JoJo was born in Brattleboro, Vermont and raised in Keene, New Hampshire and Foxborough, Massachusetts. She has French, Polish, Irish, and Native American ancestry. She grew up in a one-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Boston, in a low-income family. Her father, Joel Maurice Levesque, is a blues singer, and her mother, Diana Anne Blagden, sang in a Catholic church choir and worked as a house cleaner. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she has since lived with her mother in Edgewater, New Jersey. Her father lives in New Hampshire.
She also received love and support from her cousins (also living in Massachusetts) Andrea Levesque, Arianna Levesque, and Athena Levesque.
During her earlier years, JoJo listened and learned as her mother practiced hymns. She started singing when she was two years old by imitating her mother, putting her own spin on everything from nursery rhymes to pop 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". Host Bill Cosby and the crowd at Faneuil Hall responded overwhelmingly to her performance. 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". JoJo legally changed her last name from her mother's "Blagden" to her father's surname "Levesque". Also Jojo was asked to audition for the role as the lead role in Disney channel's hit show "Hannah Montana" but unfortunately, she didn't because she wanted to focus on her music which lead her to her hit "Leave (Get Out)".
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