Joanna Noëlle Levesque was born in Foxborough, Massachusetts. She is of French (Levesque comes from French for Bishop and Noëlle means Christmas), Native American, Irish and Polish descent. JoJo currently resides in Edgewater, New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan, which is where she does her studio recording. Growing up on the outskirts of Boston, Massachusetts, JoJo listened and learned as her mother practiced hymns. She started singing when she was two years old by imitating her mother, but quickly put her own spin on everything from nursery rhymes to pop tunes. Her parents divorced when she was five years old. An ad in the paper announced open auditions for Kids Say the Darndest Things on the Road in Boston. Having immediately been given a spot to perform, she sang Aretha Franklin's "Respect". Bill Cosby and the crowd at Faneuil Hall responded overwhelmingly in favor. Soon after, The Oprah Winfrey Show contacted her, inviting her to perform. Reminiscing, she says that "when it came to performing, I just had no fear". When she was 12, in 2003, she tried out for the American show, "America's Most Talented Kids". After trying out for the show 7 times, the talents she used in the try-outs were juggling, dancing, tap dancing, and singing), she finally made it on. Round after round came and she kept moving, but in the second to last round, she didn't make it. Appearances on talk shows and gospel festivals followed, but it was her appearance on the television show America's Most Talented Kids (even though she lost to Diana DeGarmo) that brought the call from record producer Vincent Herbert. The former Aaliyah, Toni Braxton and Destiny's Child producer had the young singer signed to Blackground Records and arranged sessions with famed producers like The Underdogs, Soulshock and Karlin. JoJo made her big musical break in 2004 with her platinum-selling debut single, "Leave (Get Out)". The track became an international hit, peaking at #12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and at #2 on the UK singles chart. When the single hit #1 on the Top 40 Mainstream, she became the youngest solo artist to have a #1 song in America. Her debut album, the platinum-selling JoJo, followed; it peaked at #4 on the US Billboard 200 and within the top forty of the UK charts. She co-wrote two of the album's songs, as well as writing and co-producing one full track. Her second single, the gold-selling "Baby It's You", featured a duet with Bow Wow (although the album version did not). The song peaked at #22 in the US, though it went top ten in the UK. The last single off the album, "Not That Kinda Girl", failed to make waves on the charts, due to underadvertisement and a music video considered off-par with her previous work.
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