TikTok members rallied around the singer, who disclosed that she had bequeathed the rights to her final song to her son as an inheritance of sorts while undergoing cancer treatment.
Wednesday at her family home in Annandale, Virginia, Cat Janice, a singer and songwriter whose upbeat pop track from hospice inspired thousands of online supporters to sway and even boogie in the face of tragedy, passed away. At the time, she was 31. The cause was sarcoma, according to her sibling, William Ipsan.
Who was Janice Cat?
Catherine Ipsan, a legal name that sounded like the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, began composing music during her teenage years and continued to release it through her twenties. However, “Dance You Outta My Head,” which she posted to social media alongside candid conversations about the arduous cancer treatments she endured, became her career’s greatest success almost immediately. She sang under the accompaniment of exuberant strings and disco-influenced guitar, “Dancing on the edge of disaster.”
Related: ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Actor Richard Lewis Passed Away After Suffering a Heart Attack!
The song was published by Ms. Ipsan on January 19, shortly after she entered hospice care. As her prognosis deteriorated, the song gained widespread attention on social media, where celebrities such as Jason Derulo and other users expressed their support.
The Song is to Support Her Son
As a means of supporting her 7-year-old son, Loren, in the aftermath of her death, Ms. Ipsan urged her followers to stream the song, which subsequently became a prevalent soundtrack on TikTok. “For the sake of my son, I am abandoning this song,” she wrote on TikTok.
She stated in a separate post that she had “altered the rights to my songs so that Loren receives every presale and stream.” More than two million TikTok videos have featured the song, which also marked the debut of the singer on the Billboard charts.
Born on January 20, 1993, Catherine Janice Ipsan was raised in a musical household outside of Washington, D.C. as the fourth of four children. She performed on the piano and violin, occasionally joined by her brother on the drums. Mr. Ipsan, 27, stated in an interview this month that their mother, a radio DJ, fostered a love of music in her children by saying, “We’d be singing every lyric to the Eagles and the Beatles and all the oldies.”
Related: Hydeia Broadbent Death – Is HIV Caused the Death of Famous Activist!
Her brother claims that Ms. Ipsan was a scientific geek as well, having majored in geology at George Mason University before starting her career as a geospatial analyst. But, he added, songwriting remained her creative outlet. “She will go do music if she’s stressed out or anything else.”
Sarcoma is an uncommon type of cancer that she initially discovered as a tumor in her neck and was diagnosed within 2022. According to her brother, she had surgery and more than a dozen rounds of chemotherapy. While receiving therapy, she shared videos of herself shaving and producing music on TikTok, among other intimate updates. In July 2023, she released the album “Modern Medicine.”