Songfacts®:

• Remember JoJo Siwa? The pint-sized powerhouse who dominated our childhoods with her signature bows and infectious bubblegum pop tunes? This song introduces JoJo 2.0, where she's traded in the curtsey high ponytails for something a little more, well, sultry.
  
  Gone are the days of "Boomerang" and "Every Girl's a Super Girl." "Karma" is a sultry electro-pop anthem that is Siwa's first breakout adult moment after performing for 11 years with a child-friendly image.
• The song is about paying the price for infidelity. Having cheated on her romantic partner, Siwa calls it karma that her lover finds another woman.
  
  "There are a lot of stories in my life you could match the song to," said Siwa. "It doesn't mean just one thing, which makes it special. I will say this though... At some point, everybody has a moment of being the bad one. I'm not afraid of being bad anymore."
• Antonina Armato and Tim James, aka Rock Mafia, produced the song with DJ White Shadows and wrote it with legendary hitmaker Desmond Child (Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Cher).
  
  Rock Mafia have written songs for Miley Cyrus in the past, including "Can't Be Tamed," which marked a shift in Cyrus' image from her Hannah Montana days. This song is believed to be a Miley Cyrus tune from her Can't Be Tamed era titled "Karma's A Bitch." It's likely the lyrics were a tad too spicy for Disney at the time.
  
  Connecticut-born singer, songwriter, model, and actress Brit Smith, aka Matisse, recorded her version of the song, produced by Mafia and Timbaland, in 2012. It was never officially released, and the rights were later sold to Siwa.
• Siwa teased the song on TikTok by posting clips of her rehearsing the choreography created by Richy Jackson. Four days before its release, she dropped a major maturity bomb at the 2024 iHeartRadio Awards. We're talking black mesh bodysuit, fierce fauxhawk, and enough Kiss-inspired makeup to make Gene Simmons proud.
• Siwa co-directed the provocative video with Marc Klasfeld, having pitched the concept and choreography a year before its release. It stars You Think You Can Dance champ Alexia Warr (Siwa was a judge), and it has major girl-on-girl vibes. Siwa can be seen dancing on a private island in both an angelic costume and the same dark look she adorned at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards.
  
  Clearly, Siwa was officially shedding her Nickelodeon skin and channeling her inner Miley circa "Wrecking Ball."
  
  "As I got older, I really wanted to create stuff that was gonna make the world say, 'What the hell?'" said Siwa. "And the fun thing is with 'Karma,' I wanted this first breakout adult moment... to make people's heads turn."