Jenna Dewan was Jojo Siwa's 'gay awakening'

15 July 2021

JoJo Siwa's "first gay awakening" was seeing Jenna Dewan on 'Lip Sync Battle'.

Jojo Siwa

The 18-year-old star - who came out as pansexual in January - recalled how she felt when she saw the 'Step Up' actress go head-to-head against her then-husband Channing Tatum on the show with a raunchy routine to Ginuwine's 'Pony', and she was also "a little too interested" in one of the dancers in Demi Lovato's 'Cool for the Summer' video.

Speaking to the 28-year-old singer on the star's '4D with Demi Lovato' podcast, Jojo said: "I’ve been figuring out my gay awakenings recently. I think I realised that my very first gay awakening was Jenna Dewan‘s performance on 'Lip Sync Battle'. I think that was one of them.

"But do you remember your dancer, her name is JoJo Gomez, and you did ‘Cool for the Summer’ together? I remember seeing that and just being a little too interested."

And Demi, who announced they are non-binary in May and has also identified as pansexual, said the video was also an important part of their own coming out story.

The pop star said: “I didn’t come out until 2017. But ‘Cool for the Summer’ was, like, 2014, 2015. So, like, that to me, it was my way of saying, ‘I’m not ready to come out, but …'”

Jojo has been dating Kylie Prew for six months and admitted she had always been aware of her sexuality but didn't want to make an announcement until she had a girlfriend.

She said: “I always knew with me, but I always said I’m not going to do anything with it or be like, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m gay, but I’m not in love with a girl yet. But I’m gay and I know that.

“I was always just like, ‘I’ll wait until I actually have a girlfriend or I have a girl that I’m in love with and then I’ll do something with it.’ And then that happened.”