You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while living with the disease. A month later she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was 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 Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I 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 found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
