Joelle Joanie (JoJo) Siwa, the celebrity known for her colorful bows and bubblegum pop persona, is a bad girl now. As an adult, Siwa seems to be rebranding herself after performing on Dance Moms with a child-friendly image.
Siwa recently released a song for her new album, Karma. The concept behind the title song Karma is about consequences for one’s actions. It essentially means that if someone does something bad to you, karma will eventually come back to them, meaning they will face negative repercussions for their behavior.
In my opinion, Siwa’s album doesn’t have the best songs I’ve ever heard. For example, Karma isn’t as catchy for my music taste because of the auto-tuning, but the song’s beat is great. Other than that, the lyrics are irrelevant.
Siwa released Karma on April 5th, 2024, and surprised viewers at the 2024 IHeartRadio Music Awards with an epic and insane new look: a crystalized black bodysuit, combat boots, and distinctive makeup. Siwa compared her new ‘bad girl’ era to Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz album.
After releasing Karma, Siwa experienced widespread mockery when she said she hopes Karma will create a new music genre called ‘gay pop’ when it already exists.
“She thinks it’s so drastic and iconic,” says Skyline student Elise Fettig (‘26). “I think she was totally forgotten about, and so she’s trying to stand out as much as possible for the new generation of people… she claims to make this new brand of music, but Karma wasn’t even written by her, it was written by Miley Cyrus.”
Meanwhile, other fans disagree. Skyline Spanish teacher Lisa Philips says, “I think [this happens] to almost all pop stars that start young and then go through puberty and become adults. They almost always have a moment when you go ‘woah!’ because all of the sudden they’re so different,” she said. “And I don’t think it’s weird. I think it’s pretty natural to go through that… Some people don’t like it, but really it’s good ‘cause she’s being her true self.”
