You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
