Grammy-Winner JoJo Listens to Her Instincts on New Album, ‘trying not to think about it’

Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter, JoJo (born Joanna Levesque), needs to write. The act is part of her self-care, part of a crucial regular practice. If she doesn’t put pen to paper, her mind can become more of a minefield. It can be dangerous up there, she says. The writing could be journaling or jotting; it does not need to be public or poetic. But it needs to happen. And at one point recently, the writing wasn’t coming for Jojo. She felt stifled.

At the time, the last thing she’d composed was a holiday album in July. It had been six months since she’d written and it was becoming painful. Coupled with the creative inertia, JoJo was experiencing severe bouts of depression and anxiety. She reached out to her record label and told them she needed to write about what was going on in her brain. And she began to do just that. This is the origin story of JoJo’s sleek, stellar new record, trying not to think about it, which is out now.