| Jenna Rose | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Jenna Rose Swerdlow |
| Born | September 28, 1998 Long Island, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Teen pop Bubblegum pop Dance-pop Pop |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Labels | Lunchbox Records |
| Website | Official website |
Jenna Rose Swerdlow (born September 28, 1998) is an American singer, actress, and dancer who gained media attention with her single "My Jeans". After the video went viral on YouTube and received 14 million views, Swerdlow is considered a semi-"viral star".[1][2][3][4][5][6]
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Swerdlow was born September 28, 1998, in Long Island, New York.[7] She was raised in Baldwin, New York and relocated with her family to Dix Hills, New York in 2005.[5] She began performing at age 2,[5][3] and received private vocal training at age 8.[1] Starting with community theater and moving on to regional productions and Off-Broadway, she has performed in over 18 plays, including principal roles in “Ragtime” and “The Miracle Worker”, as well as the title role in the 2011 Off-Broadway play, “The Odella Williams Show”.[1] She was a finalist in Got Talent?, A Long Island talent competition, as well as the New York Knicks Kids Talent Search.[1] It was reported by Fox News that by March 2011, her videos had had over 1 million "hits", she had recorded six songs, and had performed at a Knicks game halftime show.[8]
In August 2009, it was reported that Swerdlow and nineteen other musicians were selected for individual coaching and recording sessions by long-time Billy Joel sax player Richie Cannata,[9] and Jenna wrote on her Facebook page that Richie's son Eren Cannata wrote and produced three singles for her: Sweet Melody, The Remedy, and Spotlight.[10] Since then, Swerdlow has collaborated with different songwriters, producers and choreographers, to record songs and music videos.
At age twelve, while she was in 7th grade at West Hollow Middle School Swerdlow released her first music video, My Jeans, featuring a rap by Baby Triggy[11], on YouTube in October 2010.[3] The video went viral, garnering over a million views and bring Swerdlow media attention.[2] My Jeans was panned by Youtube viewers,[12] earning her as of September 8th, 2011 26,355 "likes" and 295,189 "dislikes" for the video.[3] Detractors found fault not only with Swerdlow's song, but with her clothes, the shape of her mouth, and the video's production values.[5] The video continues to be popular,[5] with the original video reaching over 14 million views as of early September, 2011, even though it has "spawned parodies, video responses, rap replies and more than a dozen pages of written critiques."[5]
Despite negative reviews of My Jeans, Swerdlow followed up with O.M.G in March 2011,[13] and Don’t Give Up, dealing with "haters",[6] in April 2011.[6] Swerdlow and her parents describe the song O.M.G. as dealing with cybercritics and cyberbullying.[3] Though covered by media, these subsequent songs failed to achieve as much interest as her original viral video; both display similar negative ratings, and have been panned by critics.[6] About the O.M.G. video, PerezHilton.com wrote [sic] "The video is hyper-sexualized, uber-creepy and if you really want to talk about jacking swag, not one dance move wasn't pulled from another video circa 1998."[14]
Swerdlow has made several film and television appearances. The most recent of these following upon her internet music releases. She was featured in the recent documentary Actor, directed by Roberto Serrini, as well as the film Mouse House and the TV pilots for Family Practice and Which Way. She has also appeared in television, radio & Internet commercials for Sketchers, Jello and Canon.
In February 2009, the town board of Huntington, New York recognized Swerdlow "for her contributions to the performing arts community".[15] Subsequent to the release of "My Jeans" Swerdlow has been interviewed by news networks, has been written of in several newspapers, and has performed live in concert at the Westbury Music Fair.[6]
Writers have made comparisons between Swerdlow and Rebecca Black,[11] since both teens have produced videos that fall into the same genre of bubblegum pop, are "slammed by critics as being too provocative", and both have received harsh feedback from the public.[6][5]
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2009 | "Sweet Melody" |
| "The Remedy" | |
| 2010 | "Spotlight" |
| "My Jeans" | |
| 2011 | "OMG" |
| "Don't Give Up" |
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Family Practice | Child Patient | Eric Norcross | TV pilot - Ep. 2: "Hood Cat"[16] |
| Mouse House | Jessica | |||
| Which Way | Lilith | Bill Herndon | TV series[17] | |
| 2011 | Caroline of Virginia | Young Caroline | Eric Norcross | |
| Actor | Herself | Roberto Serrini | Documentary |