BY DC CUEVA
And in the second half, the fourth American season of Ex On The Beach, and its winter-themed Peak of Love, provided us with a belated Christmas gift. Challenge alums Nicole Zanatta and Marlon Williams were called to join host Romeo Miller to see "Whose Ex is Next?" In came an ex of his from a few years earlier, Jemmye Carroll from The Real World: Back to New Orleans and a veteran of seven seasons of the fifth major pro sport. They had to face the music of going into the Sauna of Secrets to find out about the night he ghosted her - the reason for them being exes.
This winter of 2020 marks ten years since Jem packed up her clothes & heels, and traveled (via train, or all things) from her childhood home of Starkville, MS to New Orleans to film Season 24 in the Big Easy - the first of what is now nine seasons of MTV Reality programming that she has done. And it was exactly a decade ago tonight (as this post publishes on Friday, February 7th) that she and her castmates were on Bourbon Street to celebrate the Saints' stirring Super Bowl win, five years after the heart-wrenching experience that was Hurricane Katrina.
It was also there in New Orleans that she met her longtime boyfriend, the late Ryan Knight, and it was only four years later on Thanksgiving that she and her MTV family were heartbroken by his untimely passing. It came only 13 days after the death of Challenge legend Diem Brown, before she and him competed on their last seasons of The Challenge on Battle of the Exes 2, for which he and Jem were partners more than two years after they broke up, and who also competed together on Rivals II and their first Challenge, Battle of the Seasons 2.
We'll be saving telling the story of Jemmye & Knight for another day... but instead, we'd like to focus the spotlight on someone well known who she's gotten to cross paths for this installment of Someone You Should Know. And it was sixteen years ago that the person who she met up with not long ago was one of the biggest pop stars on earth... and a few weeks ago, she had a night she has never had before in her musical career, as JoJo had her finest hour in the musical spotlight as she returned to the fore to pick up the most coveted piece of gold in the American music industry.
The year of 2004 saw America almost go through another Florida-like Presidential race: an election not called on the big night, but determined in a much shorter timeframe than four years earlier. The Olympics returned to its originating country of Greece, while sequels to Shrek, Spider-Man 2 and Harry Potter dominated the box office. Karamo Brown made his TV debut on The Real World Philadelphia, years before being part of the second generation of Queer Eye. And at Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg and fellow students devised a small website that would become the world's ultimate digital gathering place known simply as Facebook, all while MySpace was on everyone's minds.
The officially-designated fourth year of the third millennium was a memorable one in music: Janet Jackson's Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction, Britney Spears' two marriages in nine months, Ashlee Simpson's SNL lip-sync, OutKast ruling the Grammy's, and the murder of Dimebag Dirrell. Usher finally gained wide public recognition when Confessions and "Yeah!" topped the charts as did Green Day's American Idiot, while Fantasia Barrino became 2004's American Idol. And when he passed away that year, the world paid tribute to an American icon, Ray Charles, as Jamie Foxx portrayed him in a movie bearing his name that won him an Oscar, Golden Globe and much praise.
Joanna began to see music as her future when she recited nursery rhymes which then turned into signing R&B and jazz tunes, and then to attending festivals and acting in local theater. Soon, national TV appearances would come next for this youngster when she performed with the timeless wonder Cher on one of several shows that she appeared on, along with being on Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby and Maury Povich, and she remembers having no fear to being on stage in front of the bright lights and with being those TV icons.
It was when she performed on America's Most Talented Kids in 2003, and her losing to an eventual American Idol runner-up in Diana DeGarmo, that instantly gave Joanna some cred to be a candidate to have a record deal while still in school. Record producer Vince Herbert saw her perform there and then asked her to send an audition demo reel of R&B covers to his label, Blackground Records... and it when she performed for him and Blackground boss Barry Hankerson that it brought the spirit of his niece, Aaliyah, to the ladder. And at age 12, she had a record deal already in place.
The music video for "Leave (Get Out)" saw JoJo roam all around her high school with friends, cheerleaders and pictures of her assumed ex-boyfriend on the wall. MTV, VH1, BET, Nickelodeon and Disney Channel featured the video in its rotation, while spending 50 days on the TRL countdown (and 2 days at #1); she became the youngest to have a video both be retired alongside some of the biggest acts of the 2000's, and the youngest to also a video top the day's countdown. And "Leave" also gave JoJo a Best New Artist nomination at that summer's Video Music Awards, also making her the youngest to ever receive a nod, and saw her present the Viewer's Choice Award that night alongside Olympic gold medalists Carly Patterson, Misty May-Trainor and Kerry Walsh-Jennings.
JoJo's self-titled debut album then followed on the heels of "Leave" and it peaked in the top five of the Billboard 200 album chart, along with her follow-up single "Baby It's You" with Bow Wow peaking at #2 on the Hot 100... landing her two nominations at that winter's Billboard Music Awards. But then, she found out that the task of following up in the success of being a pop star at this young age was as hard as it seems: after her sophomore album, The High Road, and its lead single "Too Little Too Late," charted in the top 5 in both the album and singles charts, JoJo encountered trouble with her record label over her third album, and many of her songs were leaked on YouTube as her family filed a suit to move to Interscope Records, all as her later singles & albums did not match the success of her first offerings, though she did collaborate with Timbaland on his Shock Value series.
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| JoJo (right), with P.J. Morton recording "Say So" |
The label drama JoJo has endured since her smash success as a kid runs parallel to what the biggest star in music right now has had to go through lately. Most fans know of the soap opera surrounding Taylor Swift and her quest to obtain the master recordings of the albums that made her a megastar has divided the industry since mega-mogul Scooter Braun's holding company acquired her former record label Big Machine last year. Taylor called out Scooter and founder Scott Borchetta for bullying her to try and buy her masters, and prevent her from singing her older catalog when she was honored at last year's American Music Awards, and using those tracks in last week's premiere of her Netflix docu-film Miss Americana. And after the release of her latest album Lover on new label Universal, Taylor announced that she would rerecord all of her older work after her world tour later this year.
For JoJo, the drama with her and Blackground in them not making her old recordings available to everyone digitally led her to proceed Taylor in rerecording her first two albums - JoJo and The High Road -- once she became a free agent in 2018 before Warner Records signed her. And like it's been for Taylor, JoJo has garnered much support from those who were with her from day 1, and those new to her fanbase who have pulled for her to win that battle, which brings us to her shining moment...
The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards took place nearly two weeks ago on Sunday, January 26, but understandably the event was overshadowed by the tragic death of Kobe Bryant, who played on the floor of the same Staples Center that has been the show's home for the past two decades. Nonetheless, the show went on in a solemn mood in Los Angeles, as outside the arena and in the L.A. Live complex Lakers fans gathered in enormous numbers to mourn Kobe's passing, and three of the biggest stars of the moment in music were among the night's notable winners.
Lil Nas X was rewarded for his tremendous 2019 and his record-breaking hit "Old Town Road" with winning Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Music Video and performed on the big show. Lizzo opened the show in paying tribute to Kobe as did many artists that night, and out of a field-leading eight nods she picked up three Grammys including "Truth Hurts" being named Best Pop Solo Performance. But the night belonged to the first artist born in the 2000's to have a #1 song: Billie Eilish became the first in almost 40 years to sweep all four of the general category awards of Record, Album & Song of the Year and Best New Artist, along with Pop Vocal Album. And Lady Gaga, Tyler the Creator, 21 Savage, Dan + Shay, and Rosalía were among the night's other key winners, along with the late Nipsey Hustle with two Grammys and was honored posthumously during the show.
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| Phil McCarten/CBS |
When "Say So" won that Grammy during the low-key, pre-telecast awards ceremony prior to the CBS broadcast, only P.J. was inside the auditorium to accept his award. He wrote later on Instagram, "Much love to @iamjojo for making this song what it is!! Had it not been performed the way it was, the song wouldn’t have gotten the attention it got! So thank you thank you thank you! Aside from being amazingly talented JoJo is such a solid person!! She’s been through so much in this industry and is still standing, smiling and singing her face off!! Sky is the limit!" And after she received the news of her winning JoJo tweeted, "OVER. THE. MOON. SO GRATEFUL FOR THIS MOMENT. R&B song of the year #SAYSO @PJMORTON." And fans and fellow artists congratulated her for finally receiving her due in deserving the accolades she's long desired after such a long & tense road.
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| @JustJem24 |
The MTV'er tweeted a picture of her meeting JoJo and wrote, "Had the best time with your friends. You killed tonight. You deserve the world and more." When she reposted her pic after JoJo released the re-recordings of her first two albums over a year ago, MTV vet Kailah Casillas responded, "Woahhhh. Leave (get out) use to be my jammmmmm. I love that song 🙀"
For most of the biggest names in music, winning a Grammy just adds to both their legend and their awards case. For others who don't get much recognition as the chart-toppers, it represents the highest point in their music careers - both those who you hear on the radio & streams and those who make the magic happen behind the soundproof walls. And then there's JoJo: someone started out singing on national TV, then made music history as a teenager, then endured so much in her adolescence and early adult life. But now at the age of 29, this one-time teen idol now has that coveted title of "Grammy winner" in her resume... that represents a victory for her and those who have followed her from those early beginnings in New England
The bio she has on her Instagram profile reads, "what a life thus far🤷♀️🥇✨🍀." It's indeed been just that for Joanna "JoJo" Levesque in making chart history as a teen, having a Grammy a year shy of 30 and celebrating it with dancing on a stripper pole has been quite a life. And she did her part in the viral 10-year challenge by offering her reflection on this journey in the following Instagram photo and caption.
- I AM DC
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