Just over one week after winning “American Idol” season 23, Jamal Roberts has scored his first Top 10 Billboard hit single and the number one Gospel song in the nation. The 27-year-old girl dad will likely never forget his huge feat — not only because it’s a huge milestone, but also because he now has a tattoo to remember it by.

 

 

On the eve of the season finale, Roberts’ soulful cover of Tom Odell’s 2013 song “Heal” was released by the show’s record label partner, 19 Recordings. Ten days later — on May 28, 2025 — Billboard delivered the huge news that the song had debuted at number one on the Hot Gospel chart and number two on the Digital Sales chart, across all genres.

Jamal Roberts, Breanna Nix & John Roberts All Made Billboard’s Digital Song Sales Chart

For the week ending on May 22, per Billboard, Roberts’ single “Heal” sold 9,000 downloads, based on data from Luminate. That put it on top of the Gospel Digital Song Sales chart. It’s not his first time on that chart, though. In early May, while “American Idol” was still airing, curiosity from fans pushed his previously-released song, “He’s Preparing Me” from 2020, to number four there, Billboard reported.

Sales of “Heal” also landed the song at number two on the all-genre Digital Songs chart, which means Roberts officially has a Top 10 song in the U.S. While chart rankings are based on song sales, “Heal” also had an impressive 918,000 official U.S. streams during the first few days after its release.

 

American Idol' Winner Jamal Roberts Hits No. 1 On The Billboard Charts

 

Roberts isn’t the only “American Idol” fan-favorite to hit the Digital Song Sales chart, either. Third-place finisher Breanna Nix landed in the number four spot with 5,000 downloads of her first single, “Higher,” and runner-up John Foster is at number six with 4,000 sales of “Tell That Angel I Love Her.”

Jamal Roberts Got a Tattoo to Commemorate Success of ‘Heal’

 

 

Roberts originally sang “Heal” during the April 28 episode of “American Idol.” It was a song he’d never heard before, but he told guest mentor Fantasia that the words spoke to him, so he made it his own. The crowd and judges were rendered speechless after his live performance that night.

Once he made the top 3 on the show, he was able to record the tune as a single with 19 Recordings, adding his own lyrics at the end to incorporate his faith, and he performed it on the finale before being crowned the winner.

 

My big dream is no longer a dream': Jamal Roberts reflects on winning 'American Idol' and his journey to No. 1

The song has been so instrumental in his skyrocketing success, that Roberts revealed to his fans via a Facebook Live session on May 27 that he’d had the word “HEAL” tattooed down his chest the day before, admitting that it was still hurting. Roberts explained that his tattoo artist made the word “HOPE,” which was already across his chest, larger and used the “E” in it to be part of the word “HEAL,” inked vertically in the same font.

While in Atlanta with his manager and attorney on May 28, Roberts gave fans a glimpse of his new tattoo in a photo he posted, seen above, as he wore his signature look of a suit with no shirt.