Joanna

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. ~ Marisa Brown