She may look comfy in her sweats, but JoJo’s still staying “mad busy” during lockdown.
We’re all waiting for the coronavirus to “Leave (Get Out),” but until then, JoJo has been spending lockdown dropping new music and videos, taking to Instagram Live and even participating in virtual festivals to keep her fans entertained.
The singer’s performance at this weekend’s Standing Together — a virtual concert hosted by My Friend’s Place benefitting homeless youth in Los Angeles — is just the latest way she’s staying connected with anyone who loves her music, while keeping a safe distance.
JoJo released her fourth studio album, “Good to Know,” back in May, just as COVID-19 shutdowns were getting serious around the country. While there’s obviously no way she could have predicted the pandemic, she told TooFab the album’s message became unexpectedly timely.
“Releasing music during this time, really I just wanted to keep the promise that I made to my fans, which is ‘This is when the music is coming out,'” she explained. “Releasing music is something that I could do and I saw no reason to delay it and I really felt like the message of the album was strangely apropos for this time because it’s about finally being introspective, kind of having a reckoning with yourself.”
“This is an unprecedented amount of time that I’m sure we’re all spending with ourselves in our minds, just taking a review, and that’s what this album is about,” she continued. “It’s about wanting to escape, realizing that you can’t, being okay with being alone, and then being like, you know, I’m pretty friggin’ bomb. It’s cool. It’s all good. And, yes, maybe I’ll make this journey again. Make the same rotation and I’m imperfect and it’s fine. It’s kind of an acceptance.”
Adding that she’s got “nothing to complain about,” JoJo joked that she hasn’t “worn shoes in a long time” and has still managed to stay “mad busy” thanks to virtual interviews and performances.
In July, she gave her fans even more to listen to when she dropped an acoustic version of her “Good to Know” album. In addition to the album, she also released a music video for the track “Think About You,” which was directed by longtime friend Zelda Williams.
The 29-year-old singer/actress met Robin Williams’ daughter after she worked with him on the 2006 family film, “RV.” The two became fast friends.
“We’ve been friends now for almost half our lives which is so cool. So crazy,” she said. “She was my first LA friend and I don’t mean that in a fake way. I didn’t know anybody in LA. She was just moving from San Francisco. Her dad, when we were working, told me how much I was going to love her. And then, sure enough, we ended up loving each other and just being really close friends.”
Calling Zelda “very consistent,” JoJo said the two have known each other so long they both know there’s “no ulterior motives” when it comes the friendship. “We feel real comfortable creating and being vulnerable and there’s just nothing that throws either of us off. I feel really lucky to have a sister like her. I don’t have any sisters, I’m an only child, so I feel really lucky to have the friendship we have.”
To prepare for this weekend’s event, JoJo has ventured into the outside world, giving us some insight into the safety precautions artists are taking while creating.
“As lovely as the acoustics are from my living room, I just want to give as quality of a performance as possible,” she said, explaining why she’s been going to a studio for the charity event. “I’ve been working out of this one particular studio with my one musician friend and just keeping it real intimate.”
“At the studio that I work at there’s five people maximum and they take your temperature every time you come there,” she continued. “And you have to like fill out a thing that’s like, I haven’t left the state, I haven’t left the country I haven’t been interacting with anybody who has, I don’t know anybody who has COVID, or, if I do, they got a negative test 14 days ago or something like that. So there’s like a lot of personable accountability. You have to believe that people are being honest or you hope so and then they take your temperature and you mask up.”
She joked that the “new STD screening is now COVID … it’s like, ‘Have you been tested?’ It’s real, you got to!”
Though she’s relatively new to working with My Friend’s Place, JoJo hopes to bring more awareness to the “dire” homelessness situation in Los Angeles. “[The organization] is not only providing young people with a place to find themselves and to be creative, but also to actually have resources that can sustain them and just help them in life,” she added, “because everybody is like one degree away from that being you. It really could happen to anybody.”
My Friends’ Place Summer Festival kicks off with the Standing Together concert on Sunday, August 9 and closes “A Night United” gala hosted by Grey’s Anatomy star Giacomo Gianniotti.
For more information, check out the organization’s website.