Jojo Levesque

Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky

Wondery

Society & Culture

4.6 • 728 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on Reclaiming, we are joined by the youngest person to ever top the billboard 100, artist JoJo Levesque, who takes us behind the curtain of her remarkable 20-year career in music. In this raw and revealing conversation, she opens up about her complex path to self-discovery, her fight to reclaim her artistic freedom after a devastating label dispute that kept her music hostage, and the personal battles that shaped her into the powerhouse vocalist we know today. From teenage superstar to industry warrior, JoJo shares untold stories of resilience, music industry manipulation, and the emotional toll of growing up in the spotlight.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky early and ad free right now.
0:06.4	Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. Or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts.
0:18.6	Hi, on today's episode, I spoke with the singer Jojo.
0:22.9	Now, this intro is a little different than the others because this chat was among my early
0:27.8	ones that I did for the podcast, and I didn't quite get all of the info you'll need to follow
0:32.3	the story.
0:33.3	So sorry.
0:34.8	But before Taylor Swift made headlines by re-recording old albums and releasing
0:40.4	them under her ownership, there were other young artists held hostage by record labels
0:45.4	and working to reclaim their voice. Joanna Jojo Levesque is one of them.
0:50.5	Jojo signed her first record deal at just 13 years old. Her smash hit, Leave, Get Out, under blackground labels, made her the youngest singer to top the billboard charts in 2004 at age 13. What followed, though, was almost a decade of legal disputes and unreleased music at what should have been the height of her career rise.
1:11.6	But Jojo's a fighter, and she found loopholes, like releasing mixtapes for her fans who had
1:17.0	created hashtags to free their favorite artist. And eventually, Jojo did get out of her label
1:22.6	contract, suing Blackground under child labor laws. In our interview, Jojo called herself a rugged bitch.
1:30.3	I just love that. Her resilience, growing up surrounded by addiction and stability and a
1:35.5	controlling music industry, is rugged. But what I loved most about my conversation with Jojo was her
1:42.0	depth, her introspection, and the way she shares so openly what she's learned on this path.
1:48.0	Anyway, I hope you find something in our chat to connect to, and thanks so much for joining us on reclaiming. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Audible.
2:04.0	Love getting lost in heart-pounding stories.
2:07.0	Audible delivers thrills of every kind.
2:09.7	Discover what lies beyond the edge of your seat today.
2:12.6	Sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com slash reclaiming.
	...

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