You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘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 viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut 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 medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
