Pop singer-songwriter and American Idol alum Jax makes her first visit to the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated Aug. 13), thanks to her feel-good, body-positivity single “Victoria’s Secret.”
The song, released on Atlantic Records, debuts at No. 83 with 5.6 million U.S. streams (up 68%) and 7,000 downloads sold (up 35%) in the July 29-Aug. 4 tracking week, according to Luminate. It jumps 5-1 on the Digital Song Sales chart (which factors weekly sales and Complete My Album returns in the iTunes Store, and corresponding deductions to the volume of tracks purchased during the tracking week), earning Jax her first No. 1 on any Billboard chart.
Sings Jax (real name: Jackie Miskanic) in the biting but buoyant guitar-based track, which she co-wrote, “I know Victoria’s secret, and girl, you wouldn’t believe / She’s an old man who lives in Ohio, making money off of girls like me.”
The gains for “Victoria’s Secret” can be attributed in part to buzz on TikTok, where the song has soundtracked nearly 30,000 clips. In one such viral video, which has over 37 million views, Jax says she wrote the song for a child whom she babysits who was bullied about her weight. In another, with over 4 million views, Jax led a flashmob outside an actual Victoria’s Secret location.
@jaxwritessongs I wrote a song called Victoria’s Secret and I always wanted to be part of a Flash Mob. 👯♀️👯♀️ 👙 🤫 #victoriassecret #flashmob #bodypositivity #foryou ♬ Victoria’s Secret – Jax
Jax has also drawn clicks on TikTok with parodies of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License,” Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings,” Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” and more. One ode, “Update from Avril Lavigne & Sk8er Boi 18 years later,” has over 15 million views on the platform.
While Jax is a relative newcomer to Billboard‘s charts, she earned her initial break in 2015 when she competed on American Idol. The East Brunswick, N.J., native finished third that year, after Nick Fradiani and Clark Beckham. During her Idol run, she performed hits by Paramore, The Who, Alicia Keys, Janis Joplin, Kelly Clarkson and even Adam Sandler, among others, and in the season’s Hot 100-themed week she sang Lady Gaga’s 2009 No. 1 “Poker Face.” “I love musical theater, and when I came (to East Brunswick), I fell into the rock & roll scene,” she told Billboard at the time. “I was in little garage bands with boys and stuff like that. But it pushed me into the professional scene. I was able to put my full focus in to music since I was in sixth grade.”
Jax first appeared on a Billboard chart in 2017, when her EP Funny reached No. 17 on Heatseekers Albums. She returned with her single “Like My Father,” which climbed to No. 33 on the Adult Pop Airplay chart in November 2021. That ballad sparked her debut on Emerging Artists a year ago this week and now, powered by her biggest hit yet, reaches a new No. 3 high on the latest list.
Jax signed to Atlantic in January 2021. “Victoria’s Secret” is her second release with the label, after “Like My Father.”
