It’s all positive as tween queen JoJo Siwa excites a sold-out Mann crowd

If you watch Nickelodeon, Dance Moms, or Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition, or are a girl younger than 12, you’re probably one of a zillion Siwanatorz — a fan of Joelle Joanie “JoJo” Siwa, the reigning tween phenomenon, dancer, singer, motivational speaker, and YouTube personality who sold out the Mann Center on Saturday night.

Her positivity and her childlike demeanor (she’s actually 16) make JoJo a gentle and wholesome, if occasionally shrill, role model touting the goodness of candy, rainbows, puppy dogs, and unicorns. In that regard, a JoJo show is like Wayne Coyne’s Flaming Lips without the dreamy psychedelia or terror. She lets her children fans know that “Every Girl’s a Super Girl” at every turn. And, even though she has lines of clothing, books, and videos, and is a YouTube personality to the tune of 10 million subscribers (she got her Diamond plaque during the Mann gig), her clean-living cause makes her an anti-Kardashian-Jenner.

Refreshing, right?

From the looks of the preshow crowd at the Mann, to be one of the Siwanatorz — be it child, mom, or the occasional good-natured dad — you had to wear bows on the side of your head just like JoJo does on her tightly knotted ponytail. You also had to wear some item of pink on your body, preferably a tutu or crinoline adorned with paillettes and sequins. If you didn’t have bows, you could buy bows there, JoJo’s Bows. You could model your bows and get photos of yourself at the BowTique.

This meant that row after row of bows upon bows filled the Mann for JoJo, BowBow (or at least the human costumed stand-in), and her handful of dancers, all wearing high-tops with wheels so they could glide effortlessly and speedily across the stage.

Rising up from below the stage only to glide down a huge sliding board, JoJo — brandishing a colorful cane with a microphone at its tip — made her entrance and leapt right into the surprisingly banging electro of “Worldwide Party” and “My Story,” the latter tune filled with old-fashioned disco poings and pings.

“My Story” found JoJo at her most expository and direct. “When I was 2, I started dancing live/And then I started wearing bows up high/I was a studio kid with my eyes open wide/I always knew that I had it inside/Then I grew up and I came alive.”

After that track, she got sillier and more imaginative, and the crowd ate up every moment, every stop-on-a-dime pose.

“I would like to go on an adventure to my favorite place: Dreamland,” she said before introducing the bass-heavy “Hold the Drama,” a strong song that sounded remarkably like a rude Peaches electro-clash track.

Wearing a skirt lined in ice cream cones, JoJo sang “I Want Candy” / “Tootsie Roll,” then her own New Wave-y “Kid in a Candy Store,” while her dancers skate-rolled by her holding oversize gummy bears, doughnuts, and cupcakes over their heads. After the squelchy electro-pop of “Everyday Popstars,” she dealt with the appearance of a gi-hugic onstage unicorn on skates. Eventually, JoJo — gliding around on a Segway — began talking to a life-size version of her pooch during her “Who Let the Dogs Out”/”A Friend Like Bow Bow.”

See what I mean with the Flaming Lips reference?

Before set’s end, however, JoJo did find simpler, less showy moments that highlighted her musical talents alone, such as sitting at the piano to play the hummingly melodic “Only Getting Better,” or stomping her way through the anthemic “Bop!” Though the bells and whistles were cute, JoJo focusing on electro-pop musicality, without distraction, was solid and strong.

Toward set’s end, a mother sitting next to me explained that her daughter loved JoJo because of her sassy attitude, her positive outlook, and — of course — because her show allowed you to wear glitter outside the house.

Amen to all of that.