JoJo is known for her chart-topping hits like “Leave (Get Out)” and “Too Little Too Late,” and she’s back in the spotlight with her powerful new memoir, Over the Influence. JoJo opens up about her journey through the music industry — from her meteoric rise at just 13, the challenges that silenced her voice for years, and the peace she’s been able to find (and protect).
Hello Sunshine.
Hey, Bessie's Today on the bright Side. We're joined by the chart topping superstar Jojo. Maybe you're like me and Danielle and JoJo's hits like Leave get Out and Too Little, Too Late. We're the soundtrack to your youth too. But what happens when that voice is silenced? We'll find out when we unpack her new memoir, Over the Influence. Jojo is back, y'all, more empowered than ever and sharing for the first time how she's reclaiming her career, her story, and her voice. It's Tuesday, October First, I'm Simone.
Voice, I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to share women's stories, laugh, learn.
And brighten your day.
All right, we're both so excited for today's guests.
Joanna Jojo Leveck. You all know her.
She burst into the spotlight at just thirteen years old when she released her her self titled debut album.
It was a huge success.
It went on to sell over four million copies and became JoJo's first platinum record, and her hit from that album, Leave Get Out, made Jojo the youngest ever solo artist to have a debut number one single in the US.
I still sing that song all the time.
I was just about to say the exact same thing. Her songs still live rent free in my head. I'll just be going about my day and then all of a sudden, Jojo has me in a choke hold again.
I mean, especially with TikTok, they're everywhere once again. They never really went out, but they're having a resurgence for sure. Jojo released her second studio album, called The High Road, just two years later, and it featured her second smash hit too Little, Too Late, which I know we've all sung along too on road trips in the shower if a man leaves us all the time.
Definitely sung about heartbreak at a time when I didn't even know what heartbreak was. So thank you for that education, Jojo. You know, in the early two thousands, Jojo was truly everyone where I mean movies, magazines, radio, TV, you name it. But then it felt like Jojo just kind of disappeared, leaving a lot of her fans wondering where did she go. Well, it turns out a dispute with her record label left her silence for years, and she finally took them to court to get out of her contract. I can't imagine how difficult that must have been, not just for her, but also for her family. I mean, she was just a child navigating this massive talent and music career and trying to find herself. And we've all heard the stories just about how brutal this industry can be.
It's not lost on me either, the irony, right Like, she is known for her voice, and yet she was silenced, and I think it left a lot of people wondering what if, what would have happened had she not had her career ripped away from her like that.
For sure, there was a big question mark there for a lot of us. And now she's back and putting all the rumors to rest. She's setting the record straight herself in her new memoir, Over the Influence. It's this raw, vulnerable depiction of her life and for the first time, she's telling her own story in her own words. And to quote the chart stopping singer, she is ready to be counted the f in. She is here with us now too, Jojo. Welcome to the bright side.
Thank you. It feels good to be here on the bright side.
We have been waiting fifteen years for this moment. No, Lie, I have to tell you. Your talent is undeniable, and you've always had so much to say, not just through your music, but your words too. And you're out with your new memoir Over the Influence, and it really lays bare the experiences that you went through as a teenager breaking into this industry. And I went to Google your name last night, and so many of the headlines came up. Every few years it would say Jojo reclaims her powerhouse voice. And as I was reading your book, I'm like, Okay, there's been reclamations a few times. You've really been fighting for that. It feels like this is the time. What does it feel like to finally tell your story in your own words?
Oh my god, it feels right on time. You know. People are like, why now, And I would say, because I have the strange experience of having a twenty year career at thirty three, so I kind of wanted to make sense of a lot of the things that confused me for so long. But yeah, I went back and forth about like, can I do my own story justice? Do I even know how to? I've only written three minute songs really but before you know what I mean, Like, I was like, can I even do this? I don't want to sell myself short, but I also couldn't put it in the hands of anyone else. I've done that in different ways, and just betting on myself is kind of where I'm at and trusting my own internal guidance system saying even if other people don't understand or agree, it just doesn't matter anymore. I just and that, I think is like the gift of being thirty plus, because in my twenties I just did not feel that way.
Okay, Jojo, I got to get real with you for a minute. Oh my god, please, you are a true superstar. Your songs had top forty in a choke hold, including you a Girl and Danielle. You've been in major studio films, on magazine covers, national TV, and then it feels like, kind of out of the blue, everything came to a halt and you stepped out of the spotlight. I ask this on behalf of all Jojo fans around the world, because I know you're really tight with your fans, and you know how invested all of us are in you in your career.
Just in you as a human.
Tell us what happened, tell us what happened when you stepped out of the spotlight, and why, Oh.
It was so not my intention, you know, I was feeling all the momentum that was happening in my career. I mean, I had back to back really successful albums in my teens, and then I basically kind of became a victim of music industry circumstance and politics and things that are not sexy, but basically like a label that lost their funding and was no longer a functioning record label. But then they wouldn't let me go, and then I didn't own my voice, so I couldn't do anything with it, like just a shit show and made me feel like so embarrassed because I didn't want like my fans or my family to worry about me, and they were like, they're killing your career, You're about to die on the vine. I'm like, no, it's gonna be fine, because I just never wanted anybody to feel bad for me, even though I was like pretty devastated and ultimately just wanted to be able to put music out and continue on that path that I was like that we had started on when I was twelve thirteen years old. So in the stepping out of the spotlight, it was not for a lack of trying, Like I was recording hundreds of songs over the years and fighting really hard behind the scenes to the point where I lost that fight from just fighting so long and so hard to no avail.
Yeah, it kind of feels like imprisonment because like music is all you had known since you were like five seven years old. Were there moments during that time that you thought this is it for me? Or did you have faith it would be okay.
I have a resilient spirit and I'm optimistic, like I can see the silver lining, I can see a bright side. But there was a point where I no longer saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Where I also had maintained optimism for years and tried different things, and then I was like, you know what, Actually I'm a lost cause, like because then I like fell deep into depression and then like self sabotaging behaviors and addiction and just trying to like deal with the emotions that I had been suppressing because I didn't want people to worry or feel bad or anything like that.
They literally took your voice. It was like you were like the little mermaid.
I mean, I started to feel bad for myself. I started to feel like I was this thing that people could talk about in the industry, and people were like, Oh, if only we could sign her or we could work with her, she was available to do this, but I wasn't because I legally didn't own my voice, couldn't do anything with that. And I think that the truth about my story and what I talk about in Over the Influence is that a lot of my fans know and really helped me through that period of time with like the free jojo movement, with like creating awareness around what was going on behind the scenes with my label at the time. But that's just a small sliver of my story because I also believe that, yeah, you can have like a set of circumstances that are happening in your life, but you can make different choices with them, you know. I think that I really kind of embodied that, Like people were telling me that I was a victim, and I was like, you know what, yeah I am. And I think Over the Influence is the journey of saying that feels terrible. I hate that narrative and I am similar to what you said earlier, like I have to reclaim the way I look at things and live my life, because what is life about if not to like experience joy and connection and possibility.
You know, yeah, you don't get to tell me when my story ends.
Exactly, no, right, But I certainly felt like it was over a lot, and because I just I gave up on myself, you know, several times.
Well.
I also I wonder about that because you were thirteen years old when you just exploded onto the scene. You were the youngest artist to have a single atop the top forty charts. I mean, people were praising you and waiting on you hand and foot everywhere you went. And I wonder what happens to your psyche, to your emotions, like when that NonStop avalanche of validation, as you wrote in your book, goes away.
It went away in like the heightened you know, crazy, when you have a number one single, it can be an onslaught of just everybody kissing your ass and all that. But I heard somebody say this, and it's kind of true that if you're ever famous, you're kind of famous forever. And the truth is that people treat you unrealistically, So I think that that created like a false sense of first of all, not really knowing who genuinely likes me or what people's intentions are. Because I started so young, I think that that was like a tender spot for me because I was already bullied as a kid. I already didn't think that people liked me, so then when people started to being nice to me, I'm like, what is this about? But I definitely did get my sense of self worth from being popular and outside of school. But when my music was particularly popular and I really needed that validation, that can be an addictive thing, and that's one of the things that influenced so many of my decisions throughout the years, personally and professionally. Was like seeking that validation, because when fame gets into your system, it's like putting heroin into a prepubescent creature. You know.
Yeah, how old were you when you recorded get Out twelve? You weren't even thirteen. That's so wild. I read that you didn't initially connect with the song and you didn't want it to be your first single. It obviously was, and it had major success, But I'm wondering what happens to your brain? As a young person and as an artist when they're not listening to you.
I never saw myself as a pop singer. I always felt like a soul singer. Those were the singers that I admired and that I studied and looked up to. And I kind of had like an aversion to say it, say it the mainstream that just wasn't I don't really like that shit, Like I wasn't that into the boy bands and the girl bands and stuff like a little bit, I guess, but I was more like, no, it's about Areta and Eda James and even Ella Fitzgerald more on the jazz side. That's what I resonated with. So with Leave Get Out, I just didn't get it. I just didn't really like because that wasn't my world of listening to a bunch of pop records. I didn't get it. That was the first instance of me going along for the ride and my mom, who is very very much an earnest, true down to earth person. She's very heart forward and leads just with who she is, and that's the first time that I really broke with her and I was like, no, I'm going to listen to what these people who know better than us are saying oh wow, because she was like, you don't like the song, I don't like this song, blah blah blah. But I'm like, no, I think they know what they're talking about and we should just go. Because she was managing me at the time, but she was concerned that her daughter was being molded and shaped into something that I like, Naturally.
Did that sort of rupture your relationship with her was at the beginning?
Probably, I would say when I started to have a lot of success, that deepened that rupture. Because it's hard enough being a single mom having a girl only child, where we were so so close, and then she was managing me and we had no experience in this game because it is a game in this system. It was like trial by fire and it was really really challenging on our relationship and what that did to my brain, Like how you asked, I think that it taught me. It conditioned me to say, how you feel doesn't matter. And I'm not saying that other people were like how you feel doesn't matter, but that's the subconscious messaging that I very quickly understood.
There's one story from your book that I think is going to have every stop every millennial girl in her tracks. You almost signed a record deal with Britney Spears.
Can you give us the day on that?
I know that is so crazy. When I was like, I don't even think I was ten yet, I was maybe nine or ten. I called into the local Top forty station in Boston because someone was like, oh, they they're giving tickets away to their summer concert. I always wanted to put myself in positions to be seen and to sing for people like I really wanted that. So anyway, long story short, I ended up winning the tickets. So my mom and I went and I sang my way through security from one security guard to the next. Ended up meeting Britney Spears, and I did, and I still do think that she's amazing. I loved Baby one more time when it came out, like there's some soul in that. First of all, I think it's an a dope record. She was saying that she was going to start a production company. Her and her attorney at the time, Larry Rudolph, were going to start something, and basically a few weeks after meeting her, a contract was sent to our little apartment in Massachuset. It was about signing to her production company, and my mom was like you no, you're too young, and I'm like, you hate me, you bought you wish death upon me, like you want me to die, because I was like, this is a chance, Like we're never going to get better than this. I'm grateful that she didn't go with that because first of all, ten, I mean not that twelve is much older, but ten is crazy. Ten is crazy, and I don't think Britney ever put out any artists on her production company, so you know, I thought I was shelved. I just don't even think my career would have gotten off the ground because sometimes it's riskier to sign to an artist's label.
Well, this actually makes me think of something that you wrote on your Instagram recently. You're doing the series of posts where you were giving advice to your younger self, and there was one that you wrote to your thirteen year old self and you said, quote, not every opportunity is for you say no to the ones that don't feel right, so you can be available to say yes to the things it do.
What did you have in mind when you wrote that.
If you're saying yes to everything from a place of fear, that you're never going to get another opportunity. Then you're not really checking in if it's like, if it's in resonance, not only just does it feel right, but let me lay this out in black and white, does it make sense? All these things? So that's really generally what I was thinking of. But I do think that regardless of how anything panned out with my former label that I was assigned to at first, that was meant to unfold that way. I'm incredibly grateful for the foundation that it set up for me to live a life that I really enjoy. And if anything else had been different about it, if I had said yes to something, then I wouldn't have been able to say yes to the thing that actually was a part of my destiny.
I think we are loving this conversation, but we need to take a quick break.
We'll be right.
Back, and we're back with Jojo Jojo.
The other day, I saw this woman from like the Harvard a cappella group on stage performing a Whitney Houston song.
Oh my god, they're so good. I love the Harvard Acapella group. I saw that exact thing.
They're unbelievable.
Yeah, she was killing you know what I'm talking about. Yes, she was so killing.
Oh I'm not in music. I just reposted it because I was like, this woman is just so embodied. Yes, And so I'm watching it back and all of a sudden, I started crying. M And I realized that I started crying because she looked like the world had not hit her yet, Like there was no like harassment, There was no like, there was no the stuff that you get from just being a woman in any industry, particularly in Hollywood or in music. You have really been through it, Like reading your book. I don't want to give it all away to people, but like you have gone to the depths of your soul and back again. And I'm wondering when you look at people that are like young women coming up or somebody who's like just like on the precipice of it, what do you feel like, what do you wish you could say to them to kind of like protect that that thing that I was feeling in that video from that girl.
Oh, I love that. That's such a beautiful thing for you to feel and for her to be reflecting out into the you know, the joy that like unbridled connection, yes to whatever it is to source creation like it's so dope, it's so beautiful. And I think about this a lot because I really like, I've always been an old soul, but now I'm old enough that I can be that eccentric, experienced, artsy auntie to people. And I want to be so to answer your question, and there's so many things I would say, and that's part of why I did like that little series of the advice that i'd give, you know, my younger self, but I would say, just be so unapologetic about doing what is right for you, doing what feels right for you, and following that thing that lights you up, following that joy. Like I mean, maybe she goes to Harvard for music or something, but maybe that's just like a passion of hers and then she's also studying something else, and I think that's a side thing. Don't let those side things go. Don't lose yourself to your ambitions or to climbing. I don't think that that's worth it. I think that the example that like Simone Viles has been setting for young women is so important and so different than what we saw where it's like burnout, exhaustion. Just just push it to the max. And look, I have done that in my own ways, and I've broken many times. And I think that someone as famous and as influential as she is to say no, she's really teaching young girls and grown ask girls like myself how to be a whole person and not just a machine because we're not.
Well.
You've gotten me thinking about just the contrast between what it was like to be a pop star in the late nineties early two thousands versus today, and I think some aspects have improved for young female pop stars. I think when you were coming up, there was this widespread sexualization of young girls from I mean the time that they were pre teens to teenagers. I read in your book that you actually didn't want to be perceived as more sexual necessarily, but like older and more mature, Like you wanted to present this older air to the people that you were around. And there was this quote, Jojo that hit me like a gut punch when I read it. You were talking about when you looked in the mirror the first time that you had gotten professional makeup done, and you said, I didn't see a thirteen year old girl anymore. I saw an eighteen year old pop star. And that's exactly what I hoped other people would see too. Yeah, and I don't want to put this like framing on it that might not be there for you, So correct me if I'm wrong with this framing. But do you feel like that perspective cost you anything? Looking back on.
It personally cost me? Yeah, I was in such a rush to grow up. I never wanted to be a kid. I thought it was inconvenient to the work that I wanted to do, and to the money that I wanted to make, to my ambition. It just was. And first of all, why was I that way? That's a whole other conversation, like why was this little girl feeling like I needed to make a way out of no way for me and my mom and all these things? And I wanted something different. But I was embarrassed to be so young, Like I did not look at it as a cool thing. But then when the youngest artist to have a number one on the top forty chart, I'm like, oh, so, I guess this is a good thing in other people's eyes. But I still felt so alone because the closest people in age to me were eighteen like that were in music at that time or in film and television and stuff. So I just I felt like an outlier, even more so than I already did, just being like a girl who got bullied and felt like a bit of a little weirdo. And do I think it cost me anything? I think that being in a rush for cycles to complete or for like seasons to go faster, I'm sure that cost me something. I think that not being around kids my age, that's exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be around the adults and everything. But do I think that I would have benefited from maybe going through that uncomfortable process with other people my age, Yeah, I think so probably.
Okay, I need to get key about your music for a second with you. So I just saw that viral clip with Adele Bawling singing one of her songs, and I wanted to ask you which one of your songs is most likely to give that to you.
I would say that the one that I tend to get emotional with was a song called music from my album Mad Love, because I wrote that shortly after my dad died, and I was thinking about what has been the most consistent relationship in my life, and it's been music. It's that has been the thing that has been always there for me. I could always count on it. I could always even comforting myself with just singing some melodies. It feels good the way it reverberates in my chest and then comes out, like the lyric can take on different forms depending like who I'm singing it to, because when I'm in front of my fans and I'm singing, who would I be without you? It's so very much for them. If it weren't for their belief and support, I don't know that I would have made it through a lot of the times that I had, So that one always gets to me.
Jojo.
It's clear that you care deeply about fairness. I mean, you mentioned wanting to be a civil rights attorney when you were younger if you didn't end up doing music. And I feel like Jojo fans collectively, we are all invested in fairness for you. I mean, there was a free Jojo movement. We all feel like you were wronged after all that you've been through in this business.
What does justice look like for you?
And I don't even know if that's the right word, but like, what does freedom look like for Jojo?
Ooh?
Freedom just looks like following what actually sparks joy right now and makes me feel like a little kid and where I can be connected to community and purpose. And I think that in having nothing to hide, that's freedom as well. So I kind of wanted to like blow up my own spot and be like, here's some embarrassing things that I did. Here's some things that like you're not supposed to do, or some blind spots that I had. I do think that freedom is saying this is just what it is, this is just where I'm at, and releasing shame. And I was carrying around so much of it for a variety of different reasons, and some of them, like guilt can sometimes help change behavior and maybe that can be a good thing, but the shame and embarrassment, I think freedom is letting go of those things. And I think the freedom is in the present.
Okay, I'm about to ask you a question, and I don't want it to come off rude, because I want you to know how big of a fan I am. I bought a ticket to your concert before COVID hit.
Oh thanks, Cinya.
But when I read your book and I'm thinking about all that you have been through, and my question is coming from a place of thinking that you are just one of the most talented people. Do you ever sit with yourself and think my music career should be so much bigger right now?
I appreciate that question and the way you prefaced it too, but I'm I'm not offended by that, and I'm glad that we're talking about it.
Thank you for being open to that.
Oh yeah, I really want to answer it, honestly, I'm like, do I think that. I think that there was a moment where I definitely felt like that and where I felt entitled and deserving of being one of the biggest stars.
In the world.
But I got to be so honest with you, that's just that's not my passion anymore. It's not my aspiration to compete on that level. I can't play the game anymore. Like I just have to unsubscribe from some of those things. I was hurt so badly at such a soft, impressionable formative time that I'm way too sensitive for that. And I think that on the other side of like accepting, which happened pretty recently, I would say in the past like four years, like I want to make music that I dig and I want it to resonate with enough people to where I can make an impact on them, and I can have a great career and talk with cool people and have access to more connections and opportunities and things like that. But do I want to compete or make a certain type of I just I don't think I can. I just can't do that anymore physically, emotionally, I just can't. So I don't know if that answers your question or if I kind of talked around that in a circle. But I'm not making music with that intention anymore, and I was for a while. I'm interested in how I can help support other younger people on their journey too, while they're going through a lot of the things that I went through in their own things and personal stuff. Because I just don't have the stomach for it anymore.
It's time for another short break, But don't go anywhere, because when we come back, Jojo is telling us all about the importance of protecting her peace. And we're back with Joanna Jojo Levek.
I think my favorite thing that you've said throughout our whole conversation, Jojo, is how you answered Danielle's question about whether you feel like your career should be bigger because I think so many people, myself included in your twenties, you have this vision or perception of what your career is going to look like, but you have no idea the cost, the relational collateral that's a part of that, the sacrifices. And it sounds like at the end of the day, you have discovered that peace is more priceless than any of that.
And I just think that that is such an important message.
Thank you.
I definitely love my career and love being busy and being in community and all that stuff, but yeah, my piece and being able to look at myself in the mirror and feel good about myself and not be constantly thinking that I need to go against what feels right. Like I realized that like my addictive tendencies were kind of stoked by wanting to get outside myself, I would numb those things that discomfort that I was feeling. I would need the attention of a guy or like a love affair, and like just like being wrapped up in a whole thing because I wasn't satisfied in my career or with trying to please other people. And I have a tattoo in white ink that you can't see because I'm so pale. It's like pretty much the same, but it's PYP protect your piece.
PYP is the new pyt I have. This is amazing.
One of my best girlfriends, not Done, She's an amazing songwriter artist. She would say it all the time. She's like, pyp PYP. I'm like, I'm gonna get tattooed. We should get that tattooed. She's like, yeah, and anyway, I got a tattooed. She didn't. Pip is that feels like a trick. It feels like a trick. No, but pyp is the is the message. Yeah, protect your piece. Like you said, Simon, It's just I think a lot about how life is short and how I always say, God willing life is long. I mean, you know what I'm saying, because you never you never know when when your time is and we get one shot, get one shot, and living for other people's ideas about your life sucks.
That's it. I think we got our episode title, protect your.
Pathaya your piece, Yeah, Jojo. These kinds of conversations make me so grateful that I get to do my job. So thank you. I know someone feels the same way. Thank you for your heart today.
Oh my god, well I feel the same way. Thank you, guys. I so appreciate it. I love talking about this stuff, about the journey of the a person, just trying to experience brightness and joy. So thank you so much for having me Jojo.
We're so proud of you, girl. Yeah, I'm so proud of you.
I'm genuinely so happy for you, like you just seem like you just seem like you have so much peace. And I'm so happy that you're in Mulan Rouge, one of my favorite shows. I'm so excited for this next Jojo Eraich.
You please tour again so that I can make the show.
I promise it's going to be the best tour yet. So I can't wait. And I gotta have you backstage. I got to I got to see you.
Oh my god, You're so sweet.
Thank you guys.
Thank you be there.
Jojo is an award winning singer, songwriter, actor and author of Over the Influence, which is in bookstores right now. She's sorry in Mulan Ruse the Musical on Broadway through October thirteenth.
That's it for today's show.
Tomorrow it's Wellness Wednesday, breast cancer surgeon and women's health advocate, doctor Christy Funk joins us for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side and connect with us on social media at Hello Sunshine on Instagram and at The bright Side Pod on TikTok, and feel free to tag us. Simone Boys and Danielle Robe
See you tomorrow, folks, Keep looking on the bright side.