'The Voice' contestant Janice Freeman dead at 33
Janice Freeman, a powerhouse diva and cancer survivor who bravely competed on The Voice Season 13, has died of an apparent blood clot. According to TMZ, she was at home Saturday in Pasadena, Calif., when she began having trouble breathing. Her husband, Dion, called 911 and performed CPR until paramedics arrived, but the singer was pronounced dead at a local hospital around 5:30 p.m.
While Freeman was only 33 years old, she had already faced and beaten incredible odds in her life before even appearing on The Voice. She had battled cervical cancer, meningitis and lupus, and her previous partner, the father of her daughter, Hannah, had died from cancer when Hannah was only 4 years old. Freeman married in 2015, and when she auditioned for The Voice in 2017 with a rock ‘n’ soul remake of Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive,” she told the coaches, “I fought my whole life for this moment.” Freeman eventually joined Miley Cyrus’s team, and was clearly one of Cyrus’s favorites.
Freeman only made it to 11th place in her Voice season, despite wowing with passionate covers of Rose Royce’s “I’m Going Down” and Leela James’s “Fall for You.” Her elimination is still considered one of the most shocking in the history of the show. That night, a stunned Cyrus told her through tears, “I truly believe that if anybody deserves to stick around in this competition, it is you. You are a fighter. You are a role model. And more than any of that, you are The Voice. … I believe in heaven because of people like you.”
After Freeman’s exit, she and Cyrus stayed in touch, and in 2018, Freeman emotionally revealed on social media that Cyrus had helped her get back on her feet and find housing, paying her family’s security deposit and six months’ rent.
A post shared by the Jasmine BRAND (@thejasminebrand_) on Jan 1, 2018 at 2:45pm PST
Cyrus honored Freeman in her Instagram Stories Sunday morning, posting a photo of a rainbow with the caption, “Thank you @janicefreeman … for everything. This represents you perfectly.”
Sadly, Freeman is not the first cancer-survivor Voice contestant to die recently. Season 1 top four finalist Beverly McClellan died in October 2018 from endometrial cancer, at age 49. The Voice paid tribute to McClellan on the first live results episode of last season, and the show is sure to do the same for Freeman when this season, which premiered this past Monday, goes live.
Freeman is survived by her husband and daughter.
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