The Deaftones is a choir made up of 13 girls between the ages of 13 and 39; all but two of them are deaf. They auditioned on Ireland’s Got Talent earlier this month with a moving ballad, Ed Sheeran’s “Photograph,”evoking powerful emotions among the panelists as the two hearing members sang and the deaf lip-synched and signed the lyrics.
Their conductor, Shirley Higgins, started the choir seven years ago while teaching at a school for the deaf in Dublin. The 11 deaf members can’t experience music in the traditional sense, she said, and instead sense the music and words through a combination of vibrations and lip reading.
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“I think this choir group pretty much means everything to these girls because I don’t think they’d be as confident as they are,”Ciara, the only member of her family who can hear, said ahead of the performance. “All of them were just so excited to be here, so grateful for it and just really happy to be a part of this.â€
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Shirley described the different ways the members experience the music, saying:
Some of them hear the music and the words, some of them hear just the music, and some of them hear nothing at all.
All the judges were understandably blown away by the time they finished the piece …
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Giving them a standing ovation and unanimously voting for the group to advance to the finals.
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“The entertainment world is about emotions and so much just flowed out of you there towards us,”one of the judges, Jason Byrne, complimented the group.
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“I’d like to say thank you for sharing a bit of your world with us and allowing us in,” added another judge, Michelle Visage.
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Watch this incredibly talented group perform Ed Sheeran’s hauntingly beautiful piece below.
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