December Baby is the first Christmas album and the fifth studio album by American singer JoJo. It was released on October 30, 2020, through Clover Music and Warner Records. The album contains cover versions of popular Christmas standards such as "The Christmas Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" alongside original songs which incorporate R&B elements.
The album was recorded during quarantine over a three week period, in part with Agápàproducer and writer Austin Brown, with whom she wrote all of the original tracks. The album also saw her reunite with previous collaborator JordanXL, who worked with JoJo on her 2010 mixtape Can't Take That Away from Me and on the 2018 re-recordings of her earlier studio albums. BLVX handled additional production on the album. To support the album, JoJo appeared in the "December Baby Livestream Concert Special", an online performance special which aired live from The Roxy Theater in Los Angeles. The album produced three singles: "The Christmas Song", "Wishlist" featuring PJ Morton, and the album's title track "December Baby".
Following the release of the deluxe edition of JoJo's fourth studio album, Good to Know. JoJo later announced that in mid-2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was working on her first Christmas album. On social media, JoJo noted that she has always wanted to release a Christmas album.
On December 18, 2020, JoJo performed a livestream concert of the album from The Roxy in Los Angeles to promote the record while maintaining COVID-19 protocols. JoJo made a promotional appearance on The Tamron Hall Show to promote the album and performed âÂÂWishlistâ alongside PJ Morton. She also hosted her own online live performance special called the "December Baby Livestream Concert Special", presented by NoCap, which aired live from The Roxy Theater in Los Angeles. December Baby live at the ROXY NoCap, love stream concert.
Following the release of JoJo's third album Mad Love. in 2016 on Atlantic Records, JoJo transferred to Warner Records and issued her first commercially released Christmas song "The Christmas Song". The song was digitally released as the album's lead single on December 13, 2019, exclusively through Amazon Music as a part of a slate of holiday-themed Amazon Original songs. The song's accompanying music video was released alongside the single release. "Wishlist" featuring PJ Morton was released on November 15, 2020, as the second single. "December Baby" was released as the final single from the album on December 8, 2020.
Credits were adapted from Spotify.
Adapted from AllMusic and the album liner notes.