You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe 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, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
