Jessie J Artistfacts

March 27, 1988
Jessica "Jessie J" Cornish started her career in show biz as an 11-year old when she she was cast in Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End production of Whistle Down the Wind.
Jessie collapsed when out walking with her father and sister in Waltham Forest at the age of 11. She was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a hereditary heart condition the singer shares with Meat Loaf and Marilyn Manson. Jessie spent time in London's Great Ormond Street Hospital being treated for condition. Her Who You Are cut "Big White Room" was inspired by a sad incident during her stay there, when a little boy in an adjacent bed died.
She won Best Pop Singer on the TV show Britain's Brilliant Prodigies at the age of 15, performing as Jessica Cornish. (Here is YouTube video of her performance.)

Having won the award, Jessie realized that maybe it was music, not theatre, that would be her future. "There's footage of me saying, 'I just want to be a singer. I'd love people to hear my voice and know it's me'," she recalled, "and it's so surreal watching that not knowing that this was going to happen. When I won that, I thought, "Maybe I should be a pop singer."
At the age of 16, Jessie began studying at the renowned BRIT School and graduated in the class of 2006 along with singers Adele and Leona Lewis. Jessie loved the BRIT School.

"It taught me how to be streetwise because I had to get five trains there every day to get from Essex to Croydon," she told The Guardian. "I had to get up at the crack of dawn, so it gave me discipline. But I loved it. I loved learning, I loved it being different every day, loved not wearing uniform, the auditions. I would audition for everything. That's how I got into the girl band that got me the first deal."
Jessie got her first taste of the pop-star experience, while studying for her A levels at the BRIT school, when she auditioned for and joined a girl group named Soul Deep. However, the teenage singer realized after a year or so with the group that she needed to take control of her music career. "I remember being at the showcase for Soul Deep, singing sexy songs and doing these moves and thinking, 'Is this what it's come to? Songs about boys and being in the club?,'" Jessie recalled. "I realized that there were so many songs of my own that I wanted to write."
Jessie found success as a songwriter, gaining a Sony ATV publishing contract penning songs for the likes of Chris Brown, Dutch X Factor winner Lisa Lois, and most notably for Miley Cyrus (the American #2 hit "Party in the U.S.A.").
After building up an established online presence, Jessie J signed to Lava Records as part of a joint venture with Universal Republic. She released her debut single "Do It Like A Dude" in 2010, which peaked at #2 in the UK.
Jessie J's follow-up single, "Price Tag," was her global breakthrough, topping the charts in 19 different countries and also reaching the Top 40 of the Hot 100.
Jessie J came out as a bisexual in 2011 before renouncing it three years later. "For me, it was a phase," she told The Daily Mirror. "But I'm not saying bisexuality is a phase for everybody."
She ruptured several tendons in her foot during a rehearsal for the Capital Radio Summertime Ball in June 2011. Jessie performed at the festival from a golden throne, and did her Glastonbury set a fortnight later upon a similar throne while wearing an inflatable boot.
Jessie J was a coach on the BBC One program, The Voice UK for its first two series in 2012 and 2013. She quit because of touring commitments.
Jessie call the fans who follow her "the heartbeats," after her Heartbeat Tour.
Speaking to BBC Radio 1 for Jessie J: Lyrics of My Life, the singer described how dreaming was her only escape when growing up. "I had really big teeth, a big fringe. I was just uncomfortable in my skin. I wasn't the pretty kid, I was the awkward one that didn't know who I fitted in with," she said. "The only place where I could escape was my dreams. I would enjoy going to sleep because I could dream about something that I wasn't living."

"I remember when I first became established and I received Facebook messages from girls who used to throw stones at my head as I walked home from school," Jessie continued. "It just made me go, 'Who's laughing now?' It sparked a real emotion that I know hundreds of thousands of millions of children around the world are going through."
Having served as reality TV show judge on The Voice UK and The Voice Australia, Jessie J became a contestant herself on China's Singer 2018, a Chinese TV singing competition that involves established performers competing against each other. Jessie was the show's very first western act and she was crowned the winner after triumphing in the final with a huge 47.9% of the vote.

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