America’s Got Talent review: Did Colin Cloud, Mandy Harvey rule second semifinals?

The second America’s Got Talent semifinal show is bringing you all sorts of talent, and hopefully also some great surprises to go with it. Some of our favorites tonight include Colin Cloud, Mandy Harvey, and Light Balance, so we’re hoping that they find a way to stand out from this field.

Just because these three are among our favorites, that doesn’t mean that they’re going to get preferential treatment here! Over the course of the night we’re going to review these performances, and rank them in order from our least-favorite to favorite on the night. (We’re doing something a little bit different tonight.)

Be sure to refresh the page here at CarterMatt over the course of the night for more!

11. Pompeyo Family Dogs – Did the costumes get in the way tonight? Well, we do think that dressing up the dogs as penguins may have actually hurt their mobility. Also, this was chaotic and a lot more all over the place in compared to the previous act. We will say this: It got better as it went on after getting off to a pretty poor start with the dogs running around in confusion.

10. Merrick Hanna – We love Merrick as a dancer and we do think that he’s got an amazing future on the show. With that being said, we do think that Merrick does still have a little ways to go on the road to being complete. He needs larger productions and even more varied styles of dance. Our feeling is that he should go off now, hone his skill, and do So You Can Think You Can Dance in several years when he’s eligible.

9. Kechi – One of the themes of tonight for singers (see Christian as well) is making questionable song choices, and this didn’t really do a whole lot for us. While Kechi does have a nice voice, we felt listening to this as though we were drawn in because of her story rather than her talent. It pains us to say it, but at this point that’s not enough.

8. Celine Tam – “How Far I’ll Go” is the first song that Celine has done this season that feels age-appropriate for her. Moana is a great movie, and we feel like she connected with the song better. Did it showcase her voice perfectly? Probably not, but we prefer this to her going up on stage and doing predictable, big singing-show ballads. Couldn’t disagree more with Mel B over the song choice.

7. Christian Guardino – This was a really good performance for Christian, and a step up from a somewhat-forgettable quarterfinals number. As for whether or not it’s enough to get him to the next phase of the competition, that’s still up in the air. We just think that there are SO many singers this season and after performing early in the night, he’ll likely get lost.

6. Angelica Hale – If we were basing this solely on the first half of Angelica’s closing performance, we’d have her ranked even higher on this list. The first half of her “Without You” performance was stunning, but then she started to somewhat substitute feeling for hitting a ton of big notes and showing everything that she could do. It’s impressive, but the pitch wavered ever so slightly.

5. Light Balance – The technology was outstanding throughout the routine this time, which technically went off without a hitch here. Were this last week we’d probably say that this was our #3 favorite of the night; however, this just so happens to be a week where there are SO many performers who are all bringing in a crazy level and we’re beyond lucky to have this level of talent.

4. In the Stairwell – Dang, guys! This was so much better than we imagined that it was going to be going into it. With “Castle on the Hill,” they evolved beyond just the normal vocal group and into people capable of delivering an emotional performance. We love these guys for their service, but it was important that we could judge them solely on their vocals. Tonight’s performance made that possible.

3. Mandy Harvey – This was another incredible performance from Mandy, and what we loved about it was that it just oozed emotion. It was moving, haunting, and the vocals were so raw. We loved her package tonight talking about how music is not just about sound; it’s about heart. She proved that, and were it not for two other performances tonight we’d say that this is the best one that we had a chance to see during the show.

2. Diavolo – Good luck trying to top this, any other acrobat act to ever come on this show. At this point a whole lot of it just boils down to personal preference between the top two, and this was absolutely brilliant how much was crammed into this moving, athletic, and stunning performance. This is a show that could and should sell out all over the country right now.

1. Colin Cloud – This may be, bar none, the greatest mentalist stunt in the history of the show. At first, we started off wondering if, for the second straight performance, he was going too slow with his delivery. Then, he showed off the package of him going undercover to prove that “Ellen Rose Cheese” is what he predicted would come out of his social-media guessing game. The video was top-notch, and he is worthy of the finale and then some after that.

Who was your favorite on America’s Got Talent tonight? Share now in the comments! (Photo: NBC.)