You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
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. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut performing in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
