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Nightbirde Steps Away from AGT Due to Battle With Cancer: ‘Pretty Beat Up, But I’ve Still Got Dreams’

Photo from Nightbirde’s Instagram

Nightbirde Steps Away from AGT Due to Battle With Cancer: ‘Pretty Beat Up, But I’ve Still Got Dreams’

By Movieguide® Staff

Singer-songwriter Jane Marczewski, better known by her stage name Nightbirde, received the Golden Buzzer during an audition on June 8 for AMERICA’S GOT TALENT.

However, Nightbirde announced this week that her battle with cancer needs her full attention and energy and will not continue her run on AGT.

“Since my audition, my health has taken a turn for the worse and the fight with cancer is demanding all of my energy and attention,” Nightbirde explained. “I am so sad to announce that I won’t be able to continue forward on this season of AGT. Life doesn’t always give breaks to those that deserve it—but we knew that already.”

The 30-year-old artist performed her original song called “Its OK,” which captured the audience’s hearts and grew to become No. 1 on the iTunes all-genre chart and No. 4 globally.

Even more shocking to the viewers and judges was Nightebirde’s joy in the face of her circumstances.

“It’s important that everyone knows that I’m so much more than the bad things that happened to me,” she told the judges at the time.

During her audition, Nightbirde revealed that not only was she fighting cancer for the third time, but that she currently had a 2% chance to live.

“But 2% is not 0%. Two percent is something, and I wish people knew how amazing it is,” she said at the time.

Listen: Movieguide® Staff discuss Nightbirde, the Olympics and more in their new podcast! 

 

“Sharing my heart with the world on AGT has been an honor and a dream come true. My point of view this summer has been astounding,” Nightbirde wrote on her Instagram. “What a miracle that the pain I’ve walked through can be reworked into beauty that makes people all over the world open their eyes wider.”

“Thank you for all your support, it means the world to me. Stay with me, I’ll be better soon. I’m planning my future, not my legacy. Pretty beat up, but I’ve still got dreams,” she concluded.

On her blog, Nightbirde shared how her relationship with God is a source of joy despite her circumstances.

Movieguide® previously reported:

“I have had cancer three times now, and I have barely passed thirty. There are times when I wonder what I must have done to deserve such a story. I fear sometimes that when I die and meet with God, that He will say I disappointed Him, or offended Him, or failed Him. Maybe He’ll say I just never learned the lesson, or that I wasn’t grateful enough. But one thing I know for sure is this: He can never say that He did not know me,” Nightbirde said.

“Call me bitter if you want to—that’s fair. Count me among the angry, the cynical, the offended, the hardened. But count me also among the friends of God. For I have seen Him in rare form. I have felt His exhale, laid in His shadow, squinted to read the message He wrote for me in the grout: ‘I’m sad too,'” she explained. “If an explanation would help, He would write me one—I know it… I remind myself that I’m praying to the God who let the Israelites stay lost for decades. They begged to arrive in the Promised Land, but instead He let them wander, answering prayers they didn’t pray. For forty years, their shoes didn’t wear out. Fire lit their path each night. Every morning, He sent them mercy-bread from heaven.”

“I see mercy in the dusty sunlight that outlines the trees, in my mother’s crooked hands, in the blanket my friend left for me, in the harmony of the wind chimes. It’s not the mercy that I asked for, but it is mercy nonetheless. And I learn a new prayer: thank you,” Nightbirde wrote in her blog post. “It’s a prayer I don’t mean yet, but will repeat until I do. Call me cursed, call me lost, call me scorned. But that’s not all. Call me chosen, blessed, sought-after. Call me the one who God whispers his secrets to. I am the one whose belly is filled with loaves of mercy that were hidden for me.”

She concludes: “Even on days when I’m not so sick, sometimes I go lay on the mat in the afternoon light to listen for Him. I know it sounds crazy, and I can’t really explain it, but God is in there—even now. I have heard it said that some people can’t see God because they won’t look low enough, and it’s true. Look lower. God is on the bathroom floor.”

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.