After navigating through a year of obstacles and virtual audiences, hit reality competition series America’s Got Talent kicked off its 16th season. One singer’s voice is already turning heads, and her story is grabbing the nation by its heartstrings.
The petite 30-year-old with a captivating smile and a sparkle in her eye, Jane Marczewski, whose stage name is Nightbirde, graced the AGT stage and took the opportunity to sing an original song entitled “It’s OK.”
Before singing, Marczewski responded to the judges’ questions, “It’s important that everyone knows that I’m so much more than the bad things that have happened to me.”
“It’s OK” is the Liberty University graduate’s way of sharing her journey of the past year, in which she battled with a third bout of metastatic breast cancer. Doctors gave her a 2% chance of survival, but she says, “Two percent is not 0%. Two percent is something, and I wish people knew how amazing it is.”
The song takes listeners on an emotional journey of personal turmoil and loss and includes Marczewski’s decision to choose joy no matter what.
As she finished her last lyric, the judges were left with their mouths agape. Once they regained their composure, the crowd erupted in a standing ovation.
The ever-petulant Simon Cowell said he wasn’t going to give her a yes; instead, he was “going to give her something else.” He reached over to strike the coveted golden buzzer, triggering a shower of sparkling confetti and launching the emotional singer to instant stardom.
Prior to her audition on America’s Got Talent, Nightbirde shared her testimony on the Then God Moved podcast with Adria Polite.
The singer shared that her faith in Jesus became her own while she attended a Christian middle school. A Bible teacher challenged the students to write a paper about what made them a Christian. She commented, “It was a challenging assignment” that sent her into a “really deep thought process” where she decided to follow Jesus on her own accord.
She also spoke of attending a recent worship service at a California beach where people were getting baptized. After the trauma of cancer and divorce, she wanted to get baptized again.
She commented, “When I got baptized, I just wanted to take a step and seal the envelope of the past, and say, ‘I’m just going to wash this off of me, I don’t want to wear pain anymore.'”
Describing the feeling she experienced as she came out of the water, Marczewski said, “I really felt like, it’s the first day of my life. I’m brand-new. And it’s going to be amazing.”
She continued, “I’ve just allowed God to take out so many of the thorns in my heart of the pain, of the things that have happened to me, and I just really believe that the best part of my story is coming now.”
“It’s OK” rose to the No. 1 spot on iTunes for Marczewski, nicknamed a “walking miracle” after her incredible performance. By virtue of the golden buzzer and automatic pass forward in the competition, he will be singing in the show’s next round in August.
The faith-filled singer offered a heartfelt lesson in her closing words to the judges: “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.” {eoa}
John Matarazzo is a digital content specialist for Charisma Media, reports for the Charisma News Podcast and is the host of AlongTheWay on the Charisma Podcast Network.
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