that, just listen to “La La Land,” the first single from former Voice finalist Jax.

It’s probably closer to reality than most of what we saw Monday night.