Jennifer Lopez has a storied career. She made her debut on TV in the '90s, and then made an obvious transition from actress to singer, following her success as the lead in the biopic Selena. Since then, both her music and acting careers amassed hits like “Let’s Get Loud” or “On the Floor,” as well as success in films like Out of Sight and Hustlers. She headlined the Super Bowl Halftime Show with Shakira in 2020, which is widely regarded as a slot for only music’s biggest stars.
In February 2024, Lopez released This is Me… Now, a sequel to her 2002 album This is Me…Then, which spawned hits like “Jenny from the Block” and “All I Have.” Her first album in nearly a decade, This is Me… Now reflects on Lopez’s rekindled relationship with on–and–off beau Ben Affleck, as well as themes of love and healing. The album was released alongside a similarly–titled musical film, This Is Me... Now: A Love Story, and a documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, detailing letter exchanges between Lopez and Affleck. To cap it all off, Lopez announced a tour accompanying the album, the This is Me… Live tour, scheduled to commence this June and meant to celebrate her many hits.
However, on the last day of May, the tour was mysteriously canceled. The official statement from the singer said that she is “taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends.” While this statement may hold some truth (see: the plethora of divorce rumors), some people understood this to be a euphemism for poor ticket sales, corroborated by unsold tickets on the Ticketmaster website. Elsewhere, her album, after debuting at a measly 38 on the Billboard 200 last February—her first to miss the top 20 entirely—is nowhere to be found on the charts now. Not to mention that Lopez, whose halftime show is one of the most watched of all time, is frequently made a laughingstock by a seemingly unappreciative online audience. Stan Twitter has ridiculed her for “abysmal” Spotify streaming numbers. One has to wonder: How did we get to this point?
Two prevailing theories might be able to explain this recent underperformance. To start, the entirety of This is Me… Now was arguably overshadowed by the personalities and the narrative that surrounded the album. Lopez and her team framed the album mainly surrounding her love story with Affleck, and how after trials and tribulations, she was reunited with her one true love. The accompanying film projects drive the point home; the music film borrows elements from Alida and Taroo, a Puerto Rican legend about star–crossed lovers from feuding tribes. The documentary was ultimately a self–indulgent telling of the pair’s relationship.
Shifting the focus of the album away from the music and toward the drama not only cheapens the quality of the music but also makes the project seem fairly narcissistic. Over the years, Lopez has acquired a reputation for being a bit full of herself. One can’t entirely blame her: her repertoire is stacked, and she’s known to be a triple threat with a demanding work ethic as a dancer, singer, and actress. However, Lopez has accumulated a number of reports of her less–than–nice behavior and unfavorable interactions with fans and locals alike. Having an album dedicated to how one found their perfect happy ending directly conflicts with the image she’s gained, leaving a sour taste in listeners and making them unable to appreciate the music itself.
Even the album itself sometimes gets caught up in this self–imposed narrative of long–lost lovers. Songs like “To Be Yours,” “Mad in Love,” and “Hearts and Flowers” are all too on the nose in what they are trying to convey, and “Dear Ben, Pt. II” and “Midnight Trip to Vegas,” while sounding more personal, can also come off as cliché and inauthentic, perhaps because we’ve seen this love story reiterated so many times by Lopez herself.
But rude behavior and narcissism alone aren’t enough to explain why many people seemed to turn their backs on this Latina star. After all, many legacy artists, such as Madonna and Mariah Carey, have all garnered the occasional “diva” comment, but have either moved on or were able to rebuild and reshape the narratives surrounding their legacies. Who knows, Lopez herself might also be able to rehabilitate her image amid all the divorce rumors. However, she faces another unique challenge that makes this a larger uphill battle.
Remember Lopez’s “I’m Real”? This 2001 hit and staple in her discography resulted in a label feud between her and Mariah Carey. Tommy Mottola, Carey’s ex–husband, pushed producers and record labels to release Lopez’s “I’m Real” before Carey’s “Loverboy” because the two songs featured the same sample. Carey got the sample cleared months before Mottola and Lopez, but because “I’m Real” was released first, Carey had to use another sample for her lead single from Glitter.
This was only the front–stage battle. Behind the scenes reveals something possibly even more menacing on Lopez’s team. R&B singer Ashanti provided the demo vocals for this 2001 hit track, but the final version kept in a lot of her background vocals and ad–libs. Now, this was, and even up to this day, is, common practice in the music industry: Demo and background vocals are kept in the final mix of many of our beloved hits.
But what’s uncanny is that as one begins to examine Lopez’s hit singles, the line between her vocals and the background vocals begins to blur, and the authenticity of Lopez’s vocals comes into question. “Jenny From the Block”? Singer-songwriter Natasha Ramos is probably on the chorus. “If You Had My Love”? You are probably also hearing background singer Shawnyette Harrell. “Play”? You might also hear Christina Milian. Lopez isn’t known to be the best singer in the industry, and it’s not that she can’t perform live. But as one begins to examine Lopez’s catalog, the question arises of just how much she actually sings her own tracks.
This phenomenon can’t all be blamed on Lopez. The early 2000s emphasized less on self–produced and self–written music as we do nowadays. Many of these executive decisions were made by either her team or her production. However, nearly two decades later, these decisions, whether made by Lopez or her production team, are now coming back to bite her. Over the last few years, TikTok has sleuthed through this musical mystery and reached similar conclusions, and a newer generation of listeners is now alarmed at just how many songs featured up–and–coming Black singers of the time.
All this comes back to an artist’s relatability and authenticity. The sphere of pop music is both innovative and limited in its approach, and as audiences continue to be interested in artists’ processes and behind–the–scenes work, artists like Lopez are struggling to connect with a newer generation. Legacy artists maintain their popularity and status by either appearing as down–to–earth and relatable or high–art visionaries who strive to keep pushing boundaries. Unfortunately, Lopez is nowhere in between. Riddled with questions of authenticity, she may be in danger of fading out of the conscience of the general public.
So, what can Lopez do to rehabilitate her image? One route is to go for a back–to–basics approach, leaning towards her Latin roots. This doesn’t have to necessarily be stripped–down, but if she incorporates more elements of her heritage, she might appear less insincere (re: “mi gente Latino” used sarcastically). She could also be more experimental, branching out to new genres à la Camila Cabello’s sudden shift into hyperpop. Or, she can lean back on her acting chops and find a project like her 2019 film Hustlers, which even put her into the Oscars conversation. She's already continuing to star in film projects like Atlas and Marry Me, to varying degrees of success.
Lopez is a versatile artist, despite contrary beliefs, but the hand she is currently dealt works against her favor. One thing is for sure: Lopez may still be the talk of the town now, but if the star wants to remain in the public eye, Jenny from the block is going to have to change her tone.
