Cat Janice was a singer and songwriter who released a chart-topping hit while in hospice care for cancer. She left behind a seven-year-old son.
- Died: February 28, 2024 (Who else died on February 28?)
- Details of death: Died of sarcoma cancer at the age of 31.
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Cat Janice’s legacy
Janice’s lymph nodes were swollen after having just fought off long-haul COVID-19 in November 2021, but when the swelling was still present the following March, her self-described “hypochondria” prompted her to seek medical care. The prognosis wasn’t good – she was diagnosed was sarcoma, a rare type of cancer of the bones and soft tissue.
Born Catherine Janice Ipsan, Janice had studied music since she was four years old, playing violin and piano. By her teens, she had taught herself how to record and produce music. She released her first album in 2014 at 21 and followed up with a second album the next year. While working as a geospatial scientist, her work began gaining audiences’ attention, and in 2019, she won a WAMMY (Washington Area Music Award) for Best Rock Artist in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The following year, her song “Pricey” was featured in the Netflix show “Selling Sunset,” and in 2023, she performed with SOJA at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.
But after a brief remission, in May 2023, the cancer had reached her lungs and by January 2024, her “tumors basically tripled overnight.” However, Janice kept making music and pushed to ensure her last recording was released into the world. “Dance You Outta My Head” dropped later that month, with all proceeds from streaming going to her seven-year-old son, Loren. Racking up millions of streams, the song went to No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 and landed in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.
In her last TikTok video, she wrote, “I won’t be stuck in this body anymore. I’ll be dancing again ❤ I hope to see you all there ❤”
On Cat Janice’s final wishes:
“I changed all the rights of my songs to my son so I can leave him behind something … I might not be here but my baby boy will be.”—from a January 2024 TikTok caption
Tributes to Cat Janice
Full obituary: The New York Times
