JoJo

About JoJo

Vocal range: B2-G5-E6

Live: B2-F#5-Eb6

JoJo is a lyric mezzo soprano with a range spanning over three octaves (some argue four). She has a smaller to medium sized voice, with a noticeably medium weight voice. This slight weight gives her an extra darkness to her voice in her middle that helps identify her as a mezzo. Her voice is noticeably lighter than a regular lyric, but too dark and heavy to be considered a Full Lyric Soprano. There are people who believe that JoJo could be a Coloratura Mezzo, but that is far too deep into fach systems to worry about. Stylistically, JoJo prefers R&B, Soul and Gospel, and it influences her singing greatly. JoJo’s style relies heavily on a mix of melisimatic singing, transitions throughout her voice (from chest to head), and belting. Another big part of her singing is her musicality and musicianship. JoJo is very stylistic and will alter a song to fit her needs, more often than not with great success, even playing with dynamics. As she has gotten gotten older, she tends to alter high notes; in the recent performances of Too Little Too Late, JoJo, prefers to skip the entire head note portion in the final chorus (despite her excelling in this area vocally). This could be because she might not be as comfortable at her extreme (Eb6) as she once was and prefers not to risk it.

Lower Register (B2-G3):

JoJo’s lower register has always been a reliable part of her voice. Even as a child JoJo was capable of singing in her lower register showing minimal effort (for her age). In her mid teens, the singer was singing as low as C#3, with capable support. As she has gotten older, allowing her voice to mature, her lower register has gotten stronger, along with her technique having improved. This allowed her to not only be able to sing low notes, but to be able to show musical dynamics in her lower register. She now can sing down to a B2, however support can be iffy at this extreme.

Mid Range: G4-Eb5

JoJo shines in this range more often than not, and uses it through most of her songs. She has shown to be resonant up to Eb5, but there is a matter of consistency with her. Eb5 tends to be where she starts losing support, and can show sins of strain. Recently she has been doing better, but overall it's hard to determine if Eb5 is a part of her supported range. Still she has shown good moments on it, so only time will tell. Below that JoJo does really well. She rarely has problems below that (and more often than not it has been related to sickness).

Upper Belts: E5-G#5

In comparison to her Middle range, her upper belts are weaker. In this area overall, the singer tends to exhibit strain, singing with a raised larynx, throaty (that can cause the stiff and scratchy sound), and often times come off whiny (possibly due to her nasality). Anything above F#5, has yet to be demonstrated live, so most focus is placed from E5-F#5. With her improvements, JoJo has seen nice E5's, and possible resonance, but overall it seems unlikely that it is a part of her supported range (yet). Above that there is no doubt that JoJo still needs work, though she has done better, providing some opened F5 and F#5's.

Head Voice/Falsetto:

When it comes to her head register, JoJo is a frequent user of her head voice. It is possibly one of the most developed parts of her voice. JoJo is well supported, resonant and capable of doing runs within it. The connection between her chest and head is strong, allowing her to be able to switch between the two with ease, which has gotten even stronger with time. The only true issue she seems to show here is at her extremes which is an Eb6 (from Too Little Too Late performances). This seemed to be sung in a less developed and possibly disconnected way. It seems around C#6/D6 JoJo begins to show inconsistencies in support and intonation. However JoJo does not really venture beyond the B5/C6, so there is no way to tell if she has improved and is consistent with them.

Agility:

JoJo’s singing style shows a strong preference for runs, and as such she tends to work them into any song and performance that she can. Her runs have become more intricate and faster. One of her signature runs is her run down through her head voice which she tends to add in parts that require a soft but “emotional” aspect. JoJo is adept with runs that she can use them at any part of her voice (lower chest, middle, head) with equal amount of ease and musicianship. Even in the weakest part of her voice (her upper belts) JoJo can still include runs, although with more effort. Along with her runs, JoJo is also gotten much better with her transitions between chest and head, and shows how adept she is at that when switching between the two registers. Overall JoJo’s agility is one of her most highlighted aspects and has only gotten better.

Weaknesses:

Two overall issues that can arise is nasality and shoutiness. JoJo tends to sing with the slightest nasal quality to her voice, that also makes her sound continuously congested. It doesn't disrupt her singing, and seems relatively minor considering the fact that she is still able to produce resonance, however as she ascends it can become noticeable. Another issue is that she she can get shouty. It sometimes feel like JoJo can confuse power with volume, so she tries to sing loud and with some tension. Instead of resonant, her voice can come off shrill and combined with an preference for a chesty mix, it can distort her sound a little. This has become something of a non issue though as it seems she is moving past it vocally in the last couple of years.

Other than that, once she moves into her extremes, strain is evident.

Overall/Final Recap

JoJo is a fine vocalist who is growing to understand her self and her voice. While at a young age she was adept with some musical showmanship she was able to do as many runs as she wanted, but she also shown poor vocal habits, and was in the process of growing. As she has gotten older, she definitely has improved and has even become more defined in who she is as a vocalist. Though in her extremes she still has issues, it seems like she stays away from them for the most part, or chooses to alter songs when she sees fit (which shows her musicality as a singer).