Jessica Cornish, 31, was born and raised in Redbridge, east London. She began her career aged 11 with a role in the West End musical Whistle Down the Wind. At 16 she enrolled at the Brit School before rising to fame in 2010 with the release of her first single, Do It Like a Dude. She has since sold 23m records, performed at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics and been a judge on the talent shows The Voice and The Voice Kids. She lives alone, splitting her time between LA and London.
I am usually woken up around 7am by an alarm that I want to destroy. If I am going to the gym I have a probiotic in the kitchen and grab a protein bar. Otherwise I go big on breakfast. I’m vegan and love to cook, so I might make a puff pastry and put tofu, courgette, onion and chickpeas inside. If it’s good for you, I’ll eat it.
I’ll do some housework in the morning. I work off to-do lists and go through each room with my assistant and sort out what needs doing, or buying. Tidying is my love language. Cooking, organising, singing and sex are my favourite things, in that order. If I wasn’t a singer, I’d be a house organiser like Marie Kondo.
I’ve loved to sing for as long as I can remember. Whitney Houston was a huge inspiration. Her song I Have Nothing was my audition song that got me the record deal that took me where I am today. When I first started as a singer I loved being a role model, but now I don’t want to be one. It’s not healthy for young people to idealise anyone or put people on a pedestal just because they have a talent. It puts you in these handcuffs that, if you break them, you let millions of people down.
Lunch is usually between 12 and 1 and I’ll have anything healthy that isn’t from an animal. I like to make a good stew or have vegetables and protein. I prefer to have softer carbs for lunch, then do crazy carbs like pasta or baked potatoes at dinner.
If I’m recording, I’ll go to the studio in the afternoon. I have loads of lyrics, song titles and ideas saved as notes on my phone. The idea for my song Do It Like a Dude came to me when I walked into a club with all my girls and saw these guys with their hands down their trousers. I thought, “What would people think if we [women] grabbed our crotches and wore our hats low?”
When I got a house in California, the media wanted to make out I’d run away there, but I didn’t up and leave. I was working in Australia and Asia and so LA was a more convenient place to be [than London]. Having said that, my anxiety had got to a point where I couldn’t live in London full time. I felt too claustrophobic. In LA people are so much more used to seeing people who are known that they allow them to be.
I love to go for walks. I sound like an 80-year-old, but I like to go and talk to or observe people at places like the beach. I like documentaries and things about real people. My mum’s a teacher and my dad a social worker, so my upbringing was rooted in reality.
I don’t like late-night sessions, so I’ll finish work at around six and go home. In the evenings I like to unwind with a bath or meditation. I put on nice music, light candles, do a face mask, put on sexy underwear and just be with myself. I’m usually in bed by midnight.
I’m quite a spiritual person and I’ve started energy cleansing. It’s when someone goes into your energy and cleans out any dark energy people have wished upon you. I’ve learnt a lot from all of my relationships, even my most recent one [with the actor Channing Tatum]. I’ve learnt that there are things you can’t control when you are with someone famous and you have to learn to understand and respect that.
Jessie’s single One More Try from the Original London Cast Recording of & Juliet is out now
