JOJO has revealed the dangerous lengths she once went to in order to keep a slim figure after skyrocketing to pop stardom when the singer was just 13.
In the former child star’s new memoir, Over the Influence, Joanna “JoJo” Levesque opened up about the “trauma” of being in the music industry so young – which has led to her “reinvention” as an adult.
After becoming the youngest solo artist in history to score a #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with her hit Leave (Get Out), JoJo became an international sensation at 13.
She went on to release her self-titled debut album in 2004 under the controversial record label Blackground, which was founded by Barry Hankerson – singer Aaliyah’s uncle who also acted as her manager under the same label before the star’s death in 2001.
According to JoJo, signing a multi-year deal to Blackground as a teen was a turning point in her self-confidence, body image and eventually, the downfall of her overall health.
In the book, she described how she was once “summoned” to Barry’s office in Los Angeles after she was signed onto the team and had a “belly full of butterflies” the whole drive there.
While the Vermont native admitted to being “anxious” seeing Barry in person, she wrote she “couldn’t wait” for the music mogul to get to know her.
She said Barry was someone she “rarely connected with” but had heard of him doing “all these nefarious things behind the scenes.”
Despite his reputation, JoJo noted that Barry put her at ease as soon as she walked into the building due to his charm.
However, she claimed that not long into their conversation, Barry emphasized to JoJo about the “importance” of her “looking and feeling her best.”
He pointed out how his niece Aaliyah’s look “really helped to support the music” which added pressure to JoJo – as she noted that the R&B icon was “visually stunning” with a “perfect frame.”
However, during that conversation, JoJo said Barry made it “clear” that she “fell short” of having the pop star image that he wanted her to show the world.
“My pride sank into my stomach. I took note of everything that I had eaten the past few days, and I wished I hadn’t had that stupid banana nut muffin earlier in the morning,” she wrote.
JoJo continued about how she was compared to other women in the industry with “perfect” body types and while she knew she was not a “big girl,” she felt her figure was “unacceptable” for an artist at that time.
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During the conversation with Barry, he made it clear it was time for JoJo to “step it up” – which instantly gave her a feeling of being “overwhelmed and anxious.”
“I was a size two, maybe a four on my heaviest day. He knew I had already been working out hard as hell with a trainer five days a week. I felt like I was fit! Regardless, I wasn’t measuring up to their visual expectations,” JoJo wrote.
By the end of the meeting, JoJo agreed to go to the weight loss doctor that Barry had recommended.
DANGEROUS DIET
“I went on a strict protocol of weigh-ins, injections, and five hundred calories a day, plus supplements.
“I learned all about nutrition and intermittent fasting and how this shot they wanted me to take would trick my body into thinking I was pregnant, taking the food that would normally be reserved for a baby and instead allowing me to excrete it out,” she said in the memoir.
JoJo thought that Barry truly believed he was setting her up for success to be a superstar and she appreciated it, even though the comments made her feel “less-than.”
“So I just swallowed everything (the massively oversized supplements, anyways) and kept my head down. I didn’t want there to be a single thing the label could say I didn’t do or try. I wanted to win with them,” she added.
The pills the then-teenager was taking made her “invincible” and led to her shedding weight.
“Here I was, doing what the execs had asked of me. I was now a size zero, my face was less chipmunk and more gazelle, but I was carrying measured-out quantities of strawberries and almonds in my purse, chain-smoking cigarettes in my car on the way to the next studio session where I’d inevitably write and record more songs that no one would ever hear.”
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Blackground Records for comment.
I was now a size zero, my face was less chipmunk and more gazelle, but I was carrying measured-out quantities of strawberries and almonds in my purse.
JoJo, Over the Influence
Throughout the next several years, JoJo would be faced with her label not releasing certain songs, music videos and other projects she had been working on – leading to an estrangement between her and Barry.
In late 2012, plans for JoJo’s career took another hit when Blackground Records lost their distribution deal with Interscope, resulting in JoJo filing a lawsuit against the label for “irreparable damages to her professional career.”
NEVER TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
After a years-long legal battle, they settled out of court and later that year, JoJo was officially released from Blackground in 2014.
She began a new recording contract with Atlantic Records that has since fizzled out and JoJo is now signed under a smaller division within Warner Records.
Due to the masters of her early work still being owned Blackground, she no longer had the rights to her biggest songs.
In order to reclaim her career, JoJo re-recorded her entire debut album in 2018 with her now-adult vocals and slightly tweaked instrumentation – an unprecedented move that was later replicated by Taylor Swift when the pop sensation battled Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun for the rights to her catalog from Big Machine Label Group.
JoJo has continued to release new music, go on tour and last year, scored the leading role in Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
In 2021, she competed on The Masked Singer as The Black Swan and although she was a fan-favorite to win the show, she came in second to champ Nick Lachey.
Meanwhile, JoJo’s old label group rebranded to Blackground Records 2.0 with Barry continuing to run the second attempt at the company.
Later this year, they plan to re-release a posthumous album from Aaliyah titled Unstoppable however, the late singer’s family, including her mom, has strongly opposed the record and are not on good terms with Barry.
Over the Influence, which dives deeper into JoJo “emerging victorious in a never-ending lawsuit with her record label” as well as “turbulent years” in her personal life, comes out on September 17.
