On Friday, December 4, I witnessed the comeback, the return, the evolution of JoJo. Tons of fans young and old, new and loyal, lined up to see the former child songstress at The Loft in Midtown.
JoJo’s debut single, “Leave (Get Out),” released when she was just 13 in 2004 — reached the pinnacle on Billboard’s “Pop Songs” chart, making her the youngest-ever solo artist to have a #1 single in the United States. Due to problems with her former label, JoJo was unable to release music for upwards of 6 years.
To mark her long-awaited debut, JoJo released “III” – a collection of three new singles in August. All three tracks – “Say Love,” “Save My Soul,” and “When Love Hurts” – will also be featured on her third solo album, slated to arrive early next year. Check them out here.
She released the official music video for “When Love Hurts” earlier this month via MTV. It was the #1 most watched video that day. Check out the video below.
To say she put on a heck of a show is an understatement. Out of curiosity she asked the crowd “How many of you have my first album?” and the entire venue went crazy. When questioned about her second album they yelled even louder. It was clear I was surrounded by JoJo diehards and the diversity of her fan base was extremely impressive. It was almost as if she never left. No matter where you turned, everybody was either singing along, taking pictures, or posting on social media.
Her opener for the evening was an artist out of Maryland named Aaron Camper. He had a nice sound and you could tell the two, JoJo and Camper, had a genuine relationship as artists. He performed a few original tracks and sampled more popular tunes such as “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa, “Water Runs Dry” by Boyz II Men, and “One in a Million” by Aaliyah.
JoJo initially performed a few of her old tracks like “Baby It’s You” to an explosion of applause. She continued the momentum with arguably her most popular track “Get Out.” That was one of those numbers that had everyone singing along with her, including employees at the venue. It’s no surprise even they knew the words, the video has 38.5 Million Views on YouTube.
The good times continued as she sang “Anything” where you could hear the sample from Africa by Toto (not many people looked like they were old enough to know a Toto different from Wizard of Oz). After she had the crowd swaying to “Too Little, Too Late”, she covered a few samples by Drake and Jeremih and threw it back to a feature from her Can’t Take That Away From Me mixtape.
Here’s her tour schedule for the rest of the year:
DECEMBER
4 Atlanta, GA The Loft
6 Dallas, TX Club Dada
7 Houston, TX Studio at Warehouse Live
9 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
10 St. Petersburg, FL State Theater
12 Washington, DC U-Street Music Hall
14 Boston, MA The Sinclair
15 Toronto, ON Mod Club
16 Ferndale, MI The Magic Bag
20 New Orleans, LA HI Ho Lounge
Be sure to keep your eyes and ears on alert for her third album, due next Spring. If you have a chance to see her live, do your ears the justice.
-Jon J.