Joanna Levesque became an astrologer at the age of 13. Two decades later, “JoJo,” as she is known, wrote a memoir in which she says that the song responsible for her meteoric rise, “Let (Get Out),” was not a song she felt was her own. In fact, she cried when her label told her they wanted to make it her first single.
The then sixth-grader couldn’t relate to the songs about the boy who misbehaved with her. And she liked their R&B and hip-hop pop sound.
“I think that’s where the seeds of confusion were planted in me, where I thought, ‘Oh, you have to trust others before yourself, because… Look, you trusted others and look at that, how it pays off,’” she said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
“Face (Said)” topped the Billboard charts, making Levesque the youngest artist to have a number-one solo single.
“I loved him. But at first I didn’t understand him,” she said.
Singer Joanna Levesque, who rose to fame as ‘JoJo’ at the age of 13, poses for a photograph to promote her memoir ‘Beyond Prestige’ on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in New York City.
(Matt Licari/Matt Licari/Invision/AP)
Much of Levesque’s experience with the young pop star was similarly unpredictable or turbulent, and she details those feelings in her new memoir, Above the Influence.
Levesque’s formative years were spent in recording studios and on tour buses with “Face (Out)” and other commercial hits like “Too Little Late” and “Baby It’s You.” However, he had a strong following among teens and young adults, and his raw talent attracted the attention of music fans of all ages.
“Sometimes I don’t know what to say when people say ‘I grew up with you’ and I say ‘we grew up together’ because I’m still a little kid. But I’m so grateful to have this longevity and to be here after all the craziness,” he said.
Part of that “crazy meaning” Levesque refers to is a years-long legal battle with his former record label. Blackground Records, which had signed him when he was 12, stopped releasing his third album, halting the trajectory of his brilliant career.
Levesque said that despite the obstacles the label and its executives put in her way, they shaped who JoJo is.
Joanna Levesque is “JoJo.”
(Matt Licari/Invision/AP)
“Even though there have been things that have been chaotic, frustrating and scary and not what I wanted to happen, I take the good with the bad,” she said.
Levesque felt like the managers and team he worked with were family, describing them as “his cousins, my uncles and brothers.” “I love them, even now, even though it didn’t work out,” he said.
With new music on the way, Levesque said she believes the industry is moving in a direction that gives artists more freedom in their work and more say in discussions about the direction of their careers. In 2018, she re-recorded her first two albums, which were not available for streaming, to regain control of the rights. Three years later, Taylor Swift began doing the same.
“The situation will change and the old way of working will be destroyed,” he said. “I think it’s great. The major label structure still offers a lot, but at what cost?”
As she looks forward to the next chapter of her already storied career, Levesque said she finds it “refreshing” to see a new generation of young musicians question the standards she was held to growing up.
JoJo is in New York City to promote her new album, ‘On the Influence.’
(Matt Licari/Invision/AP)
“You have to be nice. You have to be acceptable in a certain way. You have to do polite politics. It’s just exhausting,” he said.
She said it was “healing” to see artists like Chappelle Roan and Billie Eilish play by their own rules.
By writing his memoirs and tracing his life from his earliest childhood memories to the present day, Levesque said he is “claiming ownership” of his life.
“My hope is that other people will read this with complete transparency and I hope they are inspired to make their own path, whatever that means to them,” she said.
