JoJo Siwa has seen your “Bette Davis Eyes” videos.
Her cover of Kim Carnes’ 1981 song neared the top of the U.K pop charts, but has also been met with a mix of fascination and bewilderment online. TikTokers are creating versions of their own “Bette Davis Eyes,” wearing a version of the 1950s-inspired blue top she wears in the video and re-creating her raspy voice.
“Some of them, I die laughing,” Siwa tells TODAY.com in a Zoom interview. “Then there’s some that I’m like, ‘Where do people get the audacity? Why do people feel OK to sleep at night?’ There’s a fine line of comedy and fine line of trashing.’”
Siwa says she was walking recently and a man around her age came up to her singing “Bette Davis Eyes” in a “fake raspy voice.”
“I turn around at him and said, ‘Nice singing,’” she says. “He ran off. I was just like — I wish I would’ve pulled him aside and said, ‘Look. If you’re going to make fun of me, the least you could do is have a conversation with me.’ I probably would have taken him to go buy a Gucci bag.”
Love it or hate it, “Bette Davis Eyes” has become a cultural moment — which is ironic, considering Siwa didn’t want to sing it in the first place. The idea came from a producer on her music team.
“She played ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ and said, ‘I bet you don’t even know this song, but your voice would be incredible on it,’” Siwa recalls. Siwa was born in 2003, over two decades after Kim Carnes’ song spent nine consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became an ‘80s anthem.
After receiving criticism for her performances on Season 3 of “The Masked Singer,” the “Dance Moms” star was hesitant to make a cover her next career step.
“Absolutely not. Never. Nope, nope, not happening. I got too shy, too insecure,” she remembers saying.
The conversation was tabled until she was planning her set at the Tecate Emblema music festival in Mexico City and had 20 minutes left to fill. Siwa’s mom brought up “Bette Davis Eyes.” Still unsure, Siwa says she “actually started crying” over the idea of singing it onstage.
“My mom was like, ‘You can. You’re saying you can’t, but you can,’” she remembers her mom saying. “She told me, ‘Do something that makes you want to sing the song.’”
This advice inspired the viral moment where Siwa changed the lyrics of “Bette Davis Eyes” to “Chris Hughes’s eyes” onstage.
Those following Siwa’s personal life would know exactly what that means. It’s a reference to her boyfriend, former “Love Island” contestant Chris Hughes. The two met on “Big Brother UK.” Siwa entered the show in a relationship with Kath Ebbs, an Australian influencer who identifies as a “gender queer lesbian.” The night the show ended, Siwa and Ebbs split up. Weeks later, Siwa and Hughes made things official. (In fact, he interrupted Siwa’s conversation with TODAY.com with his rendition of “You Are My Sunshine.”)
After performing the song live for the first time, she was struck and surprised by the feedback. “The response to it was unreal,” Siwa says. “People had so much good to say about it … people actually want this.”
Siwa teased a recorded version on her TikTok twice then released the full cover on July 10 — and the reactions, some of them more negative, poured in.
Siwa says she’s come to expect commentary — it happened last summer after she released “Karma,” which at the time seemed like an edgy rebrand from her time as a child star.
“When I’m posting something, I’m sort of asking for that, right? I think people like to get a laugh. And I know I like to be a laugh,” she says.
“When I’m posting something, I’m sort of asking for that, right? I think people like to get a laugh. And I know I like to be a laugh.”
JoJo siwa
What does Siwa have to say to her haters? “All good, troops, all good. Sometimes I hate me too, and it’s all good,” Siwa says, laughing. “As long as you’re getting a smile or a laugh, and I’m not ruining your day… Goal achieved from me.”
One of the skeptics was Carnes herself. The singer posted a now deleted TikTok about Siwa’s song, implying Siwa’s version lacked “authenticity.”
Carnes later clarified her statement to TMZ, saying she “strongly rejects(s) the kind of hate and personal attacks I’ve seen online” but also believes “artists have the right to speak openly about how something makes them feel — especially when it’s as personal as your voice.”
Carnes said Siwa’s rendition “felt a bit too close” to her version, including “the phrasing, the tone, even the little inflections.”
“Kim kind of came out and said some stuff, but it actually fascinates me, what she said,” Siwa tells TODAY.com. “As an artist, what you want to do is inspire people, and I think the most beautiful thing is to have another artist be inspired by you.”
Other artists who covered the song, like Taylor Swift, didn’t use rasp like Carnes. Siwa defends keeping the rasp in her cover. For one, Siwa says she has “very broken vocal chords” that make it possible to “kind of replicate” Carnes’ singing style.
She also “didn’t want to sing the song like a natural beauty — I wanted to sing the song the way it inspired me,” she says. “You want that rasp in there.”
During the recording session, she asked for no water. “The raspier I get, the better it is. So my voice is just screwed after, but worth it absolutely. Now I’ll incorporate that super raspy tone into more,” she says.
Less natural was the look for the music video. Siwa says she “absolutely hates” changing up her look.
“I put the costume on and I put the wig on and I was laughing at myself in the mural. Like, there’s there’s no way this is happening. This is hysterical. I look in the mirror and I’m cackling at myself,” she says. “It’s a little bit like Halloween.”
Beyond Siwa’s cover, “Bette Davis Eyes” is having a moment this summer — Ethel Cain also covered it and it figured prominently in Episode 7 of “And Just Like That” Season 3. Siwa says she missed the feature, as she spends most of her leisure time listening to the “Hamilton” soundtrack or watching sports with Hughes.
“I’ve really found that I’ve got a clear sense of vision again, in my personal life, but especially in my career.”
JoJo siwa
The moment inspired Siwa for her next chapter. She’s now working on a new single inspired by “Bette Davis Eyes,” set to release in August.
“It’s interesting, because, for the first time, I’ve actually enjoyed writing a song,” Siwa says about the potential new single.
Post “Big Brother” and “Bette Davis,” Siwa says she “knows exactly” what she wants in her life.
“I’ve really found that I’ve got a clear sense of vision again, in my personal life, but especially in my career.”
