Cork singer-songwriter Stephanie Rainey has described her place in the America's Got Talent quarter-finals as "a life-changer", telling The Ray D'Arcy Show on RTÉ Radio 1 that it has taught her to "take a bit more of a gamble" and "do the thing that you're kind of the most scared of".
Rainey, who wowed Simon Cowell and his fellow judges with her song Please Don't Go in the earlier stages of the competition, will perform another original song in her live quarter-final on Tuesday 3 September on NBC Television in the US.
"So it kind of gets whittled down from, like, a lot of thousands, I think, to the auditions, people get their 'yeses', and then it goes to the final 44. It's 44 people in total in the quarter-finals, so I'm one of those 44," she told the host.
"Even getting your 'yes' at the audition doesn't guarantee that you'll make it through to the live shows.
"We had a good feeling that we might get through, but you just don't know until someone says, 'Yeah, you're definitely on the way over'.
"Me and Sarah (Power, piano) have adopted a new thing of, like, until we're on the plane, we're not going! We're traumatised, I think, from years of just ups and downs!"
"For us, it's just another chance to play another song to that many people," Rainey continued.
"Whatever about the outcome, it's just that amount of exposure is an unreal thing to get to do. We just think of it in terms of songs. We get to do another one, and hopefully, we'll get to do another two after that or another one after that."
"If we get the Golden Buzzer, we'll go straight to the final," Rainey explained. "If we don't get the Golden Buzzer but we get through by public vote, we'll go to the semi-final and then the final hopefully.
"I've always wanted the music to reach more people, and this has been a way of connecting with so many more people. Hopefully, whatever we do next, they find the same level of connection in."
As to how she will handle performing to a live television audience of 10 million, Rainey replied: "I think I'm just going to treat it like a gig."
The Ray D'Arcy Show, weekdays, RTÉ Radio 1, 3pm
