--- title: Deaf Singer Mandy Harvey Wows Judges on America's Got Talent description: Mandy Harvey brought the audience to tears in her performance, which Simon Cowell called "one of the most amazing things" he'd ever heard. canonical: https://time.com/4808965/mandy-harvey-americas-got-talent/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-07T15:27:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:44:15.706Z og:title: Watch a Deaf Singer Wow the Judges on 'America's Got Talent' og:description: Bring out the tissues for this emotional performance og:url: https://time.com/4808965/mandy-harvey-americas-got-talent/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9b018fb495419b8/6988d09b656a3f7632bd0515/screen-shot-2017-06-07-at-11-08-12-am.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: mandy-harvey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch a Deaf Singer Wow the Judges on 'America's Got Talent' twitter:description: Bring out the tissues for this emotional performance twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9b018fb495419b8/6988d09b656a3f7632bd0515/screen-shot-2017-06-07-at-11-08-12-am.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch a Deaf Singer on _America's Got Talent_ Wow the Audience With Her Moving Song  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jun 7, 2017 3:27 PM UTC  America's Got Talent  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jun 7, 2017 3:27 PM UTC In a new episode of [_America’s Got Talent_](http://time.com/4498120/taylor-swift-america-got-talent-grace-vanderwaal-gift/) Tuesday night, one surprising performance moved even the professionally stoic veteran judge [Simon Cowell](http://time.com/4362496/simon-cowell-grace-vanderwaal-americas-got-talent/). Contestant Mandy Harvey, 29, lost her hearing at age 18 — but appeared onstage to perform a song of her own composition, aided by a sign language translator to communicate with the judges. “Basically I got sick and my nerves deteriorated,” she explained to the judges of her hearing loss. She abandoned her passion for a time, but Harvey, who had been singing since she was a child, was able to return to it by relying on muscle memory, visual tuners and trust in her own pitch. “After I lost my hearing, I gave up. But I want to do more with my life than just give up,” she said, before launching into a performance of the original song, “Try.” A sweet and melodious acoustic tune, Harvey hit every note — and drew tears and a standing ovation from the audience. Finally, Cowell hit the Golden Buzzer, sending her through to the live show. “I’ve done this a long time,” the [former _American Idol_ judge](http://time.com/4083251/simon-cowell-americas-got-talent-stern/) said as he went up to her after to congratulate her. “That was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen and heard.” Watch her wow the crowd in her moving song, above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4808965/mandy-harvey-americas-got-talent/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4808965/mandy-harvey-americas-got-talent/"},"headline":"Watch a Deaf Singer on America's Got Talent Wow the Audience With Her Moving Song","datePublished":"2017-06-07T15:27:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:44:15.706Z","description":"Bring out the tissues for this emotional performance","url":"https://time.com/4808965/mandy-harvey-americas-got-talent/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9b018fb495419b8/6988d09b656a3f7632bd0515/screen-shot-2017-06-07-at-11-08-12-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9b018fb495419b8/6988d09b656a3f7632bd0515/screen-shot-2017-06-07-at-11-08-12-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"mandy-harvey","caption":"","creditText":"America's Got Talent","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4808965/mandy-harvey-americas-got-talent/","name":"Watch a Deaf Singer on America's Got Talent Wow the Audience With Her Moving Song"}}]}] ```