You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while living with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘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 concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut performing in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
