You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my backside 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 yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
