[ad_1]
Cat Janice, a singer and songwriter who released an upbeat pop song from Hospice that prompted her thousands of online followers to sway and even dance in the face of tragedy, died Wednesday at her family home in Annandale, Virginia. She was 31 years old. .
The cause was a sarcoma, according to William Ipsan, his brother.
The singer and multi-instrumentalist, whose legal name was Catherine Ipsan, began writing music as a teenager and released it when she was 20 years old. But “Dance You Outta My Head,” which she shared on social media along with her candid conversation about her grueling cancer treatments, quickly became the biggest hit of her career. Over disco-inflected guitar and lush strings, she sang about “dancing on the brink of disaster.”
Ms Ipsan released the song on January 19, a few days after entering palliative care. The song caught fire when her health outlook darkened, and social media users, including celebrities like Jason Derulo — leave messages of support.
It became a common soundtrack on TikTok after Ipsan encouraged his followers to stream the song as a way to support his 7-year-old son, Loren, after his death. “I leave this song to my son,” she said. wrote on tiktok. In another postHe said he had “changed all the rights to my songs so that every pre-order and every stream goes to Loren.”
The song has been used in over two million TikTok videos and became the singer’s signature song. first song to enter the Billboard charts.
“I’m praying my story isn’t over yet.” she wrote in a post on his birthday, the day after the song’s release. “But if so, this is a pretty awesome way to say goodbye.”
Catherine Janice Ipsan was born on January 20, 1993, one of four children in a musical family outside Washington, DC. She played the violin and piano, while her brother sometimes accompanied her on drums. Her mother was a radio DJ who instilled a love of music in her children, Ipsan, 27, said in an interview this month: “We sang every lyric to the Eagles and the Beatles and all the oldies.” .
According to her brother, Ms. Ipsan was also a science nerd, who studied geology at George Mason University before working as a geospatial analyst. But songwriting remained her outlet, she said. “If she’s stressed or something, she’ll go make music.”
In 2022 he was diagnosed with sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that he first noticed as a lump in his neck. He underwent surgery and more than a dozen rounds of chemotherapy, his brother said. He posted personal updates on TikTok, including videos of shaving his head and writing music while receiving treatment. She released an album, “Modern Medicine,” in July 2023.
“Cat always shares what she’s going through,” said her husband, Kyle Higginbotham, 36, also a musician. “Turns out what happened to him last year was cancer.”
He continued to perform at venues in the Washington area during treatment, sometimes alongside Mr. Higginbotham, who recalled taking his wife to rounds of chemotherapy and then playing a show with her the next day. They got engaged onstage in August, at her album release show, and married in December.
He started writing “Dance You Outta My Head” over the summer while in the car with Loren, Ipsan said. She sent a demo to Austin Bello, a producer she had worked with for more than seven years, and asked him to mix the track.
“What always impressed me was the clarity with which his edits came,” Bello said, offering as an example of one of his notes: “In one minute and 22 seconds, lower the harmonies 2.2 dB.”
The success of “Dance You Outta My Head” was gratifying but also painful, Ipsan said. “He’s happy that he’s been making music for so long and that he’s getting the recognition he deserves,” she said. But the outpouring of supportive messages from fans didn’t erase his disappointment that she would probably never be able to go on a headlining tour or attend the Grammy Awards.
She spent her final weeks at her family home in Annandale, baking bread and getting matching tattoos with family members. Mr. Higginbotham and Loren often sat next to her, playing electronic drum pads. When she felt strong enough, she hummed.
Higginbotham said he hoped his wife’s music career would be remembered as more than a “sad story.”
“It’s not just that a girl made a song because she’s dying of cancer,” he said. “Cat is a true artist and she dedicated every minute of her life to it, until the end.”