Singer-songwriter Jane Marczewski known by her musical moniker Nightbirde became a fan favorite on America’s Got Talent this season after a beautiful performance of her self-penned song, “It’s Ok.”
Not only did she display musical talent, but courage as well as she recounted battling cancer, which had recurred twice. An impressed Simon Cowell chose her as his “Golden Buzzer” which allowed her to advance immediately to the live shows.
Sadly, the singer announced earlier this week that her cancer is back again, and she needed to direct all of her energy to healing. Nightbirde dropped out of the competition. On Wednesday night (August 4) she shared with CNN’s Chris Cuomo the scope of her new cancer battle and how she stays hopeful for the future.
Cancer has taken over Nightbirde’s lungs and liver
When asked how she was doing, Nightbirde confessed that she has been “curled up in a ball like a little cocktail shrimp having A+ pity party for myself.” She explained, “It’s just been a bad bad month. Been really pretty devastating .” She explained, “I got shocking news less than a week ago about cancer regrowth that’s taken over my lungs and liver.” She added, vividly, “So my liver right now is mostly cancer, more cancer than liver in there right now.”
Disappointed that she had to drop out of AGT, she explained, “I am not a quitter. So it was really, really hard for me to say that I couldn’t finish the show.” Nevertheless, Nightbirde is “planning my future, not my legacy.” She knows some folks would call her attitude “blind denial” but she prefers to call it “rebellious hope.” She added, “I’m not stopping anytime soon.”
She continues to write music
For instance, the singer is still writing music. “I have so much beautiful stuff that I’m so excited to share and and I know that I will.” In the caption of the post sharing her bad news, Nightbird shared a snip of her new song. “Pretty beat up, but I still got dreams,” it read. The chorus goes: “I still got some magic in me. I don’t feel it, but I still believe. The music stopped, but I can still sing. I’m pretty beat up, but I still got dreams.”
Nightbirde believes that sometimes, when the pain is too much to bear, holding on to a dream is all that’s needed to get through. “Don’t you want to see what happens if you don’t give up? And that’s what I keep saying to myself.”
“I think when when you’re faced with so many blows to the gut in a row like I have over the past several years, you find out what you’re made of.” she said about how she stays strong. “You’re given the opportunity to choose what you want to become.”
Does Nightbirde ever ask “Why Me?”
“I try not to occupy myself with questions that are too big for myself to answer,” she explained. “It’s a waste of time. Just because it’s a mystery, doesn’t mean it’s the absence of meaning. Sometimes the mystery means there’s more meaning there. Then we can even understand. And so I accept that and I let go of the questions because it’s too heavy.”
No matter how painful her life becomes, Nightbird has chosen to keep her eyes open “It’s easier to close your eyes and to give up and forget it,” she said, “But there’s so much beauty and poetry to be seen in the world. If you are willing to sign off on the pain that it takes to stay awake in the middle of something that hurts so bad. And that’s that’s all this is. Anybody can do it.”
As far as the future is concerned, Nightbirde firmly believes that she has a future. “This cancer has got to go,” she said. “Which I really believe is going to happen soon. I really do.” Once she’s feeling better, she plans to “write the most amazing record you’ve ever heard in your life. And I’ll see you on the road.”
Nightbirde GoFundMe raised over $356K
Meanwhile, Nightbirde created a GoFundMe page with a goal of $30,ooo. It now has nearly raised $356K. At the end of the interview, Nightbird thanked Cuomo for advertising the fund.
Nightbirde explains on the page that late summer “after the finalization of my divorce and months after my cancer free report, I suffered a catatonic mental breakdown.” She took some brain wave therapy, and her health improved temporarily. But then the cancer came back. Therefore, she is back in treatment, and had to quit AGT.
Watch Nightbird’s interview with Chris Cuomo on CNN
