Jojo is an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress who 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 the summer of 2007, she embarked on tour in the United States, Europe, and Mexico. JoJo has sold more than five million albums worldwide. She is currently working on her third album, All I Want Is Everything, which is set to be released in late 2008.
JoJo was born in Brattleboro, Vermont and raised in Keene, New Hampshire and Foxborough, Massachusetts.She has Scottish, Irish, English and Polish ancestry from her mother's side, and French Canadian, Irish, and Native American from her father's side. She grew up in a one-bedroom apartment in Foxborough, in a low-income family. Her father, Joel Maurice Levesque, sings as a hobby, and her mother, Diana Levesque, sang in a Catholic church choir and was trained in musical theatre. Her parents divorced when she was three.
During her earlier years, JoJo would listen and learn as her mother practiced her hymns. She started singing when she was two years and 3 months old by imitating her mother, putting her own spin on everything from nursery rhymes to pop and jazz tunes. On the A&E's show Child Stars III: Teen Rockers, her mother 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.Reminiscing, she has stated that "when it came to performing, I just had no fear".
JoJo's stage name comes from a childhood nickname.After appearing on talk shows and the McDonald's Gospel Fest performing Whitney Houston's "I Believe In You and Me" 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 the spirit of his niece, the late singer Aaliyah, had brought her to him.She was signed to the label, and had recording sessions with famed producers like The Underdogs and Soulshock Karin and Elizabeth Aparicio.
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