JoJo Is Reclaiming Her Time
When JoJo first emerged in 2003, she was just 13 years old with a fully formed sound that fit nicely into pop and R&B radio markets. So when her first single “Leave (Get Out),” from her self-titled 2004 debut, came on the radio, I, like most teens I grew up with, couldn’t believe that such a big voice could belong to someone who was just of junior high school age. As an empowering kiss-off in which JoJo chants “leave!” to a good-for-nothing boy who maybe didn’t return her MASH notes in math class, the song was rendered with such conviction that it turned the former America’s Most Talented Kids hopeful into a bonafide star, seemingly overnight.
Following a classically American rags-to-riches dream, with her mother managing her career, JoJo left the one-bedroom Massachusetts apartment she was reportedly raised in, and embraced the opportunities ahead. Her song “Leave” quickly rose to top the Billboard Pop Charts — making her, at age 13, the youngest person in history to do so — and ultimately selling more than four million copies worldwide. The precocious teen later gave interviews asserting her artistic confidence and newfound fame, once saying, “When I sing ‘Leave (Get Out),’ I have been through that. I think it is just a new generation, whether people are ready for it or not. Teenagers are dating. They go through things and that is really what it is about.”
She quickly followed up her whirlwind success with a breezy second single, “Baby It’s You,” a Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards performance, and a high-profile opening slot on Usher’s Truth tour in support of his 2004 album Confessions. Then her second album, The High Road, arrived in 2006, with an even catchier, more emotive lead single than her debut. “Too Little Too Late,” a R&B-and-pop power ballad, was, like “Leave,” similarly about JoJo’s refusal to reconcile with an ex who left her wounded. Though it was slower to sell, “Too Little Too Late” surpassed the commercial success of “Leave” by charting internationally. The attention led JoJo, who had acted in smaller TV productions, to star in her first feature-length role alongside a young Emma Roberts in 2006’s mermaid-inspired teen comedy, Aquamarine.
