American singer JoJo first shot to fame at 13 when her iconic breakup anthem 'Leave (Get Out)' nabbed the number one spot on the billboard charts.
Almost two decades later, the now 31-year-old star is slowly making her return to the big stage.
After dominating the early 2000’s with a string of pop hits, including 'Too Little Too Late' and 'Baby It’s You', the singer fell into a 5-year-long hiatus and seemingly vanished from the music scene.
JoJo later opened up about becoming embroiled in a decade-long battle to regain control of her career after her record label, Blackground Records, refused to release her from a seven-album recording contract.
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In a 2016 interview with Elvis Duran, she spoke about being left to "[die] on the vine" when she was unable to release the music she had worked so hard on.
She told listeners: "I felt that I had turned in several incarnations of an album, and they didn’t have any means to put it out."
JoJo was just 18 when she filed her first lawsuit against the label for forcing her into a musical limbo that led to a cluster of ‘irreparable’ career setbacks.
But even in the midst of her contractual dispute, the singer powered on - relying on mixtapes, collaborations and remixes as loopholes to release music to her dedicated fans.
Her popular rendition of Drake's 'Marvin's Room', written from a female perspective, gained over 50 million views on YouTube and was thought to have relaunched her then stagnating career.
The dedicated singer told Duran: “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life, so there’s nothing that would stop me, or keep me from being able to live the dream that I started when I was a little girl.”
JoJo was finally released from her contract in late 2013 after filing a further lawsuit that led to an agreed settlement between both parties.
It marked the end of a troubling period of JoJo being unable to release new music and her fans being unable to stream or purchase anything from her back catalogue.
In an effort to gain back control of her voice, JoJo re-released her first two albums ‘JoJo’ and ‘The High Road’ in 2018 after starting her own record company, Clove Music, to help “change the narrative”.
The R&B sensation later appeared on the popular TV singing competition, The Masked Singer, as ‘The Black Swan’, finishing in second place to American singer Nick Lachey after performing a soulful rendition of Michael Bolton's ‘How Am I Supposed to Live Without You’.
In an interview with People, JoJo said that taking part in the show as The Black Swan was an exciting opportunity for her to be on stage again.
“She gave me the confidence to step out and just do what I've done since I was little”, said the star.
“It brought me so much light and so much joy. I truly don't think that I would be in this mental place that I'm in had it not been for me saying 'yes’ to The Masked Singer”, she added.
But it appears that her return to the music world hasn’t been entirely positive.
Just last year, JoJo hinted that she hasn’t had the warmest of welcomes back into the industry.
The 'Get Out' singer took to TikTok to voice her frustrations about being left out on the guest list of award shows.
In a short clip where JoJo is seen lip syncing to Miley Cyrus ’ ‘Twinkle Song’ lyrics “What does it mean?”, the star shared a caption with her 1 million TikTok followers, which read: “Me watching yet another award show season go by and once again not being invited.”
She went on to add: “I never talk about s*** like this nor do I think I deserve anything over anyone else - but I think I've lost any tiny bit of chill I have remaining.”
And yet, this hasn't stopped the star from going on to achieve one of her biggest career milestones to date.
After releasing a further two albums, 'Mad Love' in 2016 and 'Good To Know' in 2020, JoJo was awarded her first ever Grammy for Best R&B Song for her collaboration with JP Morgan titled 'Say So'.
In an interview with MTV, JoJo said that winning her first Grammy "gave [her] a sense of validation that [she] didn't even realise [she] had really been longing for."
In addition to the impressive career milestone, the star also reached a milestone in her personal life when she took to Instagram to announce her engagement to Saved By The Bell actor, Dexter Darden.
JoJo captioned the photo of the pair surrounded by balloons and a 'she said yes' banner with a short message to express her excitement.
She wrote: "Forever with YOU? Sign me UP.”
“Celebrating Christmas with a whole fiancé!!! The most thoughtful, creative, positive, handsome, strong, loving, uplifting human being asked me to marry him. So obviously I said YESSS!!!"
JoJo has since opened up about her mental health struggles, which inspired her latest EP, 'Trying Not To Think About It'.
The star said that the EP chronicles her feelings of anxiety and depression after she experienced a failed relationship and began questioning her purpose.
She told MTV: "For me, anxiety is putting too much pressure, too much weight, and too much importance on me.”
JoJo explained that her “perfectionist mentality” led her to compare her own success to that of her peers, and that although she has always felt like “a bit of an outcast” the feeling exacerbated in 2020.
She is currently travelling across Europe for the 'JoJo Tour 2022' after wrapping up her tour dates in the UK.
The singer's delayed return to the UK stage came after she was forced to cancel her 'Good To Know' tour in 2020 due to health and safety concerns brought on by the Coronavirus pandemic.
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