How JoJo Ended an On-and-Off Romance After a Decade and Found 'More Respect for Myself Than I've Had' (Exclusive)

• Joanna "JoJo" Levesque's new NGL EP is out now

• The singer, actress and author tells PEOPLE about crafting the project as an independent artist while starring in Moulin Rouge on Broadway and writing last year's Over the Influence memoir

• Throughout the creative process, she trusted her instincts more than ever before — and even ended a decade-long on-again, off-again relationship

There's been a lot on Joanna "JoJo" Levesque's mind.

Over the past two years, the 34-year-old singer-songwriter moved to New York City, made her Broadway debut as Satine in Moulin Rouge, wrote the bestselling memoir Over the Influence and spent time focusing on herself as a single woman.

After reflecting on her entire life and career for the book, she's now letting fans deeper into her current psyche on her new NGL EP, out now, an eight-track project that finds the powerhouse vocalist embracing more self-trust through vulnerable lyrics paired with sticky pop-R&B sounds.

"I've been JoJo now for 20 years," the artist, who shot to fame with the 2004 hit single "Leave (Get Out)" at age 13, tells PEOPLE. "I know what's right for me, and no one else does."

Related: JoJo Found Herself 'Free Falling' in Life. Now She Feels 'Liberated' to Share Emotional New Music (Exclusive)

The new project, released on her own Clover Music label in partnership with BMG, was sparked before she joined Moulin Rouge or wrote Over the Influence with the stream of consciousness track "Too Much to Say" in a 2022 session with cowriter Sebastian Kole in Los Angeles.

"He was like, 'Alright, what are we writing about today?' And I'm like, 'Man, I feel like I have so much to say that I don't even know where to begin. I'm overwhelmed. I feel so much, I don't know what to do with it. Sometimes I feel numb. I don't even know. I haven't cried in a long time,'" recalls Levesque, who was fresh off the end of her engagement to ex Dexter Darden at the time.

Fast forward a few months, and she moved across the country to star on Broadway while writing the vulnerable memoir. The lifestyle shift inspired the confident lyrics of the EP's opening track, "Nobody," which focuses on the idea that no one will love Levesque better than she can.

Related: JoJo Candidly Admits She's 'Been on Both Sides of the Coin' with Infidelity: 'I've Seen the Cost' (Exclusive)

"I had been watching so much Sex in the City, I was living in New York, and I was really just in that bag of feeling empowered," she says. "I was understanding for the first time that I really have to truly love and f--- with myself first. I need to heal. I cannot jump from one thing to the next, like I always have done my whole life. I have to really enjoy this — and I really was enjoying it."

But in order to truly live by those words, Levesque needed to reexamine her romantic life. At the end of 2023, she reconnected with a partner she'd been seeing on-and-off for about a decade and realized the relationship had finally run its course.

So, she took the liberty of ending it. "I was like, 'It's not even fun anymore, knowing that we love each other but can't be together, and it's never going to work,'" she recalls of the situation, which inspired the EP track "Ready to Love."

Related: JoJo Recalls Going to Taylor Swift's House with Selena Gomez and Thinking Everyone 'Felt Bad for Me' (Exclusive)

"I'm in a place where I have more respect for myself than I've had, and I no longer want to attract things from a place of shame or guilt. I don't want to be paying for something that I did years ago, forever," she explains. "I was like, 'This has gone on a really long time, and this is going to be the last song about that.'"

While Levesque recently told Elvis Duran she is dating at the moment, she's also spent a lot more time with herself (and her dog, Agapé) since moving to the Big Apple. "I carve out periods of time to be truly alone, check in, put my hand on my heart and close my eyes," says the star, who also does meditation, yoga, journaling and the occasional therapy appointment.

"I'm happy that I'm at a point in my life where I can recognize what I need," she declares. "I really like that about myself."

Related: JoJo Never Thought She Would Struggle with Addiction Like Her Parents. Then It Took Hold: 'Super Self-Righteous' (Exclusive)

NGL marks Levesque's first project since 2021's Trying Not to Think About It, and it's filled with some of the catchiest tracks of her career — partly inspired by her experience singing massive pop songs like Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and Katy Perry's "Firework" in Moulin Rouge.

"I love a vibe, but I also love a sticky hook. I wanted to aspire to that, so [I focused on] making sure things were soulful and true to what I gravitate toward," she says, "but also, "Is this memorable, will this stay? Is it an earworm?'"

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As an independent artist, Levesque's been at the helm of more elements in the creative process for NGL than ever before — a far cry from the days of often looking to team members around her for approval on career decisions, a theme she wrote about in Over the Influence.

"It's nice to not put so much pressure on it, and I do think that that's what life is about — just to jump from one lily pad to the next and do things that align in the moment and then feel free to change your mind, pivot and grow," she says. "That's something I'm definitely committed to, continuing to grow and evolve."

Levesque's NGL EP is out now, and tickets for her upcoming Too Much to Say Tour (kicking off Feb. 22) are available at her website

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