Noughties sensation JoJo shot to stratospheric levels of fame aged just 13 after becoming the youngest ever artist to secure a No.1 hit in the U.S.
Her debut single Leave (Get Out) became an instant hit and she appeared perfectly set up for a long career in the music industry, but ‘inappropriate lyrics’ for a teenager by male writers have left her rise to stardom feeling a little creepy.
However, despite her record label initially feeling like a ‘family’, things quickly turned and she became locked in a years-long legal battle over control of her own music.
Looking back now, JoJo’s shiny fresh-faced image was just the surface of something slightly more sinister simmering underneath.
While her catchy pop tracks have proved a long-lasting hit with fans, some of the inappropriate lyrics about satisfying a woman and barhopping seem deeply unsuitable for a teenage girl to sing.
JoJo does have writing credits on some of these tracks – including How To Touch A Girl – but they were largely penned by a male writing team.
It should be noted that it is common for songwriters to pen songs and then tout them around various artists before they are picked up – so they may not have known who they were writing for.
Shortly after JoJo’s initial run of success, she realised she was trapped in a contract that didn’t work for her career and she tried to get out.
Here, takes a look behind the scenes of JoJo’s path to stardom and her personal struggles as she disappeared from public view…
Noughties sensation JoJo shot to stratospheric levels of fame aged just 13 after becoming the youngest ever artist to secure a No.1 hit in the U.S (2004)
Her debut single Leave (Get Out) became an instant hit and she appeared perfectly set up for a long career in the music industry (pictured in 2024)
INAPPROPRIATE LYRICS
JoJo’s debut single Get Out (Leave) has gone down in history as a noughties classic, however there is a more sinister tone to the catchy track.
Looking back, it doesn’t seem like a romantic relationship is an appropriate topic for a 13-year-old to be covering and hinted at content way beyond her young years.
The track, which was penned by four different men, Soulshock, Kenneth, Alex Cantrell, Phillip ‘Silky’ White, paved the way for more suggestive lyrics.
The opening verse to the song reads: I’ve been waiting all day here for you bae // So won’t you come and sit and talk to me? And tell me how we’re gonna be together, always // Hope you know that when it’s late at night //
‘I hold on to my pillow tight // And think of how you promised me forever.’
Arguably one of the most risque topics covered by JoJo was in her track How to Touch A Girl, which she has writing credits for alongside Billy Steinberg and Josh Alexander.
Jojo’s debut single Get Out (Leave) has gone down in history as a noughties classic, however there is a more sinister tone to the catchy track
The track was released in 2006 when JoJo was just 16 years of age and written when she was even younger, the song included lyrics which alluded to satisfying a woman.
Feel somethin’ happening // Could this be a spark? To satisfy me, baby // Gotta satisfy my heart.
‘Do you know how to touch a girl? // If you want me so much //First I have to know/’.
The same could be said for another of JoJo’s songs – Not That Kinda Girl (2004), co-written by Neely Dinkins, B. Cola Pietro, Muhammad, Jordan.
Despite being written and released when she was just 14 years old – 7 years under the legal age limit for drinking alcohol in America – JoJo sang about barhopping.
The lyrics read: ‘I’m not your everyday, ’round the way // Don’t go bar-hoppin’, chillin’ on the block // On a cell phone frontin’ Never that, ’cause I’m not that kinda girl.’
SHOT TO STARDOM AGE
She was catapulted to stardom after signing a deal with record labels Blackground Records and Da Family Entertainment at age 12 in 2003.
JoJo – whose real name is Joanna Noëlle Levesque – was scouted by the label after performing on the television show America’s Most Talented Kids.
The singer’s debut single Leave (Get Out) reached No.1 in U.S. Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart, making her the youngest solo artist to ever top the charts age 13.
The youngster was driven and ambitious from the get-go and has since spoken about how all she wanted to do was succeed in her career.
Speaking on Q with Tom Power, she said: ‘Some kids had really ambitious stage parents who wanted to milk them dry and didn’t really care about their well-being.
‘That wasn’t my experience…. All I wanted to do from a young age was work.’
During her childhood, JoJo’s parents – who are divorced – struggled with mental illness, addiction and financial issues.
At age 11, JoJo asked her mother if they could move to Los Angeles because she believed it would be the best way to seek a better life for them.
She was catapulted to stardom after signing a deal with record labels Blackground Records and Da Family Entertainment at age 12 in 2003 (pictured 2004)
JoJo – whose real name is Joanna Noëlle Levesque – was scouted by the label after performing on the television show America’s Most Talented Kids (pictured in 2004)
She said: ‘Maybe that was where the impulse to just work as much as possible came from. I did not want to be with my emotions. I did not want to be with my discomfort.
‘So that seed was planted really young. I learned how to numb myself through work or distraction or boys or writing songs in my journal all day.’
JoJo signed a major recording contract with the late R&B singer Aaliyah’s uncle, Barry Hankerson. Aaliyah tragically died age 22 in an aeroplane crash.
In her memoir, Over the Influence, JoJo wrote that the day she met Hankerson, he told her he saw Aaliyah over her shoulder.
She said: ‘It seemed that he meant that Aaliyah’s spirit was in the room with us and that she was guiding him toward the direction of signing me.
Recalling how they quickly worked on her debut album, she said: ‘Barry had worked on Aaliyah’s album when she was 13.
‘Then they put out her first album with R. Kelly when she was 14. And so he had experience with defying the odds and working with artists who were very young.’
FELT LIKE FAMILY
At the time, JoJo said that the label treat her well as she lived the dream, flying in private jets and living in luxury apartments with her mother.
Despite being based in Los Angeles, the label soon moved JoJo and her mum Diana to New Jersey – she now realises because child labour laws were more lax.
However, unbeknown to the genuine motive behind the move, JoJo recalled how it felt like the enjoying ‘the wildest thing ever’.
The American native told Uproxx in a 2020 documentary: ‘Suddenly I was on a private plane… I was a little girl from nowhere.’
Suggesting they were initially treated well by the label, she said: ‘My label got my mum [Diana] a car. Got us an apartment. I had my own room for the first time.
At the time, JoJo said that the label treat her well as she lived the dream, flying in private jets and living in luxury apartments with her mother (pictured with her mother Diana)
‘They felt like family to us, and I think that’s what both my mum and I were really longing for. Deep down, both of us come from very unstable family situations and they really appealed to that within us,’ she told Uproxx in a 2020 documentary.’
Before moving to LA, JoJo and her mother Diana had lived in Foxborough, Massachusetts, where they lived off her mum’s modest cleaning wage.
However, now she was flying high and juggling school by day and the studio at night, something she had dreamed of since she was six years old.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the singer, who has since revealed that the fame game also came with mounting insecurities and pressures.
She said: ‘I had to learn how to conduct myself, how to make people like me. This was perfect because I had been trying to figure that one out since first grade.
‘The media trainer was tasked with teaching me how to sound charming in sound bites and anticipate how I might deal with certain questions so that I wouldn’t accidentally offend anyone.’
COURT CASE
JoJo was riding high on her first ever tour, where she opened for rapper Usher.
Her first track had been a phenomenal success and her second single, Too Little, Too Late also proved to be hugely commercially popular.
She previously detailed how those early days ‘felt like the beginning of the rest of her life,’ but she quickly learned she’d been trapped by her label.
The label had control over JoJo’s voice for the next seven years and refused to release new music while also trying to stop her attempts at any other work.
Revealing she wrote ‘hundreds’ of songs that never came out, she said: ‘It felt like I was banging my head against a wall because I was like, is anyone ever going to hear this?’
Her first track had been a phenomenal success and her second single, Too Little, Too Late also proved to be hugely commercially popular (pictured in 2009)
In 2013, JoJo filed a lawsuit against her label company, alleging because she’d been a minor when she’d signed, she couldn’t be bound to the contract for seven years.
But Blackground asked for the case to be dismissed and were planning to ‘bleed her dry’ until she gave up.
Blackground stopped functioning and was being sued from several different angles and JoJo became intent on setting herself free from their choke-hold.
JoJo revealed that her mother was worried that her plan to break free of their control would ‘kill her’ as she looked for other work in films.
The star would also release mixtapes which offered her a loophole to be able to tour.
JoJo previously revealed she was invited to Taylor Swift’s house by her friend Selena Gomez for Galentines Day, where they dined on In-N-Out and did arts and crafts.
The star said while superstar Taylor was ‘so sweet and complimentary’ she could see everyone ‘felt bad for me.’
She wrote: ‘Taylor mentioned deepcut songs of mine she loved and kept saying how f***ed up the lawsuit was, the fact that I couldn’t put out music.
‘I don’t remember if she already knew what was going on from social media or if I’d told her about the situation, but she was — in no uncertain terms — letting me know she was on my side and believed in me.
The label had control over JoJo’s voice for the next seven years and refused to release new music while also trying to stop her attempts at any other work (pictured 2009)
‘I appreciated Taylor’s kind words, but I thought I could see in the eyes of everyone else at the party that they felt bad for me. Maybe they thought I was never going to get out of this limbo. Or that it was too late for me even if I did.
‘Maybe they could tell I didn’t have the money or the parents who could help dig me out of any holes I might find myself in. Maybe they saw the imposter in my eyes. Then again, perhaps that was all my own projection.’
During the bitter legal battle, the Too Little Too Late singer claimed she was being held hostage by the label because she was not allowed to leave or release new music commercially.
The feud led to her fans taking up a #FreeJoJo campaign on social media at the time.
In 2014, after a multi-year battle against the label, she was finally released from her contract and she signed with Atlantic Records.
Almost immediately, she released a slew of singles and embarked on a tour, which was followed by the release of her third studio album Mad Love in October 2016.
Her fourth album, Good to Know, came out in 2020. It was followed by her fifth, Trying Not to Think About It, in 2021.
DISAPPEARED FROM PUBLIC VIEW
On the outside, it looked to the public like JoJo was as happy as could be.
But she has now revealed that behind her picture perfect smile she was secretly plagued by immense insecurities and struggled to withstand the growing pressure that was put on her.
In her extremely honest new memoir, Over the Influence, which hits stands next Tuesday, JoJo, now 33, spoke in detail about the demons that she battled in secret.
Like many child stars, JoJo eventually descended on a downward spiral that saw her turn to alcohol and drugs to combat the years she spent feeling like she didn’t belong.
Things only got worse when her booming career came to a screeching halt amid ongoing legal problems with her label.
She fought tirelessly to release her third album, but the label kept delaying it, leaving her feeling once again like she wasn’t good enough.
The star tried everything to impress the record’s executives, even turning to pills to try to lose weight in the hopes that they would get behind her music again if she looked the part.
Like many child stars, JoJo eventually descended on a downward spiral that saw her turn to alcohol and drugs to combat the years she spent feeling like she didn’t belong (pictured 2018)
In 2008, JoJo moved to Boston and took a step back from the industry as she decided what she wanted to do next.
She contemplated leaving singing behind for good to instead go to college, but she ultimately decided to continue on with her music career.
She began to get to work on her third album, but unfortunately, soon found that she had lost momentum during her break.
And when the singer began to prepare for her comeback, she started to face immense pressure from her label to lose weight.
As a self-proclaimed ‘binge-eater,’ JoJo said she struggled to fit into the persona that they envisioned for her – and eventually started taking Adderall to try to curb her appetite.
‘It wasn’t uncommon for those in power [at the label] to be constantly critiquing their female artists’ looks and bodies and sex appeal,’ she stated.
‘I wanted to do whatever I could to get back on top, and if that meant trimming down, fine. I’d heard Adderall could help me lose weight, so I added that into the mix using a friend’s prescription.
‘I hadn’t deferred from college to settle. From now on I would do whatever they needed me to do if it meant I could get my train back on track.’
She recalled ‘staying in a constant state of sucking her stomach in.’
‘This was fine for looking slim from a side angle but not so good for proper breathing technique for a singer,’ she wrote.
While JoJo said she didn’t drink much for years after the night she blacked out and peed on the carpet, she also started partying regularly after she turned 18.
‘I felt like I’d waited my whole life to be initiated into this adults-only club of liquid chill,’ she wrote.
‘Alcohol made me not give a f**k. Without it, I gave so many f**ks that it physically hurt. There was just no better free-er state than totally out of my mind.’
She also said she became addicted to ‘being desired’ by men, and dated a slew of sleazy, much older partners in quick succession who one by one broke her heart by cheating on her or treating her badly.
She said sex became her ‘favourite outlet of escapism’ and would ‘dissolve all her worries and fear.’
‘I felt pretty self-conscious day to day and longed for male validation,’ she professed. ‘Being desired was like a drug to me.’
To make matters worse, JoJo’s third album kept getting delayed by the record label.
Her partying became more and more frequent as she sat in limbo waiting to find out when her music would come out.
‘When my career stalled and it felt like everything I’d been working toward from childhood was going up in smoke, I turned elsewhere – to alcohol drugs, sex, love, food, self-loathing. It was never enough,’ she recalled.
‘The drinking helped dull down my emotions, and whether it was alcohol or weed, I stayed in an intoxicated state as much as possible, even during the day – which made me care less about everything.
‘But I continued the cycle, drinking to escape reality and then making decisions that were ultimately embarrassing (at best) or had horrible consequences (at worst).
‘Alcohol was quickly proving itself to be the perfect fuel whenever I needed to fill up my bottomless pit of insecurities and satiate my craving for validation.’
She recalled one time that she attended an industry party in December 2009 and got ‘unintentionally wasted in front of everyone.’
VOICING HER TRUTH
At 33, 20 years after first finding game, JoJo opened about her time as a child star, detailing the betrayals and label issues that derailed her career.
In her extremely honest memoir, she poke in detail about the demons that she battled in secret away from the intense spotlight of fame.
JoJo confessed that she struggled immensely with feeling like she didn’t belong, especially due to her young age.
‘People were starting to pay attention and compliment me on my talent and original music, and yet whenever I went to shoots or industry events, I honestly felt just as ostracized as when I was in elementary school,’ she said in her book.
‘It seemed like no one wanted to sit with me. Everyone for the most part was polite and kind, but what 17-to-21-year-old wants to hang out with a 13-year-old?
‘It doesn’t really matter how mature that 13-year-old is – or thinks herself to be. She’s still 13.’
She said ‘self-doubt’ soon crept in – and after she did her first photoshoot, she started partaking in self harm.
At 33, 20 years after first finding game, JoJo opened about her time as a child star, detailing the betrayals and label issues that derailed her career
She recalled looking at the images and feeling like an ‘alien.’
JoJo remembered thinking, ‘Was my forehead really that big? My nose that crooked and wide? My lips that small?’
‘I had never really seen myself like this before. It was like a twisted exaggeration of what the mirror reflected,’ the star said.
‘And if people were seeing what I saw, why were they lying and saying I looked great?… These photographs seemed to confirm my fears that I would never look the part.
‘The spiral was quick and rapturous. I went back to our hotel room and climbed into the bathroom sink, my bare feet flat against the empty basin, and started digging into my skin with mom’s tweezers in the mirror.
‘Anxiety expanding with every breath, I couldn’t stop picking and squeezing the bumps on my skin until I bled, working all the undesirableness out of my pores.’
She embarked on her first tour and dropped her debut album, JoJo, in 2004, but as her career took off, she also had a hard time adjusting to her new, fast-paced lifestyle – while also yearning for more.
‘I felt the treadmill underneath my feet picking up and moving faster. Every day, there was a new schedule of interviews and obligations,’ she recalled.
In her extremely honest memoir, she poke in detail about the demons that she battled in secret away from the intense spotlight of fame (pictured 2024)
Designers who wanted me to wear their clothing or attend their fashion show next season. I was living all the stuff I saw on TV. I lapped up all the drama and excitement like a kitten with milk.
‘There were always so many people around me now: an ex–White House personnel bodyguard when I was in NYC, more folks from the labels, people trying to get me to take pictures with their products, my publicist nearby to tell them no, new producers who wanted to meet me, random folks who wanted to get a closer glimpse of the whole thing.
‘It was all so much and yet I couldn’t get enough. How could we expand this further, get more, go higher?’
She said she became obsessed with trying to fill a ‘predisposed emptiness’ inside of her with ‘external validation.’
‘There was just nothing more thrilling than impressing the adults around me, nailing an audition for a show or talent competition, or hearing the roar of applause from a big audience,’ she said.
‘No matter how “successful” I got, no matter how many songs hit the charts or movies performed well at the box office, my ghosts just got hungrier and hungrier.’
Becoming a big star at such a young age meant JoJo had access to alcohol extremely early on.
She admitting in the book that she experimented with alcohol for the first time at age 14 while on her debut tour.
The singer said her dancers and crew would often party on the tour bus after shows, but she would ‘never get invited’ because she was ‘too young.’
Finally, she ‘snuck onto the bus’ one night and ‘asked the chillest dancer to make her a drink.’
‘Up until then, I’d only ever had sips of drinks here and there, but alcohol always tasted disgusting to me,’ she revealed.
‘Seeing how relaxed and cool everyone looked on the bus, dancing and socializing without a care in the world, I wanted to get on their level.
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‘So the dancer poured me a red cup filled with Captain Morgan and CocaCola, and I was off.
‘One minute, I was excitedly cheers-ing everyone… and the next thing I knew I was falling face-first out of the bus onto the carpet of the hotel’s entrance. My first blackout.’
She said her mom ‘picked her up off the ground and carried her lifeless body into her hotel room.’
‘I woke up in the middle of the night thinking the toilet was in the center of the room. It was very much not,’ she added.
‘I peed on the carpet, and mom and her [boyfriend] woke up to the sound of me relieving myself.’
She also lost her virginity that year to her then-boyfriend, soccer player Freddy Adu.
Afterwards, she longed to be treated like an adult, despite still only being 14 years old, and her relationship with her mom soon became ‘strained.’
‘I hated the idea of anyone treating me any differently than the real adults. It didn’t help that the power dynamics had already started shifting,’ she continued.
‘I was now providing for both mom and myself. Plus, I wasn’t a virgin anymore. It irritated the s**t out of me that mom didn’t realize that she was in the presence of a woman now.
‘The closer I got to my 15th year, the further I pulled away from mom. I felt like she was always disapproving of something or mad at someone (often me), hating everything about the music industry and threatening to pull me out of it and make me go back to public school…
‘I think, in many ways, she wanted it to stop, but felt we were in way too deep.’
She said her mom would often become volatile with her when she drank, which was becoming more often as JoJo’s career grew.
She recalled how her mom would launch blistering attacks against her, which left her feeling like she wasn’t good enough.
JoJo said her mom would tell her things like, ‘You’re acting like a disgusting, ungrateful, spoiled brat,’ and, ‘This industry has sucked all the goodness out of you.’
‘Vitriolic verbal jabs like these were increasingly common, and they hissed out of her mouth even more easily when she was under the influence,’ wrote the star.
‘I knew she loved me. I never doubted that. But she also deeply resented – and possibly even hated – me now. I hated her, too.’
She said she once got into a physical fight with her mom in the lobby of a hotel, which resulted in them fiercely ‘shoving one another.’
And one time when she asked her mom to leave the studio whilst she was recording her second LP, her mom threatened to end her life.
JoJo said she received a series of harrowing texts from her mother that said she would be better off without her, worried, she rushed to her hotel room.
‘The door to her room was locked and dead-bolted. I was banging and yelling through the wood that divided us,’ JoJo said.
‘After what felt like a long time, she finally opened up and stood in front of me: naked, tiny, and soaked from tears. The bathwater was running and she had the hair dryer turned on.’
JoJo said she held her mom and ‘begged her to stay alive’ for a long time, and she ultimately calmed down.
All the while, JoJo’s career continued to soar. She starred in her first movie, Aquamarine, in 2006 alongside Emma Roberts and Sara Paxton, which was followed by the film RV starring Robin Williams later that year.
Her second album, The High Road, dropped in October 2006, and it debuted at number three on the Billboard 200.