You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and direct. 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.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking 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 come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
