“You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.”

As the glowing and smiley 30-year-old strolled on stage you would have never guessed that the last few years of her life have been gripped by a battle with cancer. It wasn’t until Jane Marczewski, AKA Nightbirde, announced she was performing an original song on America’s Got Talent and Judge Howie Mandel asked what inspired the song, did we hear her story.

“The last time I checked I had cancer in my lungs, spine and liver”, she shared to a hushed auditorium.

“but it’s so important that people know I’m so much more than the bad things that happened to me”.

And then Nightbirde started to sing her original It’s Okay. By the end of her performance, all four judges were near sobbing. Simon Cowell awarded her the golden buzzer and the whole venue erupted in a standing ovation. Sadly we never got to see her perform in the finale. After her initial audition, her health took a turn for the worse and she had to exit the competition.

Since we first met Nightbirde in June 2021 she has garnered almost 40 million views on her audition video.

In heartbreaking news, we’ve learnt that Nightbirde passed away this weekend, on February 20th.

As a tribute we’ll be airing her song It’s Okay in High School Hits this afternoon after 2 pm. Listen to her lyrics and let her words resonate with you.