Published: September 17, 2021
Nightbirde Was ‘Raging and Crying’ After AGT Finale, But God ‘Still Stays’
By Movieguide® Staff
For fans of AMERICA’S GOT TALENT, the season 16 finale was bittersweet.
Earlier in the competition, fan-favorite Nightbirde captivated the hearts of audiences around the world. However, due to her battle with cancer, Nightbirde announced that she would leave AGT to focus on her health.
Despite her absence from the show, fans have supported Nightbirde and her music since she earned the golden buzzer from Simon Cowell during her audition performance of an original song, “It’s OK.”
“I have a 2 percent chance of survival, but two percent is not zero percent. Two percent is something, and I wish people knew how amazing it is,” Nightbirde told the judges during her first appearance on the show.
In a recent Instagram post, Nightbirde confessed that dealing with her health circumstances and watching AGT from the sidelines is difficult.
“It’s so hard for me to not be on the @agt stage for the finals this week. I bet you never saw someone win so hard and lose so hard at the same time. This isn’t how the story was supposed to go,” she wrote. “I spend a lot of time squeezing my eyes shut and trying to remember what I believe; counting my breaths in the grief cloud; burying my face into God’s t-shirt.”
In her mourning, Nightbirde said that God is still by her side.
“I remind Him sometimes, (and not kindly) that I believed Him when He told me the story He wrote for me is good, and that He never stops thinking of me. I must be a fool in love, because even from under all this debris, I still believe Him. And when I’m too angry to ask Him to sit on my bed until I fall asleep, He still stays,” she wrote, concluding: “I’m raging and crying and hoping with everyone who needs to rage and cry and hope tonight. Also wishing on helium balloons.”
Cowell, who shared the special moment with Nightbirde during her audition, said that he keeps in contact with Nightbirde, encouraging her to be proud of all she accomplished.
“Unfortunately, she is really ill and could not make the finals. However, it was always her dream for her music to be heard by millions. That’s what’s happened off the back of this,” Cowell told PEOPLE. “We talk about once every two weeks. It was a difficult conversation we had about does she enter the show or not. I know that she was very down. I called her and I said that, ‘Honestly if I was in your position, I wouldn’t do it.’ Because you don’t need the stress right now. It’s just not worth it.”
“You can always re-enter the show, or you don’t have to, because at this point, when you put your music out, I think a lot of people are going to buy it. So why put yourself through it?” he added. “You’re not letting anyone down, because that’s what she kept saying to me. You’re not — you’re going to be missed, but you’re not letting anyone down.”