Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez, also known as J. Lo, (born July 24, 1969[1]) is a well-known Puerto Rican-American actress, Latin Pop and hip-hop singer, fashion designer, dancer and all-around cultural icon.
Lopez started in television as a 'fly girl' (dancer) on the television comedy program In Living Color in 1990. She moved to Los Angeles to film the show but initially hated it. When her boyfriend, David Cruz Jr., moved to L.A. to be with her, she learned to accept her new environment. She is now married with Marc Anthony.
She also played a small role in a short-lived television program South Central. She later starred in Second Chances and Hotel Malibu.
Music
Lopez's debut album, On the 6, a reference to the subway line she used to take growing up in Castle Hill, was released on June 1, 1999 and reached the top ten of the Billboard 200. The album featured the multi-week #1 lead single, "If You Had My Love", as well as the top ten hit "Waiting for Tonight". It also contained the Spanish language, Latin-flavored duet "No me Ames" with Marc Anthony, which was an international DAN hit, though the song was never released as a single in the US. Despite this, the video received moderate airplay on the US music channels VH1 and The Box as a novelty. The album also spawned another international hit in "Feelin' So Good", a hip-hop track which contained guest raps by Big Pun and Fat Joe; despite the cross-genre technique pioneered by Mariah Carey being used on this particular song, it was a relative flop in the US, as it failed to make the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100. "Let's Get Loud" was also released as a single, and became a minor dance hit.
Her sophomore effort, J. Lo, was released in January 2001 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. The lead single, "Love Don't Cost a Thing" was her first UK number one single, and, along with its follow-up, "Play" (which was written by rising teen star, Christina Milian) it became a top five hit during the year the album was released. The album's next two singles, "I'm Real" and "Ain't it Funny", ended up becoming her biggest ever hits, with both spending several weeks at #1. However, to capitalize on this, Lopez asked Murder Inc. to remix both songs, completely changing the lyrics and melodies and adding raps from Ja Rule in both songs, and from Caddillac Tah to "Ain't it Funny (Remix)". The "I'm Real" and "Ain't It Funny" remixes were two of the biggest pop and rap hits in late 2001 and early 2002, respectively, and their more hip-hop sound gave J. Lo street credibility and brought her music to a whole new group of fans. She re-released the CD on her 32nd birthday, July 24, 2001, including Ja Rule's remixed version of "I'm Real".
Following the successes of the remix (again, a technique pioneered by Mariah Carey), Lopez decided to devote an entire album to the effort; the result, J to tha L-O: The Remixes, appeared on February 5, 2002. This album, too, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, marking the first remix album in history to debut (or even reach) #1 on the chart. This time around, she got 50 Cent and Nas to write rhymes for two remixes of her next single, "I'm Gonna Be Alright", which ended up becoming another top ten hit. The album also included rarer dance and hip-hop remixes of her past singles, and a new song, a ballad called "Alive", which was included in Lopez's movie Enough.
On November 26, 2002, Lopez released her third studio album, This Is Me... Then, which reached #2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned three very popular singles; the top 5 "Jenny from the Block", (sampling the track from the song "Watch Out Now" by the Beatnuts, and including raps from Jadakiss and Styles P), the multi-week #1 "All I Have" duet with LL Cool J and the top 10 "Baby I Love You!" (which also was the musical theme to Gigli). Another single, "I'm Glad", was also released, but only managed to go top forty, a rather low result considering Lopez's usual chart success. The last single released from the album, "The One", failed to make any impact on charts whatsoever. Another song from the album was a cover of Carly Simon's "You Belong to Me."
In 2004, Lopez once again participated in duets with Marc Anthony, this time on his albums Amar Sin Mentiras and Valio La Pena.
After a considerable amount of time away from the music scene, Lopez finally released her fourth studio album, Rebirth, on March 1, 2005. Debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200 to initially decent sales success, the album quickly fell off the charts and remains to be Lopez's biggest commercial (not to mention critical) failure yet. Despite this, the album has so-far spawned one hit in "Get Right", which reached the top twenty; still, compared to her previous high-charting singles, even this can be seen as somewhat of a flop. Even so, "Get Right" was her second UK number one, and also topped the charts in Italy and Ireland. The second single, "Hold You Down", which featured Fat Joe, only barely made it into the top 75, peaking at #64. It has recently been confirmed that J. Lo's next single will be "Cherry Pie" which will hopefully be released around the end of September 2005.
The single "Cherry Pie" release was cancelled by Sony Records, although it did debut in charts around the world due to radio air-play.
Jennifer Lopez has now confirmed that she will be releasing her first ever full spanish album in January 2006. The first single will likely be heard on radios in December 2005. It has also been confirmed that she will be releasing an English album during the summer of 2006.