You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
