Jax

Emerging as a pop vocalist whose soulful tone matched an independent outlook, Jax first attracted widespread notice in 2015 as a contestant on the talent series American Idol. After placing third that season, she overcame thyroid cancer and issued the 2017 EP Funny. A modest 2021 Adult Pop Airplay entry, “Like My Father,” preceded the 2022 body-positivity single “Victoria’s Secret,” which propelled her to mainstream visibility; its success cleared the path for the 2023 empowerment track “Cinderella Snapped.” Both songs, along with the early-2024 collaboration “Zombieland” featuring HARDY, anchored her debut album, Dear Joe,, released in June 2024, which reached the Top Ten on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart.

Jaclyn Cole Miskanic was born in Atlantic Beach, New York, on May 5, 1996. Her mother worked as a schoolteacher while her father served as a firefighter; after the September 11, 2001 attacks, he assisted at the World Trade Center recovery site and sustained lasting lung damage. The family relocated to East Brunswick, New Jersey, in 2005, where Jax joined school theater productions and acquired foundational vocal and stage skills. Classic rock filled the household, her mother occasionally singing her to sleep with Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb,” and she developed a lasting devotion to the Beatles. At age twelve she performed with the preteen rock group Jersey Kidz, whose battle-of-the-bands victory secured a slot at the 2009 Bamboozle Rock Festival in East Rutherford, New Jersey, alongside headliners No Doubt and Fall Out Boy. After seventh grade her parents homeschooled her; she finished high school at fifteen and focused entirely on music. She later earned a scholarship through BMI’s John Lennon Songwriting Program and studied in London via a New York University course.

Jax auditioned for American Idol’s fourteenth season in January 2015, performing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to advance to Hollywood. She ultimately finished third, becoming the highest-placing contestant from New Jersey, and an August 2015 digital EP compiled her standout performances. In January 2016 she released “La La Land,” which addressed her time on the series and the pressures of reality television. The following August she disclosed a thyroid-cancer diagnosis, later noting she also suffered from Hashimoto’s disease. Despite treatment, she completed the six-track EP Funny, issued in late January 2017; she described the title song as “sarcastic in its own weird way.”

After signing with Atlantic, Jax delivered the piano-led single “Like My Father” in October 2021, which debuted at number 38 on the Adult Pop Airplay chart. Subsequent releases included “Ring Pop,” “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” and the JVKE collaboration “U Love U,” yet the June 2022 track “Victoria’s Secret” produced her breakthrough, reaching number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 17 on Mainstream Top 40. The feminist anthem “Cinderella Snapped” followed in March 2023. Together these recordings shaped her June 2024 debut album, Dear Joe,.