“Throw me them roses / Wеll, that’s just showbiz, baby…”
The year is 2025, which can mean only one thing. Well, it means two things actually: women are now having sex with robots more than men (finally), and it’s Jade‘s time to shine.
After casually providing The Best Song of 2024™ in the form of her brilliant solo debut, the chaotic and conflicted love letter to the music industry that is “Angel of My Dreams,” followed by horny romp “Midnight Cowboy” and the disco-tinged, kink-friendly “Fantasy,” the 32-year-old Little Mix member-turned-solo superstar is kicking off the New Year with the next smash…literally.
“IT girl” arrived on Friday (January 10). Let’s break it down, like a china-filled rage room.
The song’s been teased from the day “Angel of My Dreams” dropped last summer.
Call her the Easter bunny, because Jade loves herself some Easter eggs. Only moments after the music video for “Angel of My Dreams” dropped last July, she shared a brief clip at a release party in her “Angel” outfit dancing along to a then-unidentified track, which quickly surfaced online among fans in the form of a hidden YouTube link, causing fans to go tumbling even further down the rabbit hole. (Easter bunny, rabbit…same thing.) She’d later tease the track in the music video for “Fantasy” as one of the headlines on a magazine cover, which also teased a link (yourfilthypaws.com) that led to a glimpse of “IT Girl.”
The track was originally titled “That’s Showbiz, Baby!”
The snippet that surfaced on her YouTube account was titled “that’s showbiz, baby.” But due to popular fan demand, thanks to that earworm “I am the it girl, I am the shit, girl” mantra, Jade eventually opted to go with the new title. (I personally like both options, but “IT girl” is undeniably better for first-time listeners doing a quick search of the song’s lyrics. That’s SEO, baby!)
The song was written with some major pop maestros.
The track was co-penned with the prolific Cirkut – Britney, Kesha, Ava Max, you name it – as well as Lostboy, who just did Kylie‘s “Padam Padam” – plus superstar songwriters Lauren Aquilina and J Hart.
She’s already clapped back at a ridiculous comparison to Charli xcx’s “Guess” with Billie Eilish.
After a TikToker lazily attempted to suggest that “IT Girl” sounds like Charli’s Brat track, Jade swiftly stepped in under the comments and shut down the speculation when she pointed out that the song was written pre-Brat era: “IT girl was written on the 9th February, 2023. Hope this helps!” she wrote. (These awful point-and-stare comparison videos must be stopped. Maybe the TikTok ban isn’t such a bad thing, after all.)
“IT Girl” further expands on the themes of “Angel of My Dreams.”
Like “Angel of My Dreams,” “IT Girl” is a total banger about the complex highs and lows of fame, and the challenges of being a woman in the music industry.
“IT girl is the c-nty little sister to ‘Angel of My Dreams.’ There’s still so much that people don’t know about me, so I was eager to surprise people and prod the bear a bit. I have to write about my experiences in my own melodramatic way. I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Jade explains in an accompanying release.
“Sign on the line for me / Baby, smile, but don’t show your teeth / Say goodbye to autonomy / Now your body belongs to me” she deadpans in the first verse, once again referencing the restrictive contracts she previously called out in “Angel.” (“Sellin’ my soul to a psycho (SYCO)“)
There seems to be ample Simon Cowell shade – again.
Jade’s not taking her stiletto off the X Factor judge and SYCO founder’s neck for a minute.
“Clause in the contract, contract gone / Gone is the girl that you could con,” Jade announces, seemingly referring to Little Mix’s much-publicized split from Simon’s label in 2018, which she later said “f-cked us over.”
“It’s a no from me,” she cooly declares in the song’s final few seconds, one of Simon’s most well-known phrases from the TV talent show where she herself didn’t advance until her third time auditioning, eventually leading to her debut in Little Mix. Coincidence? “I’ll let you read between the lines,” she told Clash.
There are also some “Angel of My Dreams” references.
As Jade bites back on the bass-heavy middle finger of a chorus – “I’m not your thing / I’m not your baby doll / No puppet on a string / This bitch can’t be controlled – she references “Puppet on a String,” the Sandie Shaw 1967 Eurovision-winning UK entry sampled in “Angel of My Dreams.”
Her diva persona from the “Angel” video also makes a cameo in the accompanying “IT girl” visualizer, which sees Jade going full bull in a china shop and smashing stuff to smithereens.
“IT Girl” is si-si-si-sick, and Jade’s debut is already an Album of the Year contender, easily.
Between the clever and cutting lyrics, the copious musical and visual references, the melodramatic crooning, the constant musical swerving (and serving), the wild goose chase of clues about her next moves, the encyclopedic pop nerd name-dropping in interviews, the over-the-top looks and live performances, Jade is doing everything right, and genuinely paving her own path with her own addictive brand of chaos-pop.
Like any excellent girl group member-turned-solo pop star – get well soon, Geri! – she is doing the absolute most, and it’s all been bonkers and brilliant. How exciting to have a pop girlie care so deeply about delivering a truly satisfying campaign.
It’s a yes from me, babes.
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