By: Kat Littfin
Local News Editor
Ex Dance Moms dancer and self-proclaimed pop star JoJo Siwa is at it again with the release of Iced Coffee, her raunchy, upbeat new single. Siwa released this song amid her uncharacteristic disappearance from social media. The release has had more positive reviews than expected, leading Siwa’s followers to question her recent social media break.
Siwa’s mysterious disappearance occurred soon after her acceptance speech at the Industry Dance Awards, where she thanked Beyonce for her award. Thanking Beyonce became a TikTok trend for a short while, as conspiracy theorists noticed many artists, such as Adele, Lizzo, and Lady Gaga, thanking Beyonce after receiving awards for their respective genres. The day after receiving her dance award, on Oct. 8, Siwa posted a video, but a few days after, fans began to notice that she wasn’t posting. Commenters wrote: “Bro did Beyonce take you?” and “Almost a month. Are you ok?” When Siwa posted for the first time after her break on Nov. 22, promoting her new song with the caption, “Jojo Siwa’s new song Iced Coffee just came out, and not gonna lie it’s kinda a bop we should all go stream it,” it confirmed many viewers’ suspicions that she was just fishing for attention. Since then, she has played into the idea that she is under duress, stating in her next post, “I’m not allowed to be posting right now so I’m going to get in a s***load of trouble for saying this but… this is my new song Iced Coffee. It’s out everywhere now and you can go stream it.” Her recent posts have led followers and haters alike to believe that her disappearance was a ploy to promote her music.
Siwa’s actual song has received mixed attention. Some believe her lyricism is quirky and entertaining, playing on various puns related to coffee, but many find her song to be too similar to the popular song Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter. Furthermore, viewers of her second TikTok since her hiatus have observed that the cover art for her single heavily resembles Artificial Intelligence art. People are attacking Siwa for her use of AI art, as many in the art community heavily critique the employment of AI for commercial art, because it takes away jobs and opportunities from real artists. Though some people dislike Siwa’s new song, and music listeners criticize her music career at large, Iced Coffee has received the most positive feedback out of all of her musical releases. Former haters commenting on one of her posts dancing to the song state, “Wait why is this song kind of a bop,” and “Low-key I actually like this.”
It seems as though Siwa has lived up to her promise in her 2016 song Boomerang, where she sang “Won’t let the haters get their way. Imma come back like a boomerang!” Though many believed Siwa was gone for good during her social media break, she returned with an unexpectedly catchy hit. Despite thousands of individuals criticizing her music, Siwa has continued confidently posting her music and dancing to all of her platforms.