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Here's all the latest on Jojo...
BEATING THE BULLIES
JoJo battles back from childhood pain to rack up a high-flying career
By Rick Fulton
AT 16 American singer JoJo has sung to President Bush twice, had a multi-platinum album and been likened to Mariah Carey
for her singing ability.
But as she prepares to release her second album at the end of the month and a new single, Too Little, Too Late, on January
15, JoJo reveals to Razz that she was bullied at school.
The singer, whose debut single Leave (Get Out) went to No.2 in the UK, said: "I'm from a small town in Massachusetts
and a lot of people told me, you can't do this, you're not going to amount to what you want.
"A lot of my peers told me that and it was very hurtful but I try not to let it get me down. With my mum's help I'm
at the point I am right now.
"I went to guidance counsellors a lot because kids hurt my feelings, but if you take the high road you get the last
laugh, I guess."
She quit school and has been tutored for the past three years but still finds it difficult talking about her schoolmates,
even admitting that she finds it hard making friends to this day.
She said: "I would kind of float in and out of different cliques, but for the most part I wasn't popular and a lot
of girls didn't particularly care for me. My mom told me it was because they were jealous because I had goals and I was trying
to pursue my dreams, but I guess they didn't really see it as that.
"And it's hard for me to make friends now, even meet boys, because you never know if they are just doing it because
I'm known.
"I have a few friends in the entertainment business. I don't have a ton of friends, but I'd say most are outside
the industry."
Despite this, JoJo is in no way sad and her mix of R&B and pop on new album The High Road became a huge hit in America,
where it went to No.3 last year.
But perhaps it's track How To Touch A Girl that will raise eyebrows as JoJo - real name Joanna No`lle Levesque - only
just turned sweet 16 in December. She said: "That was a song I co-wrote with Josh Alexander and Billy Steinberg.
"One day we got in the studio and were playing around with different ideas, chords and piano things and they brought
up the title.
"Immediately my mind went to the gutter and I thought OK, that sounds like a dirty song to me.
"And he was like, no, that's not the way we were intending it.
"So, we continued to write and to me it means how to win a girl over.
"I feel like a lot of young guys, they shouldn't be expected to know everything but I think being a gentleman is
important."
Born in Vermont but raised in Foxborough, Massachusetts, JoJo started singing when she was two, imitating her mother Diana,
who sang in a Catholic church choir.
She admits Beyonce has been her career role model. She said: "I've met her a few times and she's just seems to me
- she has such poise and she's such a strong woman and she carries herself like such a lady.
"I love that she keeps her personal life and her career separate. She's also a great songwriter, an incredible singer
and a great performer so she's very well rounded.
"When I was younger I looked up to my mother and I still do and I guess I've taken inspiration from a few places."
Like Beyonce, JoJo is also branching out as an actress.
Last year she starred in Aquamarine as a teenage girl who discover a mermaid and she also starred in the US No.1 box office
hit RV.
Despite the singing and acting, JoJo is still planning to continue her education.
She said: "Education is important. And whether I attend an actual college or take courses, I'm going to continue
learning. As long as I keep expanding, that's great."
Too Little, Too Late is out on January 15. Her album The High Road is out on January 22.
Jojo tells you "how to touch a girl" but it's not what you think...
'It's about how to win a girl over,' singer says of single, the first she had a hand
in writing.
By Corey Moss
There's something JoJo wants everyone to know right away about "How to Touch a Girl," the
next single from her sophomore LP, The High Road.
"It's not the way it sounds," the 15-year-old pop star said during a break from shooting
the video. "It's kind of about how to win a girl over and the things you can do to get to her heart."
(Watch a smiling JoJo on the set of her colorful new video right here.)
"How to Touch a Girl" is the first single the singer had a hand in writing, so when it came
time to put it to film, she stayed heavily involved. "I'm very hands-on," JoJo said. "I cast everyone in my videos, I work
closely with my stylist and my makeup and hair and I just make sure that everything is as I want it. Sometimes I don't know
what I want, but I do know what I don't want, so if someone proposes an idea to me, I will say, 'No, let's do it this way'
or 'This makes me uncomfortable.' "
For "How to Touch a Girl," JoJo decided to tell the story of the song, but not through
herself. "We hired another couple so we could narrate the story through them," she explained. "I'm performing, and there are
a lot of different vignettes and a lot of beautiful lighting techniques that we're using. We hired a band, and there's a performance
shot and a lot of interactions and it all ties in at the end with my performances and the couple. And at the end, my guy comes."
Now that the video is finished, JoJo plans to spend much of December playing holiday radio
festivals — in September, she told MTV News she'd put together her first band for those gigs (see "JoJo Assembles First
Band, Plans To Hit The High Road This Winter"). She's also got a little celebrating to do on December 20, her 16th birthday.
"I'll probably just stay home," JoJo said. "Really, what is most important to me is being with my family and friends, so if
I get that, then that would be great. And if I get a car, that's just an added bonus."
JoJo's already thinking about her third album, although the sometime actress, seen this year
in "RV" and "Aquamarine," plans to make a movie or two in between. "I don't know what yet, because I am focused on the music
right now, but I am reading some scripts and there are some really cool ones out there," she said. "I love doing it, and it
just keeps your face out there."
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