You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with the disease. A month later she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band the group 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 the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
