‘It has taught me to embrace life more’: Jessie J on cancer, comebacks and conquering the Chinese market
You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
