You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
