16 years after rocketing to stardom as a 13-year-old singer with her hit Leave (Get Out), Jojo is opening up about an extreme diet her one-time label put her on.
The 29-year-old singer (born Joanna Noëlle Levesque) spoke about the extreme 500–calorie diet her label put her on, in a wide-ranging interview with UpRoxx.
After her first two albums, 2004’s Jojo and 2006’s The High Road, she found herself desperate to release new records under a restrictive contract where the label suggested she be put on a ‘healthy’ diet comprised of just 500 calories a day.
Opening up: 16 years after rocketing to stardom as a 13-year-old singer with her hit Leave (Get Out), Jojo is opening up about an extreme diet her one-time label put her on
Diet: After her first two albums, 2004’s Jojo and 2006’s The High Road, she found herself desperate to release new records under a restrictive contract where the label suggested she be put on a ‘healthy’ diet comprised of just 500 calories a day
She was originally signed by Blackground Records, a label co-founded by Barry Hankerson, the uncle of Aaliyah, who, according to Jojo, ‘started that label for her because she was so young nobody would sign her.’
At age 18 though, she had written and recorded dozens of songs, but nothing was being released, and she started to think it was because of her appearance.
‘Because when I was 18, I remember being sat down in the Blackground office, and the president of the label being like, “We just want you to look as healthy as possible,”‘ she said.
Originally signed: She was originally signed by Blackground Records, a label co-founded by Barry Hankerson, the uncle of Aaliyah, who, according to Jojo, ‘started that label for her because she was so young nobody would sign her’
Healthy: ‘Because when I was 18, I remember being sat down in the Blackground office, and the president of the label being like, “We just want you to look as healthy as possible,”‘ she said
They recommended a diet comprised of just 500 calories a day, which is severely below the recommended daily intake of 2,400 calories for an active 18-year-old girl.
‘I was like, “I’m actually the picture of health. I actually look like a healthy girl who eats and is active. And I don’t think this is about my health. I think that you want me to be really skinny.”‘
‘And he’s like, “No, I wouldn’t say that,’ blah blah blah,”‘ JoJo added. ‘But I ended up getting put with a nutritionist that had me on a 500 calorie a day diet, and I was on these injections that make you have no appetite.’
Diet: They recommended a diet comprised of just 500 calories a day, which is severely below the recommended daily intake of 2,400 calories for an active 18-year-old girl
‘I was like, “Let me see how skinny I can get, because maybe then they’ll put out an album. Maybe I’m just so disgusting that no one wants to see me in a video and they can’t even look at me.” That’s really what I thought,’ she added.
The singer reflected that she was not angry at, ‘being looked at like a product, because as artists, we are,’ but she added that it’s ‘uncomfortable’ being a woman in the industry.
‘I’m sure a lot of us develop extreme insecurities and disordered eating and really unhealthy thinking about ourselves,’ JoJo added.
Skinny: ‘I was like, “Let me see how skinny I can get, because maybe then they’ll put out an album. Maybe I’m just so disgusting that no one wants to see me in a video and they can’t even look at me.” That’s really what I thought,’ she added
‘I felt that how I was must have been not enough. Must have been dissatisfying,’ she added.
She ended up turning to alcohol, ‘getting f***ed up, making out with strangers, looking for validation and attention, looking to feel pretty.’
The singer added that she, ‘should be dead,’ and when asked how she was able to get clean, she said it was ultimately because her dad was an addict.
Refused: ‘I refused to end up like that,’ she said of her dad, who passed away in 2015 at the age of 60
‘I refused to end up like that,’ she said of her dad, who passed away in 2015 at the age of 60.
‘I would’ve ended up just like my dad, just going to sleep one day and not waking up. Because life is hard,’ JoJo said.
She was ultimately released by Blackground in 2014, and she signed with Atlantic Records, where she released Mad Love in 2016.
JoJo moved to Warner Records in 2019, with her fourth studio album Good to Know slated for release this spring, with a new tour kicking off in April.
New album: JoJo moved to Warner Records in 2019, with her fourth studio album Good to Know slated for release this spring, with a new tour kicking off in April