This month, Mandy Harvey and Shania Twain shared the America’s Got Talent stage in a powerful performance symbolizing perseverance in the face of unimaginable obstacles.
Harvey, who learned to sing after losing her hearing, and Twain, whose vocal cords were damaged in a battle with Lyme disease, sang an unforgettable rendition of Twain’s 1996 hit song “You’re Still the One”, stunning audiences worldwide.
The lyrics of the song, which Twain had originally written about her relationship with ex-husband Robert “Mutt” Lange, were slightly re-worded to reflect the women’s respective journeys.
In July of this year, Twain revealed to CBC News that she had been suffering from Lyme disease after being bitten by a tick.
As a result of the Lyme disease, Twain subsequently suffered dysphonia, a vocal cord disorder that robbed her of her singing voice and forced her to undergo extensive speech therapy.
It was also around this time that Twain learned her husband had been having an affair— with her best friend. In an interview with PEOPLE Country, she says, “I was shattered. I said, ‘How many more traumatic moments can I take?'”
Twain’s duet partner Mandy Harvey, a deaf singer, is best known as Simon Cowell’s Golden Buzzer recipient in the most recent season of America’s Got Talent.
In her book Sensing the Rhythm: Finding My Voice in a World Without Sound (via PEOPLE), she recalls losing her hearing, describing how she was studying at Colorado State University to become a music teacher when she realized she could not hear her professor talking. Later, she would learn that she had a connective tissue disorder which would ultimately cause her to lose all of her residual hearing.
Now Twain, who has just released her first album in 15 years, and Harvey, who has taught herself to sing and keep rhythm by tapping her feet on stage, have teamed up to show the world that they have finally conquered their battles.
Twain tells The Star, “I feel triumphant. I just feel like I’ve climbed this huge mountain and I made it to the top… And you know, coming from a time when I really thought I would never record an album again, that I would never tour again, that I would never sing professionally again.”
Of the performance, she tells Entertainment Tonight‘s Denny Directo, “It really warmed my heart to be standing there with someone that really understands loss and the courage that it takes to overcome that loss and to soldier on.”
Watch the powerful duet below.
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