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Jennifer Lopez

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Jennifer Lopez
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Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez also refers to a Weather Channel personality of that name.

Jennifer Lynn López (also known as J. Lo, born July 24, 1969[1]) is a well-known Puerto Rican-American actress, singer, fashion designer, dancer and all-around cultural icon.

Biography

Early years

Lopez was born and raised in the Castle Hill section of The Bronx, New York City, New York. Lopez has two sisters, Leslie (a music teacher) and Lynda, a well-known television news anchor at WCBS-TV in NY. Lopez is a notable graduate of Preston High School. After graduation, Lopez matriculated at Baruch College in Manhattan. She later dropped out to pursue her dreams as an entertainer.

Lopez started off as a backup dancer. She later took up acting, saying that she always knew she wanted to do this.

Television shows

She started in television as a 'fly girl' (dancer) on the television comedy program In Living Color. She also played a small role in a short-lived television program South Central. Later, she starred in Second Chances and Hotel Malibu.

Movies

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Maid in Manhattan promotional poster

Lopez started her acting career in the early 1990s with films such as Mi Familia (1995), Money Train (1995), and U Turn (1997), but her real breakthrough would not come until she took up the part of Selena Quintanilla in the movie Selena (1997), for which she was nominated a Golden Globe for her starring role. Lopez followed this with a well-received performance in Out Of Sight (1998) with George Clooney.

She has also appeared in Anaconda (1997), The Cell (2000), Angel Eyes (2001), The Wedding Planner (2001), Enough (2002), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Gigli (2003), Jersey Girl (2004), Shall We Dance (2004), and Monster-in-Law (2005), among other movies and television shows.

She is considered especially adept at romantic comedies, with The Wedding Planner and Maid in Manhattan being two of her more commercially and critically successful vehicles. Many people consider Lopez to be stronger and more talented as an actress than as a singer, while some criticising her lack of real vocal range and her producers' heavy use of background vocalists. On the other hand, a few of her film performances have been heavily criticised, most notably in the overall disaster Gigli, which seemed to have a negative effect on her popularity, something she has only recently been regaining with the back-to-back #1 box office hits, Shall We Dance and Monster-in-Law,

Upcoming movies

Music

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Lopez on the cover of On the 6

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 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 particuliar 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.

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Lopez on the cover of J. Lo

Her sophmore effort, J. Lo, was released on July 24, 2001 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. The lead single, "Love Don't Cost a Thing", and it's follow-up, "Play" (which was written by rising teen star, Christina Milian) both became top 5 hits 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.

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.

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Lopez on the cover of This Is Me... Then

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", (based on 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.

In 2004, Lopez once again participated in duets with Marc Anthony, this time on his albums Amar Sin Mentiras and Valio La Pena.

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Lopez on the cover of Rebirth

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. 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 "Whatever You Wanna Do", which will supposedly brings more vibe and hype than "Get Right".

It has been rumored that Lopez has two albums in production; first, there is the much-hyped Spanish, collaborative album with current husband, Marc Anthony, as well as a supposed new remix album, encompassing hits from This Is Me... Then and Rebirth.

Relationships

Lopez has been in two short-lived marriages. The first one, which was with Ojani Onoa, ended in divorce in 1998 after 21 months, and the second, during 2001 and 2002, was with Chris Judd, her former backup dancer. Between marriages, from 1999 to 2000, she dated singer and producer Puff Daddy, breaking up after a shooting incident in a New York night club. Lopez has also been engaged to Ben Affleck, but the marriage planned for September 13, 2003 was called off a few days before the event. In January 2004 the couple split.

Lopez has been married to singer Marc Anthony since June 5, 2004, a move that surprised most of the public.

Fashion

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"Glow by J. Lo"

Lopez owns a clothing line called "J. Lo by Jennifer Lopez". Her line is the most successful of any artists' in history. Furthermore, she is planning to launch a jewelry line, hats, gloves and a scarves line. She also has a perfume line out called "Glow", and she was in question before, because the name came from another patented perfume.

In October 2003, Lopez introduced a perfume called "Still". During November of the same year, she launched a new clothing line called "Sweetface".

Lopez's frequent use of fur in her clothing lines and personal wardrobe has brought the scorn of people concerned with animal rights. More than one hundred protestors from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals held a demonstration at the Los Angeles premiere of Monster-in-Law.

She has also done a photoshoot to represent the Louis Vuitton Winter 2003 campaign, in which the pictures would be seen all over the world through TV commercials, billboards, ads, newspapers, magazines and more.

Other merchandise includes a clothing and cologne line for men due for release either in late 2005 or sometime in 2006.

J. Lo inc.

Lopez owns a production company, Nuyorican Productions, in which she is expected to produce some of her upcoming movies. Some of the projects for the company include Carmen, Dirty Girls Social Club and The Hector Lavoe Project. This company was founded together with her manager, Benny Medina, whom she filed a lawsuit against because of alleged fraud in July 2003.

The company produced the commercially-successful movies The Cell, The Wedding Planner and Maid in Manhattan. These three movies put together made more than $350 million at the box office worldwide.

Discography

Albums

  1. 1999: On the 6 #8 US, US Certification: 3x Platinum
  2. 2001: J. Lo #1 (Debut) US (1 week), US Certification: 4x Platinum
  3. 2002: J to tha L-O!: The Remixes #1 (Debut) US (2 weeks), US Certification: Platinum
  4. 2002: This Is Me... Then #2 US, US Certification: 2x Platinum
  5. 2005: Rebirth #2 US, US Certification: Platinum

Singles

  1. 1999: "If You Had My Love" #1 US (5 weeks), #4 UK, US Certification: Platinum
  2. 1999: "Waiting for Tonight" #8 US, #5 UK
  3. 2000: "Feelin' So Good" (feat. Big Pun and Fat Joe) #51 US, #7 UK
  4. 2001: "Love Don't Cost a Thing" #3 US, #1 UK
  5. 2001: "Play" #5 US, #3 UK
  6. 2001: "Ain't it Funny" #3 UK
  7. 2001: "I'm Real" #1 UK
  8. 2001: "I'm Real (Remix)" (feat. Ja Rule) #1 US (5 weeks), #1 UK
  9. 2002: "Ain't it Funny (Remix)" (feat. Ja Rule and Caddillac Tah) #1 US (6 weeks), #4 UK
  10. 2002: "I'm Gonna Be Alright" #10 US, #3 UK
  11. 2002: "Jenny from the Block" (feat. Jadakiss and Styles P) #3 US, #3 UK
  12. 2003: "All I Have" (feat. LL Cool J) #1 US (4 weeks), #2 UK
  13. 2003: "I'm Glad" #32 US, #6 UK
  14. 2004: "Baby I Love You!" #7 US, #3 UK
  15. 2005: "Get Right" #12 US, #1 UK, US Certification: Platinum
  16. 2005: "Hold You Down" (feat. Fat Joe) #64 US, #4 UK
  17. 2005: "Whatever You Wanna Do"

DVDs

  1. 1999: Feelin' So Good US Certification: Gold
  2. 2001: Let's Get Loud US Certification: Gold
  3. 2003: The Reel Me #69 US, US Certification: 3x Platinum

Claims to fame

  • Became the first Latina actress to get paid $1 million (for her role in Selena).
  • By 2003, Lopez had become the highest-paid Latina actress in Hollywood. She still holds the record, earning $15 Million a film.
  • Lopez is the first actress and singer to have a movie (The Wedding Planner) and an album (J. Lo) at #1 in the same week.
  • Lopez's album J to tha L-O! The Remixes was the first album of remixes to hit #1.
  • Lopez's perfume "Glow" made history in 2001, by being the #1 perfume in more than nine countries in more than four months.
  • Lopez is the only woman who has been #1 three years in a row in the FHM list of the 100 Sexiest Females in the world.
  • Lopez made the 2004 Fortune list of the wealthiest entertainers under the age of 40. Her wealth is estimated at $255 million.
  • Lopez's butt is often an object of admiration as well as the brunt of many jokes in popular culture.
  • Lopez made the highest debut of 2003 on the US charts with "All I Have" debuting at #25.
  • Lopez has sold over 35 million records worldwide.
  • Was satired in the show South Park in the episode Fat Butt and Pancake Head.

Nicknames

  • J.Lo or "Jaylo"
  • Jen
  • Jenny
  • Jenny Lo
  • La Lopez (The Lopez)
  • Jenny from The Block

Vocal profile

Notes

  • Many sources incorrectly list Lopez's birth year as 1970. See the article on age fudging for details.
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