Eurovision star left 'unable to walk' as she lost all feeling in foot after horror injury

Georgian-Greek pop singer Tamta Goduadze, 44, managed to persevere through performing on the same stage as Madonna in the 2019 Song Contest just three months after a herniated disc left her completely unable to walk. The artist, who has recently released new electropop single KHORUMI, agreed to represent Cyprus in the annual song contest despite the amount of physical therapy she would need to even stand in front of an audience. Although Tamta came in 13th place in Eurovision, she says even getting the opportunity to participate meant "the whole world" to her.

She was also left awestruck when she made eye contact with Madonna while backstage, which is the closest she's ever gotten to the queen of pop. According to Tamta, that was a prize in itself.

She reminisced on the life-changing moment she shared with the pop legend, exclusively telling the Express: "I'm an 80s, 90s girl, so she was really, really huge back then and she still is. I remember running to my uncles that had because I didn't have cable at home.

"I remember watching her like this, you know, and I could never ever imagine being on the same stage with her or just seeing her in front of me. It was a big surprise."

Tamta continued wistfully: "She was standing right next to me at some point. We didn't really have any kind of conversation, but I remembered her because somebody was interviewing her and she was standing right in front of me and at some point she looked behind and we really looked at each other. It happened, you know, that was enough for me."

took to the stage in Tel Aviv wearing an eyepatch and cape reminiscent of what Tamta has worn while doing press for her EP The Villain, perhaps in reference to the great pop star.

The 90s singer received rapturous applause from the crowd after performing her hit single Like A Prayer, as well as a song she released that year, Future.

Meanwhile, Tamta also had an overwhelmingly positive reaction from her audience after singing and dancing to poppy hit Replay. Eurovision fans still flock to comment on YouTube videos of her performance to this day, and many think she should have been scored higher than she was.

However, Tamta is just happy she managed to get on her feet in time for her moment in the limelight. She admitted: "Right before Eurovision, like three months before, I had a very bad injury in my back. It was a herniated disc, a very bad one.

"I couldn't feel my right foot at all. I went through a lot during these three months to be able to get on my feet. I couldn't even walk properly. I was like going through physical therapy almost eight hours a day. On the Eurovision stage I was wearing 2 size smaller shoes, because I needed to feel my feet.

"The only thing I was thinking was like, 'Please God, give me the strength to be able to get on the stage.' So looking back I'm really proud of myself, to be honest. I deserved to be to perform on that stage, and it doesn't matter what place I took, what people said, and what people think. It was a really, really big thing for me."

The pop singer also shared that it was a surreal moment for her to be featured on such a big stage after first dreaming of being a musician as a teenage single mum in Georgia, where the only performances she put on were in the kitchen with her baby girl in her arms.

Now, Tamta is planning performances in and to celebrate her new EPs, The Villain and The Heroine. She said these new projects are very dear to her as they represent her "crazy self". Speaking about these recent releases, she teased: "I still have a lot of other sides to me that people haven't seen yet. I'm really proud and thankful that after 20 years I have an opportunity to express myself and be reborn to my audience."