Written By: Wanjiru Waweru
American R&B singer-songwriter and actress JoJo released her memoir “Over The Influence” on September 17, 2024, via Hachette Books. The New York Times considered JoJo a “Best-Selling Author” for sharing her deep emotional pain & struggles behind the curtains through her personal and professional life. The 34-year-old Powerhouse wanted to create this memoir to find her voice before it was “too little, too late.” Her journey allows readers to understand her story through success, heartbreak, disappointment, and strength to reveal her vulnerability and share her story.
Over the years, many people have created an authorized book about JoJo. She was very excited to develop her autobiography to connect with her fans. She spent years trying to figure out who she was. Her life has not always been perfect. She received her record label at the age of 12 from Blackground Records. Addiction is in her blood. She used self-destructive behaviors, including sex, love, food, alcohol, and drugs, to deal with trauma. It runs in the family. Her background is simple- JoJo’s parents met in the Alcoholics Anonymous programs in New Hampshire in 1989. Her parents used addiction to deal with trauma. Their relationship was on-and-off, very toxic until JoJo was five years old, and they broke up for good. They worked as side jobs to make ends meet, including as a nanny and a waitress. They enjoyed music, and JoJo got all the incredible voices from her mother. Her passion for music helped her go through tough times in her life. Her mother got sober, and she found a stable job seven years later.
During JoJo’s childhood, she moved to Foxborough, Massachusetts, a suburban city, 29 miles from Boston, where she wanted to begin her adventure and showcase her powerhouse enthusiastically. She grew up listening to soul/R&B music.
JoJo, born Joanna Levesque, gave a standing ovation to her family. She always wanted to become a professional singer from the beginning. Joanna fell in love with learning, she had always been a teacher’s pet. When she was in the second grade, she felt like an outcast. She did not follow any trending topics. She did not fit in, and unfortunately, she got bullied by her peers. Her talent created a lot of jealousy. Later, she made television appearances such as on Maury and The Rosie O’Donnell Show. As she mentioned, if Whitney Houston is the Queen of the Night, Joanna is the Princess of the Playground.
In the Summer of 1999, eight-year-old Levesque had a short phone interview with Kiss 108 FM, one of the huge radio stations in Boston. She met Britney Spears as one of the 1999 Kiss Concert Lineup. She also got a chance to meet a Publicist named Nicole for the first time. Three months prior, she participated in a Broadway play on Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
In early 2003, 12-year-old Levesque participated in America’s Most Talented Kids. She lost the competition to another contestant who was a violinist. She felt devastated, and her career was about to end. However, James Womack, a family member of Bobby Womack with a known R&B hit, “If You Think You’re Lonely Now,” came into the picture and took her under his wing. He understood that people who have lost are a blessing in disguise. He explained that people do not understand soul music and the incredible talent she puts into it. They created a social connection to have an important meeting with music producer, Vincent Hubert, where he encouraged her to create a marketing tool to start a stage name — That is how JoJo was finally born. Later, she signed with Blackground Records with Harry Hankerson, Aaliyah’s Uncle, and eventually, she started working on her debut studio album.
Before she released her self-titled debut album, JoJo’s record label wanted to release “Leave (Get Out)” as her first single; however, it did not sit right with her because it was more pop radio-friendly than R&B from her perspective. “JoJo” debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 album pop chart, however, it was not what her record label expected from her star-quality potential. She released it on June 22, 2024, via Blackground Records. She got a chance to be an opening act for Usher’s Confessions Tour, where his career reached the height of its success as a blockbuster. “Leave (Get Out)” received a heavy rotation on MTV’s Total Request Live. She got a chance to meet Christina Aguilera, where she gave her a “cold shoulder” because she would not treat other people unfairly. She did not mention her name in her book, however, Aguilera did not comment. She received a lot of praise from Destiny’s Child, where she got a chance to meet them in person with love and encouragement.
JoJo met her first true love, Freddy Adu, a professional soccer player who was both 14 and 16, respectively. Within the following year, they started dating. Following her debut album, Vincent took JoJo under his wing to find songwriters and producers to take her music career to the next level, including Stargate, Diane Warren, and Swizz Beatz to work on her sophomore album, The High Road. She only had a songwriting credit called “How to Touch a Girl”; however, it led to a commercial disappointment. “Too Little Too Late” was a lead single and reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100. It was similar to her previous single, “Leave (Get Out)”; however, it reached the highest peak of her music career. In the Summer of 2006, she made her first acting debut — Aquamarine. Sadly, Freddy Adu and she broke up, and they remained good friends.
On the Blackground Records, things were falling apart with JoJo and her team — Barry and Vincent. They were working with new artists, and they never introduced her. Vincent had an opportunity to work with Toni Braxton and was romantically involved with her sister, Tamar. It all changed, both good and bad. It took JoJo a while to part ways. She was seeking new record labels and management. She got a chance to see one of Vincent’s new clients, Lady Gaga, whose debut album, “The Fame,” rose to the height of her career with her incredible star presence and natural talent. It took her a while to move forward with Vincent and find her new manager, M.M., to move on to different projects, including Extended Play (EP), to maintain her fanbase and promote it on social media platforms.
JoJo had a chance to promote her music through MySpace during her late teens. Since she disappeared from Spotlight, she graduated from High School, and she did not get a chance to attend college. Music has always been her main focus to stay in her A-game.
There was a time that Beyoncé’s sister, Solange, invited the Powerhouse singer to a party, and she saw Beyoncé again, and she remembers her. She explained that their family came from a humble upbringing and was very supportive of their music careers. She also explained how multi-talented they are.
JoJo mentioned that the Music Industry is like a goldfish; she got a chance to work with songwriters and producers to work on new songs that, unfortunately, were not released. She worked on EPs and did a little bit of promotion — her song, “Disaster,” was a commercial flop, where it peaked at 87 on the Billboard Hot 100, and she fell through the cracks. She had a chance to work with Noah “40” Shibeb, Drake’s longtime producer, and it was short-lived because they were no longer interested in working with her and found her “whack”. It was a huge struggle for JoJo to make music again. She also expressed that many celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, have personal struggles.
JoJo always used self-destructive behavior (drugs, casual sex, binge drinking, etc.) in her late teens and early twenties to cope the pain until as she got older in around her late twenties, she realizes it felt more harmful both physically and emotionally in her health, especially within causal hookups, she also felt enough, as she got older and wiser, it was not fun anymore, nothing magical.
JoJo went somewhere for the proper treatment to focus on recovery, and also got into therapy. She had the privilege to write songs, never got a chance to learn an instrument, and produce her music. She went somewhere in New York to take Yoga, where she became friends with Francia Raisa. She also became good buddies with Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift, who invited her into their houses. She explained how both of them feel sorry for her when she is facing challenges in her music career.
JoJo received good news from her lawyer that her former record label, Blackground Records, cut ties with her contract, and she got a chance to sign with Atlantic Records in 2014. She was also working on her comeback album, “Mad Love”, her third studio album. The bad news, she received a tragic call from her aunt that her father, Joel, had become very sick, and was battling a serious illness with addiction, and he ended up in the Hospital.
JoJo was busy working on songs to co-write to show a different sound than “The High Road” with more maturity and soul. She was also involved in a monogamous relationship that led to toxicity in her life, and it was short-lived, where she took her final words. And then later on, she received a piece of tragic news from her mother that her father had passed away; she panicked and screamed. His doctor called her and he used prescription drugs from other doctors, which she has had for many decades. He died in 2015.
JoJo’s romantic relationship with men leads to a lot of confusion, self-doubt, and frustration. There are times when she had a casual fling with no emotional connection. It is hard to find the right partner. She began journaling on her 25th birthday to begin her healing process.
“Mad Love” has a lot of meaning to JoJo in many ways, to show how her fans supported and stood by her through her struggles in her music. During the early stages in her music career, she got a tattoo at the age of 17, which was a treble clef – music has always been her first true love, and it is very therapeutic to her. JoJo created her third album, “Mad Love”, which became a commercial success and peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 album charts. She explained it was not the comeback album she had hoped for. She got a chance to be an opening act for other headliners – Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas’s Future Now Tour, and Fifth Harmony’s 7/27 Tour to promote “Mad Love”. She got a chance to meet Victoria Monét, who started her music career as a songwriter who wrote songs for other artists. She wanted to come out of her shell as a performer, which blew JoJo away. That time, she became romantically involved with one of her male friends. They shared their intimate secrets, listening to good music from the Vinyl Records – listening to old songs such as George Benson’s “Give Me The Night”- and were very supportive of each other. He introduced her to a Vegan Diet. He got a chance to visit her in her native hometown in Massachusetts to celebrate her birthday; however, the man she fell in love with began cheating on him.
While she was on tour, she became very strict with her diet to maintain her physique, which led to a lot of insecurities, her manager, M.M., who created a toxic comment about her, and also told her to speak to her then labelmates, where she decided to part ways with her to let her go.
Later on, JoJo departed from Atlantic Records and started her new journey with Interscope in 2017. She had a chance to work with PJ Morton on a song called “Say So”. Her team was highly concerned that her music would be Contemporary R&B, and they wanted her to stick with the pop market. She wanted to create something deep down within her soul – creativity, audacity, and encouragement. They both created a unique duet together. This would be an enormous transition to show her true colors as an R&B She was also in the process of recording her upcoming album for her new record label. She was also in a brief situation where she had reached out to her ex-boyfriend in a couple of years, and later on, they recently got back together, but sadly, it short lived. It took them a while, after explaining a deep emotional apology, to learn from her mistake. She co-wrote the “Joanna” and “Think About You” songs. Additionally, “Say So” received a Grammy nomination for “Best R&B Song” – it was a dream come true for JoJo to shine through. PJ Morton called her, he explained to her that they won a Grammy, which was the biggest moment for their careers.
JoJo had a new manager, Katie. She knew Katie and Aaron would be a perfect team for her to guide her in the right direction. She was almost done with completing her album, “Good to Know”. She created this personal album based on her personal and professional life. It was more consistently an R&B sound, and., becoming a “Crossover, then her previous projects. It felt like an autobiography. She released “Man” as her lead single in March 2020. It has been a huge crisis since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It was difficult to stay in the Quarantine. She wanted to maintain her physical and mental health. Once JoJo released “Good to Know”, it went number one on the Billboard R&B album charts. In the Summer of 2020, JoJo went to the George Floyd protest for the Black Lives Matter movement. In the following murder case, she met someone special, and she became open about her experience to learn from mistakes about cheating.
In Early 2021, JoJo appeared on a Reality Television Show — The Masked Show where she surrounded judges such as Robin Thicke, Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy, and Nicole Scherzinger, she sang covers including Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody”, and Michael Bolton’s “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You”. She had a horrific stage fright, and it took her a while to snap out of it. Her mother and her then-new boyfriend were very supportive of her outstanding performance.
When the COVID-19 Pandemic was decreasing, in late 2021, things were going back to normal. JoJo’s team was expecting her to make a headline tour, which was the biggest venue in her music, although she had not had a pop radio hit for over a decade. She also created another EP project before she worked on a full-length studio album. She wanted to provide all her true emotions into this project with a sense of feelings, with a lot of questions of anxiety, past romantic relationships, and financial distribution. She created this EP – “Trying Not to Think About It” with an understandable term with more storytelling than developing a “pop record”. Aaron admired her concept of her upcoming EP, which he found as a “brilliant idea,” and both of them became very optimistic. JoJo wants to write songs about what it is like to have a mindset filled with anxiety. However, he and JoJo’s team had a meeting about which market she was heading, and they were unsure about it. JoJo wants to call the shots and be the Captain of her ship. When JoJo was younger, she wanted to have a record label as her second family, however, that was not the case. She had always remembered that people in the music industry have always put themselves first, and then later the artist, especially when they met well – that is a huge lesson that she had learned. Meanwhile, she was going on a romantic vacation to Puerto Rico with her new boyfriend, who later on proposed to her. Their friends and family were thrilled and celebrated. She moved in with him. There was a time when her fiancé gave her two tickets to watch Broadway: Tina and Moulin Rouge. Both of them went there as they could – they were making plans for their wedding at the time. However, she later became estranged from her former fiancé. She felt disconnected from her fiancé, he gaslighted her, and she found out that he was in love with someone else. Later on, she removed her engagement ring, cut ties with him, quit the wedding ceremony, and went their separate ways.
She felt disgusted by his narcissistic behavior. JoJo researched the importance of the legacy of Tina Turner – she understood the pain that she suffered from emotional and physical abuse from her toxic marriage, she also faced racism, ageism, and she worked hard throughout her entire music career to make a huge sacrifice to support her family. Tina Turner was fearless.
In the Spring of 2024, JoJo reached her first Broadway debut in Moulin Rouge. On January 22, 2025, JoJo released her EP, NGL, which featured eight tracks. She began her Too Much to Say tour on February 22, 2025, to promote this project, and Pop-R&B rising star, Emmy Meli, joined her as an opening act.
NGL is available on music streaming services
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