Singer-songwriter Cat Janice went viral on social media with her hit dance-pop song, Dance You Outta My Head. Her brother, William Ipsan, talks to feature writer Molly Lee just one year after she passed away from sarcoma
Catherine Ipsan is lying in her bed in her childhood home. This is the room where she grew up, opening presents under the Christmas tree. This is where Catherine and her brother, William, would run in and out of the backyard, littering the house with dirt. This is where they would play the Nintendo 64 on the floor.
This is the room that symbolised her childhood.
Now it was the room that Catherine had chosen to spend her final moments.
She was just 31, a singer songwriter, beloved wife, sister and daughter – and a mum of one.
It seemed so drastically wrong that it had come to this.
Surrounded by her family, this was where Catherine wanted to be for her final moments.
Her brother, William Ipsan, is just one of the people by her side. They were close. They shared their love for music with each other, as they often would sit in her front yard in the spring and listen to songs under the stars.
“I literally felt her heartbeat stop,” says William, with a pause. Watching his sister die is something that he will always carry with him.
“It’s a very intense experience and it really showed me the fragility of life,” he adds.
Catherine Ipsan – known professionally as Cat Janice – died on Wednesday, February 28, 2024.
She left a profound legacy, as she dedicated her viral song Dance You Outta My Head to her then seven-year-old, son, Loren. All proceeds of the song went to him and his future.
This is a story of a singer, songwriter, musician – but also a mum whose death has left a huge void in the lives of so many.
Cat’s love for music started young. At the age of six, she started playing the piano and violin – she never stopped. Her mum, Stacey Ipsan, used to be a top 40 radio disc jockey in the 80s, until she couldn’t stand being away from her children.
Although their mum was no longer in the industry, it’s where her children got their musical curiosity from. The family’s old record player would play all her old vinyls – from Joni Mitchell to The Monkees to The Beatles and Frank Sinatra.
Influenced by this, Cat took music lessons at a young age and learnt how to record and write her own music as a teenager. In college, she worked on her first music project.
Her love for music was all consuming. Her songs were both personal and catchy but the one that became viral was Dance You Outta My Head, a catchy 3 minute 20 second pop sing and dance-along which was a hit all over the world, with more than 41 million streams on Spotify and used in more than two million TikTok videos.
When Cat first played the song to her brother, William, he didn’t think much of it. “It was a fun, exciting song but it didn’t really catch my attention,” he says. “Because I’ve heard so much of her music, I think she has so many great tracks.”
The tune was essentially her last one, her swan song. Catherine’s young life was cut short.
In March 2022, Cat, William and their mum found out together that Cat had sarcoma – a rare form of cancer. “It was shock, it was just shock,” Willam says, over and over. “There’s a lot of emotions to go through but, as a brother, you want to come up with a solution.”
William uses the phrase “tornado of emotions” to describe the experience.
Cat was optimistic. She hoped to be cured. She wanted to be around to watch her boy, Loren, grow up, to watch his piano recitals and other key moments of his childhood. She fought to the end for this, but cancer robbed her of a future she had dreamt of.
It became tragically clear that she had to prepare herself for death – and much sooner than she was expecting. “For two months, she had a very long journey with her faith and spirituality,” says William. Her unreleased songs are deeply personal and truly a reflection of herself as a person at this moment in time.
William has a difficult decision to make. He is in control of both Cat’s released and unreleased discography – but William and his family remain unsure whether to release it for everyone to listen. Even with some songs not released, Cat’s legacy is already long-lasting – not just on her son and family, but across the world.
“We’re just thankful that she had Loren, her son, as he fills her shoes more and more each day,” says William. “He’s very much like his mum.”
Loren is already showing an interest in music. He loves playing all the different Star Wars themes as a big fan of the franchise. Cat would be proud and, slowly, Loren is realising the legacy his mum has left behind. Over time, he’s become more exposed to his mum’s impact and contributes to creating content for her social media pages.
“Is he aware to the extent that her impact has made? No,” says William, who loves his nephew dearly. “I can’t wait for the day where he’s able to really look back on this time and see how many people really resonated with her story, and her music and legacy.”
The impact of her final song was widespread across the world. Dance You Outta My Head has been streamed more than 41 million times on Spotify and has been a viral hit on TikTok. All the royalties made from this have been put forward for Loren’s future.
For William, his outlook on life has completely changed since his sister’s passing. He’s determined to honour Cat and her life.
“The best way for me to do this is to kind of absorb the energy that she left over and pour it into activities,” he says.
He’s in what used to be Cat’s house. He took over the home when she died but hasn’t removed any of the memorabilia that fills it entirely. What he now uses as his recording studio used to be hers. Surrounded by memories of his sister, he’s determined to live his life to the fullest.
“I want to carry on her legacy that will create a better world for her son but also create a better world for myself.”
