You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts 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 following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! 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 obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
