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Facing the end of her life, Janice wanted to release the song that began as a bonding moment with her 7-year-old son and give the proceeds from the single to him. She rushed to release the music on January 19, the day before her birthday.
“I didn’t even know if I was going to be alive when this song came out, at that time. So I just did it and now here we are,” said Janice, born Catherine Janice Ipsan. “And honestly, it’s a miracle.”
The song, “Dance out of my head” has since skyrocketed to the top 10 songs on iTunes and been used in over 34,000 TikToks. The users sharing it They range from young adults to people whose accounts identify themselves as “GramaCarolyn” and “Grandadjoe.” Several have posted in other languages, including French and Ukrainian, encouraging others to share the song support. Even singer Jason Derulo commented on one of Janice’s videos that he was praying for her.
Many of the people who share the single They said they felt a personal connection to Janice’s story. For 18-year-old Sophie Soraya Hamidi, her experience with lymphoma made her want to support another cancer patient. She used the song in a Tik Tok that showed her having blood tests done.
“Listening to this song, ‘Dance You Outta My Head,’ is kind of a way for me to say, ‘I’m not going to think about this cancer,’” he said.
The song’s success has had a ripple effect. David Zierler, owner of Las Vegas-based Handwriting Records, who worked with Janice on an album last year, said the success has spurred people to discover more of her music.
“They’re not just listening to that song,” he said. “They are following her. “They are following the story.”
“I didn’t even know if I was going to be alive when this song came out, at that time. So I just did it and now here we are.”
– Janice Cat
Janice grew up in Annandale, the daughter of a former DJ who taught his children to love the Beatles and Pink Floyd. As a child, Janice played violin in a local orchestra and later spent hours writing songs.
Her brother, Will Ipsan, said she often sneaked into her bedroom while the family played board games to play the piano. When he finally joined her upstairs, she would still be immersed in the music.
“There she is at her piano, playing some Lana Del Rey song, looking out the window.” said Ipsan, 27.
Janice was working as a geospatial information scientist and building her singing career when her life changed dramatically in 2022. An unusual lump in her neck turned out to be a sarcoma, a rare cancer. He withdrew from his master’s program in coastal geology and limited his work hours while making regular trips to New York City for treatment.
Seventeen rounds of chemotherapy later, doctors offered some much-needed good news: Janice was cancer-free. Her now-husband, Kyle Higginbotham, said the couple bought a home in West Palm Beach, Florida, ready for a move.
That new chapter never came. The cancer came back a few months later and this time it was in her lungs.
But Janice continued making music, performing in shows and recording her appropriately named album, “Modern Medicine.” She documented her experience with cancer in Tik Tok and instagramgaining followers who were there as much to support her during her illness as they were for her music.
In the fall, Janice entered a contest with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers that paired her with Tony Award-nominated composer Max Vernon. They spent the next few weeks making video calls, developing He brought out the song that Janice and her son had started creating and ended up winning the contest.
By December, Janice’s health was rapidly deteriorating. She and Higginbotham, who had gotten engaged in August at her album release party, decided to accelerate their plans to get married.
“We got closer to Christmas,” Higginbotham recalled, “and conversations with doctors started changing from ‘We think we can beat this’ to ‘It’s moving too fast.'”
They were married on December 28 in the church where her parents had married years before: Janice adorned in a glittering gold dress and crown. Although she had to remain seated during the ceremony, Higginbotham said she was able to muster enough strength to walk down the aisle.
Janice entered intensive care a few days later. Realizing that she might not survive much longer, she decided to release a final song that would honor her connection to her son, Loren. A musically inclined child and a big fan of her mother’s songs, he often helps Janice with music videos and enters her home studio to offer her opinions.
Janice also wanted her latest song to have a positive message. She had plenty of sad or edgy songs in the vault, she said, but sharing them didn’t feel right. “Dance You Outta My Head,” on the other hand, focuses on dancing until you forget about someone you don’t want to think about.
“She just wanted everyone to dance and remember her that way,” Ipsan said. “And remember her as someone who made you dance, out of your mind and into your body.”
Janice usually spends a month or two preparing a song for release, but she knew she didn’t have that time. She stopped working with her usual label and released the song independently.
“Dance You Outta My Head” was released just before Janice’s birthday on January 20, when friends and family surprised her with a party at her hospice space. Surrounded by sparkling disco balls and gold balloons, Janice marveled at being alive.
“Truly,” she said, “I feel blessed by God to be able to have this moment with my son.”
The support of his loved ones and fans. has encouraged Janice during what could be her last days. One day, when she woke up in the middle of the night and saw her song taking off on iTunes, she screamed in excitement, causing her friend to run into the room, thinking something was very wrong.
Janice is receiving radiation, which her brother says has bought her some time, and the family is raising funds for his continued treatment.
But Janice knows that this song may represent the end of her musical career and hopes that her legacy will be that she always stayed true to herself in her music and other creations.
“Any art that I’ve left behind, whether it’s ceramics or painting or whatever, has just been an expression of myself and it’s just been me,” she said. “Here I am, you know?”