It didn’t take long for 30-year-old vocalist Jane Marczweski — known professionally as Nightbirde — to win over the hearts of America’s Got Talent judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel and Sofía Vergara.
While singing her original song “It’s Ok,” Nightbirde’s authenticity and ethereal vocals took center stage. Simon, who is known to be a fairly harsh critic, even called her voice “absolutely stunning.”
During the audition, however, Nightbirde shared some tough personal news — she had “some cancer” in her lungs, spine and liver. Nightbirde also later revealed that she was given a 2% chance of survival.
When Howie told her that “nobody would ever know” she was dealing with cancer, Nightbirde replied, “Thank you. It’s important that everyone knows that I’m so much more than the bad things that happen to me”.
In the end, Simon gave Nightbirde the golden buzzer and a hug on stage. “Everything about that was really special,” Simon told the artist, as gold confetti covered the AGT set.
Getting to that special moment on stage was anything but easy for Nightbirde. According to what the Zanesville, Ohio native revealed during her audition, Nightbirde had been taking time off from work in recent years to deal with her diagnosis. She has had cancer now three times.
As for the latest health update on the singer, Nightbird told NBC4i.com the day after her AGT audition aired that she currently has cancer again and isn’t “in the clear.” That said, she was actually sicker earlier this year when the audition happened than she is presently.
“Physically, I’m doing really well,” Nightbirde explained to the outlet. “Again, for me it’s just like miracle after miracle after miracle. I just finished up some treatments a week ago and the doctors are anticipating that it’s going to take care of everything that was left over.
We won’t be able to test — it’s too early to really check. It’ll be a few more months until we can go back in and see what’s going on. But I’m expecting good news, I really am.”
“The singer, who is still battling cancer, said she loves writing songs as “it is the only way that I know how to make sense of the bad things that happen to me sometimes.”