Jessie J is not about the money on her latest tour.
“We’re on a bit of a budget,” the Brit singer joked at the House of Blues Friday night to explain the bare-bones setup that was stripped of the usual pop star bells and whistles.
There were no confetti guns, no aerialist trapezes, no fire towers, not even a costume change as the singer (real name Jessica Cornish) committed to a hyper-pigmented catsuit that oddly matched the ornateness of the concert hall. “I’ve dressed as the venue … I’m just here to blend in,” she jested.
Of course, she failed to do so. With her refreshing candor and a signature voice that spans octaves and breathes notes of R&B, pop, soul and jazz, Cornish was impossible to miss for nearly two hours. Supported by a piano player, bassist and acoustic guitarist, the ensemble rolled through 15 years of material, giving songs like “Price Tag” and “Domino” a fresh take embedded with a cabaret vibe that was as slinky as it was raw.
The day-one fans who sold out the venue had waited nearly a decade for this moment. It took eight years for Jessie J’s latest album, “Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time” to see the light of day in 2025 and even longer for a tour as the singer stepped out of the limelight to deal with an unimaginable amount of setbacks, including failed personal and professional relationships, devastating miscarriages and a bout with breast cancer last year. Nothing was off limits Friday night as the 37-year-old took the meaning of her No Secrets Tour to heart.
“I’m going to overshare tonight,” Cornish (now a mom to son Sky and releasing work independently) shared before performing the tour’s namesake song. “It was really weird for me to be diagnosed with breast cancer literally 10 days before this song came out.” As she explained, many wanted the singer to hit pause on all activities so she could take time to heal, but she refused. “That’s not me, that’s not who I am, that’s not how I’ve ever dealt with anything. Music is a healer for me … and I’m so glad I talked about it because I worked too f—ing hard to shut it down. Do you know how many catsuits I was waiting to wear? I don’t care if I’ve got t–s or not, I’m going out!”
This tour offered a sense of redemption for the singer who unfairly fell out of orbit as the pop world kept spinning during her time away. Because of it, Cornish — who attended the famed BRIT School in the U.K. at the same time as Adele — never reached her schoolmate’s level of fame and accolades, even as Jessie J remains one of the best voices in the business.
But there’s hope 2026 could be her moment. Short of calling it a comeback, it’s more of a reinvention. The bubblegum vanity of songs like “Bang Bang” (which she refused to play Friday) has been popped, replaced by honest reflections in new works like the confessional “Complicated” and the mouthy dagger “Threw It Away” that tonally fit in with the current temperature of revealing artists like Billie Eilish and Charli xcx.
Even reworking an oldie like “Who You Are” into a near-spoken word ballad repurposed it as a mature manifesto. As she performed the track, Cornish pointed at the crowd and hit her own chest as a reminder to stay true to yourself.
“Everyone around me was telling me to be someone different,” she shared of the meaning behind the song. When she performed the incredibly heavy “I’ll Never Know Why” (a song about losing her former bodyguard Dave to suicide), Cornish nearly broke down in the moment and pleaded with the men in the audience to “talk more and express how you feel,” adding, “we care.”
Beyond the grief and honesty, there were moments of levity. “Perspective is so important; this last year made me realize life is about picking the battles,” the singer shared, balancing the show with her trademark tell-it-like-it-is humor, usually at the fans’ expense.
Cornish picked on a woman in the balcony named Ariana for snacking on food during the set and then deadlocked on another unnamed guy, bidding him to sing a few bars of “If I Save You” solo. Three fans also had the chance to duet with Jessie J after she spotted them carrying posters or heard them screaming from the floor, begging for the chance. One of them, Christian, sounded so good, Cornish suggested he take on operatic training.
Because if there’s any moral to the No Secrets Tour, it’s don’t let anything stop you. As Cornish delivered the joyous “Living My Best Life” to wind down the show, she had one last directive for fans: “I want you to go home tonight and then tomorrow, wake up and be a little more yourself,” she said. “Because you never know when it’s gonna end, so enjoy every minute.”
Set list for Jessie J performance Jan. 30 at the House of Blues in Chicago
Feel It On Me
Do It Like A Dude
No Secrets
If I Save You
Believe In Magic
Who You Are
I’ll Never Know Why
Price Tag
Complicated
Nobody’s Perfect (duet with fan Carmen)
Flashlight (duet with fan Christian, repeated with fan Steve)
Masterpiece
California
H.A.P.P.Y
Threw It Away
Living My Best Life
Domino
The Award Goes To