You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
