Heavy/YouTube/Getty Alicia Witt has released a music video for her new song, "Witness"
Actress and singer Alicia Witt has channeled an “unimaginably hard chapter” of her life into an emotional new song and music video. Released on April 10, 2023, “Witness” gives voice to the Hallmark star’s deep gratitude for those who have seen her through the hardship of the last year and a half, from battling breast cancer to the shocking death of her parents.
In an Instagram post on March 29, Witt wrote, “Witness is a deeply personal anthem about getting thru an unimaginably hard chapter – and coming out the other side, forever changed.”
She continued, “most of all, it’s about those who walked with you through it. it’s a love song above all else ❤️🔥”
Alicia Witt Has Battled Cancer & ‘Floods of Grief’ Since 2021
The “unimaginably hard chapter” Witt referred to in the description of her new song included her own battle with breast cancer and the discovery, weeks after beginning cancer treatment, that her parents had died.
In December 2021, Witt, who lives in Nashville, quietly began treatment for HER2+ breast cancer, per People, deciding not to publicly disclose her diagnosis until she’d completed six rounds of chemotherapy and a unilateral mastectomy. She didn’t reveal her cancer journey publicly until that June, two months after her last chemo infusion, writing in an Instagram post that it had been important to her to keep her medical journey quiet while reeling from “the horribly public tragedy that had happened in our family just as i was beginning my treatments.”
On December 20, mere weeks after starting cancer treatment, her parents — Robert Witt, 87, and Diane Witt, 75 — were found dead in their Massachusetts home after she asked a relative to check on them, according to the Associated Press. It was later determined that they died of “probable cardiac dysrhythmia” due to the cold, according to death certificates obtained by The Telegram & Gazette.
In a January 2022 Facebook post, Witt wrote that her heart was broken and that she was overcome by “overwhelming floods of grief.”
“I had no idea that their heat had gone out,” Witt wrote. “I will never understand how or why they made the choice not to tell me this, not to let me help them with this. My heart is broken.”
Co-written with songwriter Matt Wynn, Witt’s new song is an ode to those who walked by her side through so much personal trauma.
“Oh, this strangest season went by in a blur,” she sings, “I’m still spinning from the whirlwind but you walked me thru the worst.”
In the music video, she’s seen seated in a chair with shadows on a tarp draped behind her and light streaming into the studio in front of her. Dressed in a sleeveless black dress, Witt taps into a range of emotions, from despair to joy, in her facial expressions and movements as she sings, occasionally placing her hand near the chest scar that still exists from her chemo port. On April 2, she shared a photo from the set on Instagram and wrote that she was “deeply grateful for an inspiring, beautiful and cathartic day.”
Alicia Witt is Healing Through Creativity & Hopes to Return to Hallmark
With a full album release planned for May 25, Witt has immersed herself in multiple creative pursuits as she heals, from recording new music to recently filming a horror movie called “Longlegs” with Nicolas Cage and Blair Underwood. On April 13 and 14, she’s performing at The NAMM Show, a major music convention in Southern California for those who work in the music industry.
But many Hallmark fans have been hoping for a return to the network soon, since her last Hallmark movie was 2020’s “Christmas Tree Lane” with Andrew Walker. And Witt has said she’d love to return.
On a March Instagram post, when a fan asked whether the horror film meant she’d “given up” on making Hallmark movies, Witt replied that she’d love to return but is still waiting for an offer.
She wrote, “while my offers over the past two and a half years have not included any from hallmark, i would always be open to making another movie there – my heart would be very happy to make another christmas movie with them this year! 😍 i miss making them.”
In December 2022, she replied to another fan who asked on Twitter about her status with Hallmark. At that time, Witt said her name may have gotten lost in the shuffle after the network went through changes in its executive team, including CEO Wonya Lucas taking over in 2020.
Witt shared on Twitter, “we’ve been in touch recently & my understanding is that it’s been an oversight, with the changes over there… i’ve always loved making them & hope to next year!”