Jo Jo

JoJo’s new album Jumping Trains explores the ever-shifting middle ground between strength and vulnerability while still maintaining a feel-good, uplifting vibe. “I call my music ‘pop with an anger-management problem,’ because it’s a little on the edge,” the 20-year-old singer and songwriter says. “You don’t know if I’m going to flip out on you. But it’s important to me to tell real stories about what goes on for young women. I don’t have it all figured out. Sometimes I make bad decisions and fall… Show more on my face. Other times I make good decisions, so I want to take people on that journey because I know that music can really help. I want to speak for people when they can’t express themselves, just as my favorite artists, like Joni Mitchell, Jill Scott, D’Angelo, and John Mayer, have done for me.”

To help craft her stories and irresistible melodies on Jumping Trains, JoJo enlisted a host of top-notch producers, including Rodney Jerkins, Da Internz, Danja, Mario Marchetti and The Messengers, who anchor JoJo’s soulful, powerhouse vocals with fresh, laser-sharp beats to create a wrenchingly honest, thoroughly modern-sounding pop record that marks a welcome return for the Massachusetts native, who released her platinum self-titled debut album at the age of 13, and its follow-up, the gold-certified The High Road, at age 15. Kicking off the sound of the album is first single “Disaster”, produced by talented newcomer Mario Marchetti and written by JoJo and Gino Barletta.

“I have the hunger of a new artist, but the experience of someone who already has eight years of real time in the game,” JoJo says. “I would not trade that for the world. It’s an advantage. Most girls my age are just figuring out what they want to do, and I feel very lucky that I already know and have been doing it for so long. Since The High Road came out, I’ve been consistently writing and recording, so the songs on Jumping Trains have evolved and taken shape. It took a few years to hone in on what the sound should be and what the entire body of work represents. I’d wish it hadn’t taken this long, but if I hadn’t waited, I wouldn’t have been able to include the songs that I love.”

For JoJo, the journey has always been filled with music. “I don’t remember ever not singing. My mom says I’ve been producing sounds since I was two days old. Of course when you’re born, you scream, but she likes to say that I was doing it with intention,” JoJo says with a laugh. The daughter of musically inclined parents, JoJo was born Joanna Levesque in Brattleboro, VT, and moved to Foxborough, MA, with her mom at age 4 after her parents divorced. “My mom and I shared a room and a bed and paint from the walls would fall into my cereal,” she recalls. “We weren’t well off, but my mom never let me feel like I wasn’t loved or taken care of,” she says. “She worked really hard to make sure I was comfortable and got to participate in every activity.” Growing up, JoJo fell in love with her mom’s soul and folk records, everything from Etta James and Aretha Franklin to Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, as well as pop vocalists Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. “I appreciated ’N SYNC and Backstreet Boys, but I was listening to Ella Fitzgerald and George Benson,” she says. “I was a friggin’ weirdo. The first album I ever bought was The Best of George Benson.”

After gaining experience performing in various showcases and competitions, JoJo appeared on Kids Say the Darnedest Things with Bill Cosby at age 7 and was offered her first record deal at age 8, which her mother turned down feeling that her daughter was too young. After appearing on America’s Most Talented Kids at age 11, JoJo was signed to Da Family Entertainment Which released her debut album through Blackground/Universal Motown Records in 2004. JoJo debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200, went platinum in the U.S., and sold three million copies worldwide propelled by the success of its hit singles “Baby It’s You” and the gold-certified “Leave (Get Out),” which hit No. 1 at Top 40, making JoJo, then 13, the youngest solo artist ever to score a No. 1 single in the U.S. In 2006, JoJo released her second album The High Road, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Top 200 and spawned the hit single “Too Little Too Late,” which broke the record for biggest one-week jump into the Top 3. In 2010 JoJo released her first ever mix tape, Can’t Take That Away From Me, which saw over 185,000 downloads the first week of release.

Also a talented actress, JoJo appeared on the TV programs The Bernie Mac Show and American Dreams, and the feature films RV (with Robin Williams) and Aquamarine, which earned her a Teen Choice Award nomination for Choice Breakout (Female). She was also nominated for two Billboard Music Awards for “Leave (Get Out)” and an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist making her the youngest artist ever to be nominated for a VMA.

“You can’t really prepare yourself for success,” JoJo says of her child stardom. “I wish I had been more present, but I think when you’re 13, and you’re traveling the world and making money, it’s easy to get lost in it. I didn’t lose myself, but I don’t think I really absorbed what a unique opportunity it was.”

As she gears up to release Jumping Trains, (Blackground-Interscope/Streamline) JoJo is most grateful for the support of her fans. “They are tough and persistent,” she says. “They’re an army and their messages have gotten me through some dark times, because I feel a responsibility toward them. They’ve been so faithful, I just want to deliver for them. They deserve it. Especially the really devoted ones who have waited it out with me. I really want to make them proud. I want them to feel like Jumping Trains was worth the wait.”

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