When JoJo hits the stage at Rolling Meadows in Christchurch this New Year’s Eve, she’ll be soundtracking more than a countdown — she’ll be celebrating a hard-won new era.
“There’s so much optimism and energy surrounding the new year,” she says. “It’s not so much that I’m a resolutions person, but I am a refocusing or intention type of person.” She loves the idea that music can help people take on whatever comes next and let go of what’s weighing them down; for an artist who’s spent years reclaiming control of her voice and career, that symbolism isn’t lost on her.
JoJo’s journey is one of the defining pop stories of the 2000s, signed at 12, a global hit at 13, and then trapped in one of the most notorious label disputes in modern music. For years, her story was defined by the red tape around what she couldn’t release — while the world wondered why a star that bright had gone quiet.
Now? She’s firmly in the driver’s seat.
“[…] I’m in control of when I release music, how I release music, and who I want to be a part of that process,” she says. “I’m interested in living a life that makes me feel alive.”
The industry has spent a long time trying to categorise her. Marketed as pop while delivering the kind of deeply soulful vocals that drew comparisons to Brandy and Monica, she was often packaged according to what executives believed would cast the widest net — and because of assumptions about who gets to be labelled what.
“I just love music,” she says. “I care less about fitting in.”
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That openness shows up in the sheer range of collaborators JoJo has worked with, including Craig David, Kehlani, All Time Low, Pentatonix, and Tori Kelly. She’ll hop into gospel, rock, R&B, or even garage if it feels good. “Voodoo by D’Angelo is my most listened-to album,” she shares — and the fingerprints of that influence are all over her recent work.
She’s no longer trying to fit the industry’s boxes — she’s building her own.
Rolling Meadows boasts a huge contingent of women this year — independent voices making ’90s-inspired indie, garage, house, and everything in between. And JoJo feels that in her bones.
“It’s energising and thrilling,” she says. “Women are leading the charge — being experimental, melding genres, challenging standards we used to think we needed to subscribe to.” For her, it’s not just about performing, it’s about listening, watching, and getting inspired right alongside them.
“I get to be a festival-goer like everyone else and hear what’s going on in different countries,” she says. “I know I’m going to walk away from this feeling all charged up.”
For someone who spent her young career fighting merely for the ability to put music out, seeing women thrive on their own terms feels especially significant. Her story proves how much has changed — and how much she’s helped change it.
After months starring in the Working Girl musical in California, a dream gig where she had to cover her tattoos every night, JoJo is excited to step back into her own world.
“I’m excited to remember who I am outside of the theatre,” she laughs. “It’s fun to put on an edgier outfit and… have fun with my girls,” referring to her all-female band.
Musical theatre has rewired how she treats her voice and body. “Warmups and cool downs are non-negotiable now. I live like a singer.” Eight shows a week will do that. The payoff? “I feel my instrument is stronger than it’s ever been.”
Writing her New York Times-bestselling memoir forced her to confront the patterns and pain she’d been avoiding for years.
“I discovered that I’m stronger than I give myself credit for,” she says. The process helped her recognise her role in certain outcomes, and forgive herself for others. She’s added an afterword for the upcoming paperback, reflecting how much has already shifted since publication. “I came to a place of acceptance… and clarified my desires moving forward,” she says.
Her latest EP, NGL, leans into that blunt honesty. “Not gonna lie, I’m growing and changing, but I’m not quite there yet.” One of the standout tracks, “Porcelain”, is dancefloor therapy, written as she psyched herself up to leave Los Angeles and start again in New York. “I wanted to create something that felt like catharsis,” she says. “I needed to summon the courage to move on.”
It’s the sound of someone choosing themselves. Of course, the whole journey started with that voice — one powerful enough to break through the noise of mid-2000s pop and still resonate today.
Songs like “Leave (Get Out)” and “Too Little Too Late” have found new life on TikTok, and now fans who weren’t even alive when those came out can scream every lyric back at her at shows.
“My biggest songs have gone viral because people are incorporating them into their lives,” she says. That includes Gen Z kids and, hilariously, expectant mums. “I love seeing pregnant women waiting to fucking excavate their womb, singing ‘Leave (Get Out)’ at their bellies,” she laughs. “I think it’s funny.”
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It’s a reminder that her music has embedded itself in culture — not frozen in 2004 but constantly being reclaimed, recontextualised, and belted at full volume by whoever needs it.
“It’s pretty trippy,” she admits. “But I just feel really lucky.”
JoJo is also feeling lucky to ring in the new year in a place she loves. JoJo first visited New Zealand just two years ago — a bucket-list destination she’s thrilled to return to again so soon.
“I feel such a kinship,” she says. “It’s so far for us as Americans to make it over there… so the fact that I’ve been twice now, I absolutely love what I’ve got to see of New Zealand so far.” This time around, she wants to see even more: the landscape, the wildlife, maybe even the Christchurch Gondola. “That looks really scary, but I’d like to experience that,” she laughs. “New Zealand wines are my favourite, so a winery is definitely on the list. Sav Blanc is my lifeblood.”
After Rolling Meadows, JoJo plans to stick around the Southern Hemisphere a little longer. She’s heading to Australia next, to see friends, soak up the sun, and keep riding whatever wave the new year brings.
Her goal for 2026 is simple: “Make some music I really love and be present in whatever I’m doing — and see more of the world.” Australia and New Zealand seem like a pretty good place to start.
So, Rolling Meadows fans — what can you expect on New Year’s Eve?
In JoJo’s words: “Good fucking vibes.”
Find out more about Rolling Meadows here.
