Pop star Katie Melua has described how the ongoing conflict in her homeland of Georgia has left her feeling “naked, isolated and angry”.

The singer, who was born in Georgia but spent five or six years living in Belfast with her family, said she was heart-broken that her country was being “torn to pieces”.

And she spoke of her growing concern for her mother and brother who are holidaying in Georgia and have been unable to make the journey back to the capital, Tbilisi, to catch their return flight to the UK.

Writing in her blog on her website, the 23-year-old, who has just performed a number of shows in Germany, said: “Throughout this week I haven’t been able to stop watching the news. I’ve never seen it like this before, it has never made me feel so naked, isolated and angry.

“While the conflict was going on in Georgia I couldn’t believe that the world around me was functioning normally or that I was functioning normally.

“Especially doing these last two gigs, they have felt very weird. I’ve been removed from them yet have never felt so grateful and happy to be anywhere but on the stage.”

Katie, who was supposed to be visiting Georgia herself this summer, said she felt “petrified” as she heard that the conflict was moving further in to Georgia and towards Tbilisi, where her grandparents live.

And she spoke of her fear for her mother and brother who have to travel the road through occupied Gori to get their flight home.

She said: “It’s also the road that I travel on every year to get from the capital to the sea towns. It’s always such a great car journey, six hours of stunning countryside, with the landscape changing from desert-like hills to dark forest, stunning rivers then a mountain that you have to get over where there is usually a bus in front of you struggling slowly around the scary turns of the steep mountain.

“So for me the thought that this road is currently a danger and a menacing one is unbelievable.

“My mum and brother have tried twice to make that journey back to the capital but every time they have been turned back by Georgian police advising them that it’s too risky.”

Katie, who was the biggest selling female artist in the UK and Europe in 2006, said Georgia had gone through a shaky time after the break-up of the Soviet Union but recently, things had started to get better and the economy was growing. And she said that she hoped her homeland would return to stability.

“Ten days ago I felt secure, happy and looking forward to visiting Georgia for the summer holidays,” she said.

“Now I’m not sure what to feel. All I know is that once Georgia mends itself after another conflict in its recent history, then I’ll never take that feeling of safety for granted and neither should the millions of people that live in countries of peace.”

Katie moved to Belfast at the age of eight when her father, a heart specialist, got a new job at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

While in the city she attended Dominican College, Fortwilliam. She left at the age of 14, when her family moved to London.