在Joanna很小的時候就在父親的理發店為顧客唱歌，用掙得的小費去雜貨店買些糖果。充滿天賦的joanna很快參加了當地電視臺舉辦的選秀活動。在百老匯的巡回演出期間，她得到了許多登臺演出的機會，在國家周年紀念巡回演出里她參與了106場演出，但不幸的是joanna患上了支氣管炎，遺憾不能繼續演出，在沒有joanna的情況下，演出依然得到了觀眾的關注和支持。 從那開始使joanna變得更加堅強，也開始讓她在音樂的道路決定繼續走下去。幸運是16歲的joanna被曾捧紅Christina Aguilera和許多歌星的著名音樂人Ron Fair看上，joanna過人的才能被Ron Fair所認同并立即簽了和約，那時的joanna才16歲?，F年21歲的她發行了自己的新專集 After winning a nationwide search for the title role in the 20th anniversary tour of the musical Annie, 12-year-old Joanna Pacitti thought her career in show business was set. However, things didn't turn out exactly as planned for the young performer, who had grown up singing in her father's barbershop in Mayfair, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia, when just three weeks before the show hit Broadway, Joanna was fired and replaced by her eight-year-old understudy. At 16, Joanna, armed with a demo of some her music, flew out to Los Angeles to meet with record executives, eventually signing to Geffen. As documented on a 2003 episode of the MTV show True Life, Joanna spent the next five years working on her debut album, This Crazy Life, which came out in 2006