For her June 6 performance of her original song "Try," Harvey explained to the judges that she lost her hearing when she was 18 because of a connective tissue disorder. She said she been singing since 4, but, "I left music after I lost my hearing and then figured out how to get back into singing with muscle memory, using visual tuners and trusting my pitch."
Pop singer Lady Gaga expressed her adoration for Harvey on Twitter.
I love Mandy https://t.co/YsPHjiNq1f
The singer, who moved from Colorado to Florida, learned how to "feel" the music, as she explained to Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner in 2010. “I’ll feel and concentrate the drums through the floor, through my feet and then the bass through your chest. And then if a saxophone player is next to me then it will be on my arm. So you just designate different parts of your body so you can concentrate on who’s playing what and when,” she said.
Harvey told Warner that realizing she could still sing after losing her hearing helped her reclaim her identity. Read a transcript of the original interview here.
