'America's Got Talent' Star Nightbirde Reportedly Dies at 31 After Cancer Battle
America's Got Talent fan-favorite performer Nightbirde has died following a lengthy battle with cancer. She was 31. The Zanesville, Ohio singer-songwriter, real name Jane Marczewski, died Sunday, TMZ reported the following day. AGT host Terry Crews took to Instagram after news broke to share his feelings in the wake of her tragic passing.
"We are saddened to learn about @_nightbirde's Passing. Our Condolences goes to her Closest Family & Friends in such of This difficult time. We Love you, Nightbirde," Crews wrote alongside a photo of Nightbirde performing for the judges during Season 16. The "It's Okay" singer immediately captured the hearts of viewers during her audition, filmed last summer, during which she revealed she had cancer in her lungs, spine and liver.
"I have a two percent chance of survival, but two percent is not zero percent. Two percent is something, and I wish people knew how amazing it is," she said at the time. Judge Simon Cowell awarded Nightbirde his Golden Buzzer for the season, allowing her to skip straight to the live shows, but in August, the artist announced she had to drop out of the competition after her health took a turn for the worse.
When the Season 16 finale aired in September, Nightbirde took to Instagram to share her complicated emotions about not being able to compete alongside the other finalists. "It's so hard for me to not be on the [America's Got Talent] stage for the finals this week," she wrote. "I bet you never saw someone win so hard and lose so hard at the same time. This isn't how the story was supposed to go."
"I spend a lot of time squeezing my eyes shut and trying to remember what I believe; counting my breaths in the grief cloud; burying my face into God's T-shirt. I remind Him sometimes, (and not kindly) that I believed Him when He told me the story He wrote for me is good, and that He never stops thinking of me," she continued. "I must be a fool in love, because even from under all this debris, I still believe Him. And when I'm too angry to ask Him to sit on my bed until I fall asleep, He still stays."
She concluded, "Here we are, you and I, signing off on the risk of REBELLIOUSLY HOPING for better days. Let us not be blind to our own glory. I'm raging and crying and hoping with everyone who needs to rage and cry and hope tonight."
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