JoJo is 18 today

Joanna Noëlle Blagden Levesque (born December 20, 1990), professionally known as JoJo, is an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter and actress who rose to fame in 2004 with her platinum-certified, self-titled debut album, which has reached number four on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.

Her second album, The High Road, was released on October 17, 2006 and has reached number three on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. JoJo has sold more than 12 million albums and singles worldwide. She has also begun a film career, starring in two 2006 Hollywood films, Aquamarine and RV. She's currently working on her third album, All I Want Is Everything, which will be released in 2009.

JoJo was born in Brattleboro, Vermont and raised in Keene, New Hampshire and Foxborough, Massachusetts. She has Irish, Polish, French and Native American ancestry. She grew up in a one-bedroom apartment in Foxborough, in a low-income family. Her father, Joel Maurice Levesque, sings as a hobby, and her mother, Diana Levesque, sang in a Catholic church choir and was trained in musical theatre. Her parents divorced when she was three.

During her earlier years, JoJo would listen and learn as her mother practiced her hymns. She started singing when she was two years and 3 months old by imitating her mother, putting her own spin on everything from nursery rhymes to R&B, Jazz and Soul tunes. On the A&E's show Child Stars III: Teen Rockers, her mother claimed that JoJo had a borderline genius IQ. As a child, JoJo enjoyed attending Native American festivals and acted locally in professional theaters.

After auditioning for the television show Kids Say the Darndest Things: On the Road in Boston, JoJo was given a spot to perform on the show, singing Aretha Franklin's 1967 hit "Respect". Soon after, The Oprah Winfrey Show contacted her, inviting her to perform. She also performed on Maury, on one of the frequent "kids-with-talent" episodes, as well as many others. Reminiscing, she has stated that "when it came to performing, I just had no fear".