Christian singer and songwriter Mandisa has died.

According to her Facebook page, the 47-year-old former American Idol contestant passed away in her Nashville home on Thursday, April 18. 

Mandisa was well known for her positive, upbeat and encouraging music, but beneath it, she said she struggled to deal with her everyday life at times. 

After losing a close friend to cancer, a friend for whom she wrote her award-winning song, "Overcomer", Mandisa descended into a dark pit of depression, isolating herself from family and friends.

Two years in, Mandisa's friends and family intervened and surrounded her, filling her with positivity. 

"They forced me to get counselling," Mandisa explained in an interview with CHVN in 2022. "That's when I finally started dealing with that grief that I had been stuffing down. It was through my counselling journey that I finally started opening up, and it was through the love of the people around me that I started dealing with these things." 

Mandisa wrote about her struggles in her book, Out of the Dark: My Journey through the Shadows to Find God's Joy, released in 2022.

"I think so many people have struggled. Even people that we see in the Bible. The way that I see God address those people, is not by saying, I'm so ashamed of you, I'm so disappointed, but with love and with grace. I think that's how we should respond to each other as well."

"I want to encourage people, even if you think you're not making a difference, reaching out and letting somebody know that you care and that you love them, they hear that. Whether or not you get the response that you want, they hear it, and it does make a difference."

The cause of Mandisa's death is unknown at this time. 

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