JoJo biographyJoJo LyricsSource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JoJo Joanna Noëlle Levesque (born December 20, 1990), best known by her stage name JoJo, is an American pop singer She rose to fame in 2004 with her Platinum-certified, self-titled debut album JoJo which reached number four on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. JoJo has also begun a film career, starring in two 2006 Hollywood films: Aquamarine and RV. Her second album, The High Road, was released on October 17, 2006. In 2007, JoJo will begin performing her concert tour, The High Road Tour, in the US and Europe in the summer. Jojo was born in Brattleboro, Vermont and raised in Foxborough, Massachusetts.She is of Native American, Irish, Polish and French ancestry.She grew up in a one-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Boston, in a low-income family. Her father, Joel Levesque, is a blues singer and her mother, Diana, sang in a Catholic church choir and worked as a house cleaner. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she has since lived with her mother in New Jersey. Her father lives in New Hampshire. During her earlier years, JoJo listened and learned as her mother practiced hymns. She started singing when she was two years old by imitating her mother, putting her own spin on everything from nursery rhymes to pop tunes. On the A&E's show Child Stars III: Teen Rockers, Diana Levesque claimed that JoJo had a borderline genius IQ. As a child, JoJo enjoyed attending Native American festivals and acted locally in professional theaters. After auditioning for the television show Kids Say the Darndest Things: On the Road in Boston, JoJo was given a spot to perform on the show, singing Aretha Franklin's 1967 hit "Respect". Host Bill Cosby and the crowd at Faneuil Hall responded overwhelmingly to her performance. Soon after, The Oprah Winfrey Show contacted her, inviting her to perform. She also performed on Maury, on one of the frequent "kids-with-talent" episodes, as well as many others.[5] Reminiscing, she has stated that "when it came to performing, I just had no fear". JoJo's stage name comes from a childhood nickname.[6] After appearing on talk shows and gospel festivals and competing on the television show, America's Most Talented Kids, record producer Vincent Herbert contacted her and asked her to audition for Blackground Records. During her audition for Barry Hankerson, Hankerson told her that late singer Aaliyah's spirit had brought her to him. She was signed to the label, and had recording sessions with famed producers like The Underdogs and Soulshock & Karlin. JoJo's live demo, Joanna Levesque, recorded in 2001, features covers of several well-known soul/R&B songs, including Wilson Pickett's 1966 "Mustang Sally", Etta James's 1989 "It Ain't Always What You Do (It's Who You Let See You Do It)", Aretha Franklin's 1968 "Chain of Fools" and 1969 "The House That Jack Built", The Moonglows' 1956 "See Saw", Stevie Wonder's 1972 "Superstition", and The Temptations' 1975 "Shakey Ground". The demo is sometimes available on eBay. JoJo's Platinum-certified debut single "Leave (Get Out)" was released in 2004. The track became an international hit, peaking at number twelve on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, number two on the UK Singles Chart, and number two on the Australian Singles Chart. When the single hit number one on the Top 40 Mainstream, she became, at age thirteen, the youngest solo artist to have a number-one single in America and also the youngest nominee for a MTV Video Music Award ("Best New Artist" for "Leave (Get Out)", in 2004). Her debut album, the Platinum-selling JoJo, followed; it peaked at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200 and number ten on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, selling about 107,000 copies and reaching the top forty of the UK Albums Chart. The album has sold a total of almost 1.5 million copies in the U.S. JoJo co-wrote two of the album's songs, as well as wrote and co-produced one full track. Her second single, the Gold-selling "Baby It's You" – which features rapper Bow Wow – peaked at number twenty-two in the U.S. and number eight in the UK. The final single off the album, "Not That Kinda Girl", released in 2005, failed to make waves on the charts. The song hit number eight on the TRL daily countdown for one day but then fell from the charts, never to appear on the countdown again. In 2004, JoJo participated in "Come Together Now", a charity single to benefit the victims of the 2004 Asian Tsunami and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. That year, she was personally requested by First Lady Laura Bush to perform at the 2004 Christmas in Washington special, broadcast by TNT and hosted by Dr. Phil and his wife Robin McGraw. Despite performing at other events for the Republican Party, she has stated that she does not "agree with the things that President George W. Bush has done in office. I'll leave it at that".[7] JoJo has also hosted and performed at the Hope Rocks concert in 2005 to benefit City of Hope Cancer Center and co-hosted the 2006 TV Guide Channel's countdown to the Grammy Awards. JoJo's second album, The High Road, was released on October 17, 2006. |