On April 4, 2024, the song “Karma” was released by Jojo Siwa. According to Jojo Siwa, she wrote the music, but that wasn’t the case. Jojo has received a huge amount of hate on social media.  The hate is not only for claiming she wrote the song but the “rebrand” Jojo is trying to put out from rainbow to black and the media does not like it.

Do you like “Karma” by Jojo Siwa? Well, over 2 million people don’t. Miley Cyrus originally wrote the song for Brit Smith. Brit Smith had sung and created a music video but decided not to take it to the media until a month ago. You might be wondering how this relates to Jojo Siwa. Well, conflict arose when Jojo claimed to have written the song herself. At first, the media thought Jojo had stolen the song but it turns out that she bought it from Brit Smith which is very common in the music industry. Although Brit Smith had responded to the media about Jojo Siwa stealing her song people were still very upset about Jojo claiming to have written it.

How does any of this show us that Jojo Siwa is trying to rebrand herself? Jojo went from huge bows and colorful colors to black and a “bad girl”.  She had worn bows until 4 days after her 18th birthday when she spoke to her mom about a change. She didn’t know the change, but she knew she needed it. It has been a good 2 years without her bow but it is still a very critical part of Jojo Siwas’s brand. JoJo stated, “It’s been a pretty big change. I used to be rainbow sparkles and now I’m black sparkles.”. She had gone to her “dark” style mainly because she wanted to pull a Miley Cyrus or Britney Spears. By that, she means leaving the childhood star branding behind to become something new in the eyes of the public. I completely understand why Jojo would want a change but many think her change was too dramatic and she could’ve stayed just without her bows and rainbows. Many people thought the whole dark rock style was way too much.

While wanting other people’s opinions about Jojo Siwa’s situation, I interviewed two students here at SEMHS. My first interviewee was Valeria Torres and we discussed her opinion on “Karma”. Valeria stated “The whole Karma situation with Brit Smith, Miley Cyrus, and Jojo Siwa is just dumb. Many artists buy songs off of others I just don’t understand why this one is such a big deal and I don’t get the whole drama on social media.”. Valeria enjoys listening to karma and won’t let the hate change her opinion. In my next interview, I interviewed another SEMHS student who would like to remain anonymous. We discussed her opinion about Jojo Siwa’s rebrand. She had stated “I honestly miss the old Jojo Siwa and watching her songs when I was younger. I took her lyrics to heart when I was younger since they were about standing up against bullies but now they’re about being a bad girl.”. We discussed the change of style and if it’s appropriate and she said “No, I do not think her style is appropriate for her fans at all. I understand that she is older and wanted a change since she is now a woman but with the fandom, she has I just don’t think it was right to dress like that.”.