Coco Jones Has Had One Hell Of A Year

One thing Coco Jones isn’t scared of is failing. She stopped fearing that a long time ago. And it shows.

The former Disney star has had one hell of a year. In February, she won her first Grammy for Best R&B Performance with the infectiously yearnful “ICU” — not to mention that the single just went platinum. She brought Usher to his feet when she performed his hit “There Goes My Baby” at the most recent BET Awards. And her rendition of “Almost There” from Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” has fans doubling down on their demands to see her as Princess Tiana in a live-action remake. (She’s also hit that level of stardom where TikTokers recognize and chase her during routine Target runs.)

Jones has more to look forward to this year, too. The third season of Peacock’s “Bel-Air,” in which Jones plays a reimagined Hilary Banks, premiered Thursday. And with her debut album on the horizon, she released her newest bop, “Sweep It Up,” on Friday.

This is the kind of motion a younger Jones dreamed of. Though still full of youth at 26, the former child star had an eight-year hiatus from regular TV work. The “Let It Shine” actor began to question her own skills once work started to slow down. Acting opportunities weren’t checking for her, and she got dropped from Hollywood Records. She and her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 17. During that period, Jones faced rejection after rejection. Then, she released a YouTube video titled “What Really Happened” in which she discussed the reason for the valleys in her career.

“I feel like the scariest thing I could do would be to give up,” she said during a Zoom interview, conceding that she’d once considered it. “That was always the scariest thing because on the other side of that, I couldn’t deal with the possibility of making it, the possibility of getting what I’ve worked towards and not seeing it through.”