You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought 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’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
