Joseph Clarke and Bri’Anna Harper, aka Uncle JoJo and 12-year-old niece Bri, took the stage for the second performance of the night. The duo had been singing together since she was 9, but AGT was their first time singing together live in front of an audience. After Simon said that their audition was one of his favorites of the year, the pair had a lot to live up to last night.
The duo performed their own rendition of “You Gotta Be” by Des’ree, opening with Uncle JoJo. Having been on AGT before — but with a different group — Uncle JoJo was no stranger to the stage. Bri, on the other hand, was not only singing live with her uncle for only the second time, but performing on live TV for the first ever quarter-finals. Understandably, Bri seemed nervous, causing tension in her vocal cords that resulted in some off-pitch singing. Although she quickly found her footing, the pair gave a pretty underwhelming performance. Cute as they were, the song didn’t do a great job showcasing their vocals, and was overall… a little boring.
“I have a feeling you may have gone off-key at times,” Simon told his previously stated favorite audition, though it wasn’t all bad. “Probably cause you’re excited, you were nervous. Maybe not… I just really, really, really like you two.”
“You sir, you already know I love you from the last season,” Howie added, “I hope that I don’t get booed, but Bri, you are the star. And I think that if you did this alone, you would just go to the stratosphere. But this, it comes off a little gimmicky to me.” And, yes, he did get booed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1n_Odz0FyQ
