With her new movie officially out, her participation on Dancing With the Stars confirmed, and a tour set to begin in January, JoJo Siwa is set to have an excellent few months. But in a recent post, the star said that there is at least one thing that’s not going to plan.
In a series of tweets posted on Tuesday evening (Sept. 14), Siwa claimed that Nickelodeon — the network behind the singer’s new musical film The J Team — is not allowing her to use any of the original songs from the movie in her upcoming tour. “I go out on tour in January. My movie musical was just released (with 6 new original songs)… Nickelodeon told me today that I’m not allowed to perform/add any of the songs from the film into my show,” she wrote. “These are MY songs, MY voice, MY writing. Does this seem fair???”
The star continued to voice her frustration with the ViacomCBS-owned company. “There is no reason that this music should not be included,” she wrote. “Working for a company as a real human being treated as only a brand is fun until it’s not.”
Siwa’s upcoming tour, Nickelodeon’s JoJo Siwa D.R.E.A.M. The Tour, is officially produced by Nickelodeon and AEG Presents, according to the tour’s website. The tour originally started back in May 2019, when Siwa performed around North America and Europe, until the second U.S. leg of the tour was postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The original U.S. and European legs of the tour featured Siwa promoting and performing songs from her two Viacom-produced EPs, D.R.E.A.M. The Music and Celebrate.
The J Team, Siwa’s new movie musical in question, officially premiered on Paramount+ on Sept. 3. The soundtrack for the film, also released by Viacom International Inc., features six original songs written for the film (“Dance Through the Day,” “One Chance,” “Outta the Park,” “U-N-I,” “Back to That Girl” and “Nobody Can Change Me!”), along with two new covers of songs Siwa previously released (“Only Getting Better” and “D.R.E.A.M.”).
Billboard has reached out to Siwa and Nickelodeon for comment. See Siwa’s tweets below: