Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Goodman.
Natalie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started singing in the middle school choir at the Savannah Country Day School, although I had major stage fright growing up. With a little push from my faculty and peers, I started singing for our jazz band in high school. While music was always an important outlet for me, my main focus growing up was on soccer. I received a soccer scholarship and played all four years on the varsity University of Georgia soccer team. I also was in the u18 US National Team player pool and spent a majority of my childhood traveling for club soccer and the Olympic Development Team. My college soccer experience was something I would not trade for the world, but it certainly did not go as planned. I ended up having numerous injuries that kept me out of play for large chunks of our seasons. With the frustration of not being able to participate on the field and help my team in that way, I needed an outlet. By my junior year, I picked up a guitar and taught myself to play so that I could start singing again. I was honored to sing the National Anthem before many UGA sporting events, including some of my own soccer games, before taking the field. Even on those occasions that I couldn’t take the field myself due to injury, I was always happy to contribute to my team’s pregame excitement by singing beforehand. During my time at UGA, I was also pre-med, planning to become an ER doctor. I am currently in my third year of medical school at Mercer University School of Medicine, and while balancing a full-time music career and medical school clerkships is difficult, I could not be happier pursuing both dreams.
My music career really started to gain momentum after one of my Instagram singing videos was shared by former UGA quarterback Jake Fromm, which got well over 100,000 views and attention from NBC’s the voice. Still very young and naive in my singing career, I did not make it on to the actual show, but it was still on honor to make it as far as I did, and I learned a lot. This gave me the confidence to start pursuing music on a more serious level. The summer after I graduated from college, my mom signed my sister, Catherine Goodman (a very talented songwriter), and me up for a singer-songwriter bootcamp in Nashville, TN, run by #1 hit songwriter Kirsty Manna. I had never written a song before this and never considered myself much of a songwriter but submitting a song was required for the bootcamp, so I gave it my best shot. There was a competition within the camp on whose song would be deemed “Best Song in Camp,” an award won by country star Kelsea Ballerini a few years prior. The four finalists chosen by industry executives were to perform their songs at the camp to be judged for first place, the prize being a single song publishing deal. My sister and I were actually both finalists. To my complete astonishment, my song won! I got my very first single song publishing deal in Nashville and got in contact with Kirsty’s husband, Bill Warner, a well-known Nashville producer, for some recording time. Within the next year, he had helped me record and release my very first EP. On the EP, where several songs made it to FM radio and internet radio stations, over hundreds of thousands of streams and made it high onto top charts in the independent country music world.
In 2019, I was honored to be an official nominee for three categories, including “Rising Country Star of the Year,” at the prestigious Josie Music Awards, the largest multi-genre music awards platform for independent artists around the country. I was honored to win “Rising Country Star of the Year,” which pushed me to keep going in my music career. In 2020, when COVID hit, my music career was put a bit on the back burner. I was actually an EMT during this time and worked in an Emergency Department during the heart of COVID. I was also preparing to start my first year of medical school. It was very tough mentally, and I missed my music, but live music was not really an option during that time (and understandably so). I did release a single co-written by my sister, Catherine Goodman, later that year called “Love You From a Distance,” that earned some FM radio airtime. Once places started opening back up for live music, I started picking up gigs around Savannah, including gigs at many local restaurants and bars. In 2022, I was honored to accept a residency performance slot at Plant Riverside District, the premier entertainment venue in Savannah. Also in 2022, I was nominated for “Female Country Vocalist of the Year” for the Josie Music Awards, held in the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. While I did not win the award, attending and being a nominee in the Grand Ole Opry was an absolute dream come true and incredible experience. I have since started working with a band and started playing a lot of full band shows. We have been working on writing some new songs, which I expect to release later this year. While finishing Medical School and becoming a doctor is a major priority right now, I plan to continue to play shows and write and release music as much music as I can. I am grateful for the constant support that people have shown for my music and medical career, and can’t wait to see what the next year has in store.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
There have certainly been challenges, the primary being the time commitment necessary to do things the right way (like medical school and music). I wish there were more hours in the day so that I could give both music and medicine my all. Money is also a struggle, especially being a student. Just like anything else, music is a business, and it takes financial investment to start and grow it. There will always be people who don’t like your music, and you may miss opportunities because of this. It always stings to be told you are not good enough or maybe your music is not someone’s taste, but I have learned that the only two things that you can control in this life are your attitude and your work ethic. Perseverance is a value that I hold close to my heart, and I don’t plan on giving up on anything anytime soon, no matter how many doors get slammed in my face.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am currently a third-year medical student at Mercer University School of Medicine. I plan to specialize in Emergency Medicine and become an ER doctor. On top of that, I am a musician. I sing, play guitar, and write music. I would like to think I am known for my heart. I think that anyone who knows me well knows that while I am very shy on the surface, I wear my heart on my sleeve and care about everyone on such a deep level. I have wanted to be a doctor since I was a child, and I have never wavered in that. My dream was always to help people feel better because seeing people in pain, to this day, causes me pain. What I have learned through my experiences in medicine and music is that these two things do not have to be mutually exclusive. Music can help people, too. Between the words and the melodies, music is supposed to make you feel things. It has the power to bring calm, peace, and personal connection like nothing else can. Some of my fondest memories of my time as an EMT were singing to patients in the Emergency Department.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think that trying to balance medical school and a full-time music career is definitely a risk! Both are extremely demanding and exhausting. On another note (no pun intended), when you are a songwriter and putting out your own music, a lot of times, you are exposing your personal feelings and experiences for everyone to see and judge. You can always hope that people will relate to your stories and be affected in a positive way, but it is still extremely vulnerable to put out your deepest feelings to the world. The risk of rejection and disapproval can be very discouraging.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nataliegoodmanmusic.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/nataliegoodmanmusic
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/nataliegoodmanmusic
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7IvaJMv18V2TqJNAsSr0QX?si=IWpivnLuQSypq0iVH3p_OA
Image Credits
Rosana Lucia
Anna Sanders
Chris Carlon
Bobby Gupta
