JoJo was born in Vermont and raised in Foxborough, Massachusetts; she has 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 four, and she has since lived with her mother in New Jersey; her father lives in New Hampshire.
During her early 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. 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 "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. 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 gospel festivals, she had a spot competing on the television show America's Most Talented Kids; even though she lost to Cheyenne Kimball, 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, Soulshock and Karlin.
JoJo's live demo, which is only available on eBay, featured covers of several well-known songs, including Mack Rice's "Mustang Sally", Etta James's "It Ain't Always What You Do (It's Who You Let See You Do It)", Aretha Franklin's "Chain Of Fools" and "See Saw", Stevie Wonder's "Superstition", "This Is The House That Jack Built" and The Temptations' "Shaky Ground".
JoJo's platinum-certified debut single, "Leave (Get Out)", was released in 2004. The track became an international hit, peaking at #12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and at #2 on the UK Singles Chart. When the single hit #1 on the Top 40 Mainstream, she became, at age 14, the youngest solo artist to have a #1 single in America and the youngest nominee for the MTV Video Music Awards (Best New Artist for "Leave (Get Out)", in 2004). Her debut album, the platinum-selling JoJo, followed; it peaked at #4 on the U.S. Billboard 200 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 #22 in the U.S., though it went top ten in the UK.
The final single off the album, "Not That Kinda Girl", failed to make waves on the charts, perhaps due to underadvertisement and a music video that was considered by some to be below par compared to her previous work. The song hit number 8 on TRL for one day but then fell from the charts, never to appear on the countdown again. JoJo subsequently cancelled her tours.
In 2004, JoJo participated in "Come Together Now", a tribute to the victims of the 2004 Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. That year, she was personally requested by First Lady Laura Bush to perform at the 2004 Christmas In Washington special. Despite performing at other events for the Republican Party, she has stated that she does not "agree with the things that Bush has done in office. I'll leave it at that". JoJo has also hosted and performed at the Hope Rocks Concert to benefit City of Hope and co-hosted the 2006 TV Guide Channel's Countdown to the Grammy Awards.
