My career in the entertainment industry has enabled me to work with a diverse range of talent. Through my years of experience, I've recognized two essential aspects. Industry professionals, whether famous stars or behind the scenes staff have fascinating stories to tell. Secondly, audiences are eager to listen to these stories, which offer a glimpse into their lives and the evolution of their life stories. This podcast aims to share these narratives, providing information on how they evolved into their chosen career. We will delve into their journey to stardom, discuss their struggles and successes, and hear from people who help them achieve their goals. Get ready for intriguing behind the scenes stories and insights into the fascinating world of entertainment. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Almost Live Nashville. Joining us today is Juliet Dawn, a former X Factor contestant who has also performed at the Royal Albert Hall. She credits her Christian faith helping her overcome decades of trauma. She is now preparing to share her journey with her new music she recorded right here in Nashville. She is channeling her most intimate stories born from decades of triumphs and trials into her new album entitled Born to Be. This collection of music is one of hope and healing. She wants to channel her new music as a lifeline for those who are battling their inner struggles. Pouring her heart into every note in the hope that it becomes a source of strength and healing to guide them through their darkest moments. She has had an extraordinary journey and is here to share this all with us. So before we dive into our episode, we'll be back with an uninterrupted show right after a word from our sponsors. Thanks for joining us today. Yeah, thank you for inviting me. Thank you. Oh, it's my pleasure. If you would, give us a little information about yourself. Well, currently what I'm doing is multi facetids. I've been recording in Nashville at the Castle Recording Studio. So I've been recording with Billie Smiley. So I came in March and did an album which actually produced an album and an EP. And the EP has just been released, still actually waiting for the final. And I've just been over there recording for Christmas, so that will be coming out soon as well. I'm also writing, have written, should I say, a book, One Last Call, which is coming out. And then also trying to get on the road next year to take the album out. All of this endeavor comes on the back of like pretty much 35 years on and off of trauma. Well, mostly on not off. I'm so excited. Okay, let's dig into that a little bit. What kind of trauma are you talking about? Oh, so I had 10 years of abuse. You can't really cover that in a sentence because that's sort of like a book in its own right. But that is 10 years of my life that that happened. I've had four miscarriages. I had twin boys both died within four days of being born. And I was carrying them. I had a procedure which nearly killed me because of the medical professional pulled out the probe too quickly that was separating them in the placenta. So we got air and water in my system. Smash my head open, the garage door, had a nervous breakdown. I had another pregnancy in which God did a miracle, but I had another nervous breakdown during that pregnancy because his bowel was growing out of the body. And it was a foregone conclusion as far as medics were concerned that that would never ever go back in and it was impossible and that the outcome could be terminal. God did a miracle and put that back in, but I had another breakdown during that pregnancy. Had poisonous VidaBite, which nearly killed me. Electromagnetic poisoning, electric shock that set my hair curly. I did just have straight hair. Wow, that's amazing. Oh my gosh, this is that's my life. Then of course, what is kind of hidden, but is actually the worst thing to deal with is the physical aftermath on your body of the trauma. So when everything starts to present in every alga, fibromyalgia, pyjamel neuralgia, when your body is then bearing the weight of the soul, that's the worst thing. That in many ways worse than the actual life events you come through. You're in the flesh and you're trapped in it. Sure, that's very understandable. Now, how did you get through this? How did you get past some of these things because each one you brought up is a trauma within itself? Yeah, I know. It's not lost on me. The crazy nature of what God's allowed me to go through. And I think there's layers here in my wisdom of what looking back sustained me, notwithstanding obviously that I wouldn't have got through any of it without my faith. I had incredibly strong foundational years with Christian parents who were pastors and that gave me a firm foundation, a strong identity in who I was and what I was meant to be doing with my life. That's great that you found a way through it. I was quite a high achiever at school, so I had the tenacity to believe that I was capable and destined of better things than crumbling under a pile of trauma. That's a great way of looking at it. So those were really strong foundational things that I definitely think set me up. Friends and family sustaining you when you're at the bottom of the pit and you need to just see some light. You need people holding your arms up, speaking words of encouragement and validation. I had prophetic words given me which gave me hope and connected me directly to my destiny, not just my identity in God. A commission directly from God as well about the commission in the death of my twin boys. And I was crying out to God, why? He answered that through a woman on a piece of paper. It was basically God saying, I've allowed you to taste the depth of grief at human heart can bear so that you can align with my broken heart. And as you share your pain, will you share my pains? Then I had a different perspective and I felt very humbled instead of being shattered. So there were so many layers in this character, identity, fellowship, God's proclaimment over my life, strong roots, foundation. So many things helped me get through. Well, the main thing is that you did get through. Did this happen before or after you was on the X factor? So the X factor happened after the twins had died. And this was like, it was a surreal chapter of my life because it was my sister-in-law that applied for us to go on and I didn't want to do it. Because I thought this is probably the one time in my life where I'm at the worst talent and the worst, you know, the effect on my gifting as a trauma was bound. Sure, that's totally understandable. So I couldn't sing properly. I was a bit broken in the flesh and in the soul. My first born was going through some difficulties. There was just so many reasons why I didn't want to do it, but my sister-in-law did and she applied for us to get on. And we got through all the audition rounds, which was three, I think, on two separate days. And we had to go back and then we got to audition for the judges. Then we got through and then we went to boot camp. But it was on the train on the way to boot camp, actually, that we had a phone call, given the diagnosis, that my father-in-law and my husband's dad had been given six weeks to live. Wow, that's tough. So we ended up, we didn't get off the train in time to make the decision, shall we stay or shall we go? So we ended up in London at the boot camp, not really understanding if that's what we should be doing or not. So the whole process of boot camp resulted with drawing from the competition or asking to leave. We actually, we couldn't withdraw because actually this big manor house in the middle of nowhere, there was nowhere to go. So we actually had to ask the producers if we could leave and the producers would only let us leave if we went to Simon in a filmed expose to ask permission to leave. So what happened next? So it was like crazy. My sister-in-law was beside herself. I was in trauma from the death of my twins and I actually was pregnant, although I didn't know it. And so I was actually quite ill that weekend. It was like the hottest day of the summer of 2005 and it was about 90 odd degrees. Hadn't had water or food since five o'clock in the morning of breakfast. Wow, that's brutal. I was starting to wither, obviously, anyone who's been through pregnancies will know body just as weird things when you're pregnant. And I was not coping with no food and no water. So yeah, it wasn't until I got to the train station after we'd left and I did a pregnancy test and I was pregnant. I actually went on to Miss Carrie. Oh wow, that's too bad. How was Simon? Was he understanding and helpful with your situation or did he just not understand? It was a little bit of both, to be honest. I'm definitely not pulling Simon down about how he handled it because he was actually quite sweet about it. I just think he was a bit naive. He definitely was trying to be understanding and sweet and he was like, Well, you know what girls, if this is something you need to do, then I appreciate you being honest and taking the right decisions for your life. You came across kind of like that, which was really good. However, what wasn't great, he then went on to say, and I hope that you've enjoyed your experience. What was your response to that? Well, the experience had been awful. Bearing in mind, I didn't know and he didn't know that was pregnant. It's still not great to leave anyone without food and drink because we just got called into our audition with him at Bootcamp as the sandwiches were arriving at say one o'clock. But we'd had nothing since five in the morning at the hotel when the coach left to get to our destination. So it's not great anyway to have no food and water for that amount of time. You heard it around like sheep, just like this, producers getting this, do this. And as I just got on my soapbox, I just had to say it like it was. I just kind of thought, hold on a minute, I've really been through some tough times. So I feel like this gives me the authority and the right to be honest. So when he said, you know, I just hope you enjoyed your time. I was like, no, Simon, it's actually been awful. I said, you know, when you've been through tough times, you do actually expect to be treated with a bit of respect and not like a number. Heard it around like I'm a wannabe and I'm not. I don't blame you at all. So I just had this incredible soapbox moment, which probably exists somewhere in TV history. And I could feel the cameras just like honing in on me. Like you could actually see the lens of like in closer to Neeta and Simon and the other person at the table, I think was the choreographer Brian. I forgot his second name. They were all just kind of, it was a bit of a chin on the floor moment. Yeah, I'm sure they're not used to having people speak their minds. Once you did get off your soapbox, you stepped down. What was the reaction? What happened next? Yeah, they, you know, I think there was then a bit more sensitivity and a bit more like, oh, wow, because they just didn't expect that, I guess. I felt like they listened to what I said. And although there wasn't any, there wasn't really an apology as such. And I didn't expect one, but there was recognition that perhaps what I was saying was valid. So yeah, and on the back of that, if anyone looks back on 2005, YouTube, you'll see Simon at the Manor House, potentially on the back of this conversation, you'll see him. He speaks to the producers and he's going, I'm really worried about this program. I'm really worried about the people's attitudes. And I actually think that that conversation he was having, which was filmed and aired, came on the back of that wake-up call that I gave him. But that's only a good thing, you know, sometimes if you say things in the right way to people from the right position. But yeah, I guess I've got a bit of unfinished business with Simon because of that. My father-in-law went on to die less than six weeks. It was about four weeks. And actually he died at the same time in hospital as I was having my miscarriage from the pregnancy. Rough times. Yeah, I cannot disagree with you. That is very tough. I have to give you a pat on the back, a compliment, whatever you need, because you got through it and that's really what counts. Unfortunately, I certainly can relate to what you just said. Not exactly the same thing, but very similar. One friend on one floor, one friend on the floor beneath them. Yeah. Life is not easy at times, but the main thing is you did get through it. Now, I understand you opened up a boutique. Is that correct? Yeah. I mean, most of my adult life, I have been a professional finger entertainer, but in the cabaret entertainment, I like entertainment, not like I am now as an artist with my own music and my own message. So when I moved to Cornwall, there was no professional music scene here in the way that I'd understood it and worked for 20 years before that. So I opened up a boutique because I didn't know what else to do. There really isn't a lot of industry here. You know, it's quite remote, quite seasonal. It's not very aspirational. You have to be entrepreneurial to get on. No, I just, yeah, I've always loved fashion. I've always been colorful and into outfit building, just love dial fashion clothes. And so it almost just seemed the next most natural thing that I should do with me to open a shop. Sometimes you do things like that because it's part of your journey. Do you know what? This has been a journey. That's for sure. You just think a shop to shop to shop, right? Yeah, right. Oh my gosh, I've got no education in business. My degree is in communication. So I didn't really know what I was doing. So I didn't understand that marketing, merchandising, margins, leases, legal. Like I just, you know, it was definitely a baptism of fire that I just thought, oh, I just opened a shop. Nice little thing to do. You know, no, you know, this, that whole journey again was fraught with incredible perils along the way. That is business. Now, what were some of the challenges you faced doing this? The woman that I very first went into business with when I opened the first shop, she was a struck off solicitor, but I didn't know. She'd by the police, she'd taken a high class act and she'd fraudulently amended statements and the class act was dropped the day before it went to trial by this chief justice. And she didn't wait for the police to come. She fled the country. She was in the broadsheet, but I of course didn't know this had been like 10 years before I met her. But she always said to me she was a solicitor, but she wasn't. She was a struck off solicitor that was kind of wanted by the police and the 375,000 of the no win, no fee money that was paid out. Wow, that's incredible. At least you got past it. This was the very first person business wise that I encountered when I first moved to Cornwall. Yeah. So you can see like where this is heading, you know, her husband, who she incidentally tried to kill, came to find me when some of this came out. Actually, the MP from the town where this first shot was found out who she was because the police went to see him and he came to try to find me to tell me who she was. Didn't find me in the shot. When it all came out, the husband came to see me and said, oh, please don't think that you're safe, actually, because she's got a history of violence and mental illness. And, you know, she's put sugar in the diesel tank. His new girlfriend's car and written the car off, but police forensics were on it. And, you know, this is some tale. It is. It's a great story. Did you keep the boutique and keep it open? Yeah, I have it. Can you believe it? Despite everything I just carried on. I kind of took her out of the ownership. I let her walk away. I took on the responsibility and the challenge. And so I've had four shops in four different towns, sorry, in Cornwall, one of which knew where I currently am. But at one time I had three shops in three different towns and all this while having a nervous breakdown and PTSD. This is not only a tremendous journey, but it's a great story as well. Oh, you know, I literally, you just couldn't write it. You literally, if somebody made a fail my life, people would say, no, that's not real. That's too unbelievable. But this has literally been the story of my life, just crazy circumstances, crazy situations. Yeah. With this story, my next question is, do you write your own material telling your life story? Well, the answer to that is now more than ever. Okay, good. The reason I ask that is because you have such a great story. Exactly. You need to tell your life experiences through music. Exactly. You are spot on. And, you know, and I will just caveat that with saying that the other outlet that I have for my story is through my poetry. Oh, that's awesome. Expand on that a little. I am a prolific poet and now sort of like I'm just authoring my second or third book, depending on whether you count the first one or not. But so that is definitely an outlet for my story. Originally, when I first started singing, and that includes worship music, so worshiping in church and things, my mom wrote the music. My mom is not only a pastor, but she's also a composer. She's class-agreed and she was actually offered a writing deal when she was 19 before she got pregnant with my brother. But she never took that up, but she does have an incredible gift. So I guess when I was sort of caught up with bright lights and entertainment, shiny, shiny, get on the stage and be fabulous, you know. I wasn't so bothered about the writing then. So my mom used to write and I'd sing songs and we'd record them and whatever. But over the time, it has become incredibly pivotal to me who have a hand in writing songs that I now sing about and have become part of my message or have become an intrinsic part of my message, the perp, the music, my testimony, I guess, those three strands. Sure, that makes perfect sense. And so now I still don't have any gifting for writing melody. Definitely have gifting for steering melody. So my mom will write something and I can say, oh, just tweak up or tweak down and just repeat that. And can we not go for a high note? I can tweak a melody, but I've definitely, this is so of the album that we've just recorded Born to Beat in Nashville earlier this year. I rewrote a lot of the lyrics, fashion my story, tell my story, give validation to other people to express authentically feelings, emotions and dark or light emotive places. Most people, you can't manufacture that if you haven't been through it. Yes, that is so true. So for sure, in answer to your question, I have begun to be a writing partner now with my mom, whereas I was just never considered before my story became relevant, never considered it to be part of what I was called to do. But now I really believe it is. Yeah. Now, you've had such an intensive journey. You had your peaks, your valleys, yet with all that you forged through and you continue to keep moving forward. How are you doing today? What's your mindset like? You're working on your music, new music, trying to take that to the next level with all this going on now. What's your plans for the future? I think it's fair to say that I'm not thinking small. Everyone's yardstick is different, right? Yeah, absolutely. So I don't know if my big is someone else's small. My big is I don't want to be in the box. I don't want to be confined by expectation. I almost have a disruptive spirit. I want to break the rules. I don't want to do things the way man and the industry do things. Here's a few of my goals. Say I definitely want to get on the road next year, boring or gigging the album. And I know that I can somehow recreate what I created as my younger self being on the cabaret circuit. I think it's a weird thing that maybe Nashville doesn't understand, but you might tell me differently that because there isn't really cabaret as such in Nashville, I think wrong emphasis on music and be that whether it's your vocal skill or your writing skill or your story or your flair or whatever. My background, someone who doesn't play an instrument was to be entertaining just by measure of who I am on stage and partly presentation and dancing and unusual body movements and suspense in the song presentation. Just like the skill that I don't see a lot of in Nashville, not because people are couldn't be skilled at it, but because it isn't what Nashville is about. So I feel like I'm uniquely placed in a way in this new chapter of my life to marry the new, the story, the authenticity and the message with the old, which is the means of translating and communicating all of that. Yeah, it can be done. It's just a matter of finding the right people to collaborate with someone that can see your vision. And when they do, you work together to create it and move it forward. With that said, what style of music do you see it evolving into? So this is a really great, I believe, and unique amalgamation. So my mom, as I said, is classically trained. I'm cabaret background, so I can sing a big song, West End style. But Nashville isn't that. So we have a producer who's, you know, ride across so many genres, but the session players are bringing a sprinkle of Nashville. So the session players on the album have played for everybody, from Dolly to Emily Liu and Alan Jackson and whoever, you know. So it's a real unusual meld of genres, influences. And one of us, the producer to kind of nail it on, we've come kind of like inspirational soul part with a bit of country sprinkle thrown in. I think that that is a working process. I think it could end up more country. I think it could end up more classical, depending on where the interest is. I think it could end up just more edgy even. I don't know, but where I'm sat today is open-minded. I know that I've got plans to increase the amount of songs and the impact that the songs has. But I think I'm flexi. I'm not set and still just working on what that means for me and really what's going to impact people. I mean, that was one of my, that was my prayer at 21. I just want to make a difference no matter the cost. And so now I've paid such a high cost in trauma 35 years. Now I get to make the difference. So I think just whatever impacts people the most. Sometimes that can be something uplifting with a positive message. And sometimes that can be something deep emotive, touching your spirit, your soul, the deep place. Yeah, that makes sense. You have to have a variety, something that can lift them up, something that can bring them down. It's dynamics within a song. It's dynamics with a show. You get them to the point of where they are following your every movement and understanding what you're putting across and are in tune to what you're trying to do. That gives both you and the audience an emotional balance. And I think it's a really good thing and a good way to go. So how do people find you? How do they follow you? How do they keep up with everything that's new with what you have going on? So, yeah, at the moment, there is so much happening that I think the best central place to find out all the facet at the book, poetry, the music videos, the writing of my story, the EP, the single releases is probably on my website, which is juliette dawn.co.uk. I would say that another really good place to start for anybody who just wants to get a handle on who I am, what it is that I'm putting out there and my message would be to go and find the three single releases on YouTube. We released one called There's a Time in June and it had 176,000 views. We released A Rise and Shine in September and that's had 335,000 views. And we released Beauty for Ashes just on Friday at 70,000 views already. So there is definitely some fraction. People are engaging with the music, but the music videos as well for A Rise and Shine and There's a Time. I think are, you know, exceptional in communicating a message. Yeah, so people should go and check that out. I think it's a good starting place. That's Juliette with a T, just with a T, not the French spelling or is it French? It's well, it's Julie with a T on the end. Obviously, I'm on Spotify and all digital platforms, but we've really focused on the visual because I'm a visual person as a communicator. So I think YouTube is a good place to go to get a handle. But I've also written something called The Nashville Diaries about how my connection with Nashville started, where it came from. Started with the flood in my shop. Then it started with an invitation from an A&R person through the post and a trip to Nashville with my 80 year old mom and et cetera, et cetera. And so I've written The Nashville Diaries and it's a five email blog kind of thing. It's free. You can go onto my website and sign up for it. You can get those free. And again, it's just, it's a compelling story, not hollow or shallow. There's a lot of there to take for nourishment. And I think that's what people who've read it find a lot in there to chew on. Yeah, that's really good. Well, this has been great. Great information, great conversation, great story. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us today. Yeah. No, well, thank you for inviting me. I have a love and a heart for Nashville and the people there. I love the spirit. I love the whole motivational cheerleader. Everyone's cheering for everybody in Nashville, not like here in the UK where people like to drag each other down. So Nashville has my heart and so I'm absolutely delighted to be connected to you and to the Nashville people out there. Well, it's been my pleasure. Thanks again. This has been a Tony Mantua production. For more information, contact media at Platomusic.com.
