Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer López (aka J. Lo, born July 24, 1970) is a well-known Puerto Rican-American actress, singer, designer, dancer, and fashion icon. She was born and raised in the Bronx, New York.
Nicknames
- Bennifer (for Ben and Jennifer)
- Jen
- Jenny
- Jenny Lo
- La Guitarra (The Guitar) (because of her body shape)
- J.Lo
- Jennifer
- La Lopez (The Lopez)
- Mrs. Lopez
Before Being Famous
She started off as a backup dancer for the 80's Music Queen Janet Jackson. She later jumped on into acting. She said she always knew she wanted to do this, and that her inspiration came from some of her favorite artists like Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Michael Jackson.
T.V. shows
She started in televison as a "fly girl" (dancer) on the television comedy program In Living Color.
Movies
She started her acting career early in the 90s with movies like "Mi Familia", "Money Train", and "U-Turn", but it wasn't that Lopez had her first breakthrough success until she landed the part of Selena Quintanilla in the movie Selena. She followed this with a well-received performance in Out Of Sight with George Clooney. She has also appeared in The Cell, Angel Eyes The Wedding Planner, Enough, Maid in Manhattan, Gigli, and appeared in several other movies and television shows. She is noted as one of the first Hispanic actresses to achieve mainstream success in major Hollywood roles.
Music
Her music, mainly pop, includes the albums "J.Lo" and "On The 6", a reference to the subway line she used to take growing up in the Soundview section of the Bronx.
On The 6 was released in 1999 and featured the massive first single, "If You Had My Love". It also contained the Spanish-language, Latin-flavored duet "No me ames" with Marc Anthony, which was an international hit and was not released as a single in the United States, although the video got moderate airplay on American VH1 and The Box as a novelty.
In the fall of 1999, the album's second American single, "Waiting For Tonight" was released. It was not a hit on the same scale as "If You Had My Love", but was huge nonetheless. The memorable video capitalized on the millennium craze of the time, featuring J. Lo at a futuristic dance party in a jungle, while an enormous clock counted down the seconds to the year 2000. The video also had a popular dance remix, by popular club remixer, Hex Hector. To date, the remix video still gets occasional airplay on MTV2, during dance blocks.
The album's and also included the other hit singles like, "Feelin' So Good", a hip hop track which contained guest raps by Big Pun and Fat Joe and the latin-dance-flavored track, "Let's Get Loud".
Towards the end of 2000, Lopez released "Love Don't Cost A Thing", her first single from her second album, J. Lo. Upon its release in early 2001, the album quickly rose to the top of the charts; as did the single, which became her biggest hit since "If You Had My Love". The second single, "Play", which was written by rising teen star, Christina Milian, was a huge dance radio and club hit in early 2001 and was also successful on pop radio.
The album's next two singles, "I'm Real" and "Ain't It Funny" were her biggest ever hits both spending many weeks on top of the Billboard charts. However to capitalize on this, Lopez got Murda Inc to remix both songs, completely changing the lyrics and melodies. Adding raps from Ja Rule in both songs, and Cadillac Tah to only "Ain't It Funny" (Remix) song. 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 continued the successful trend by getting 50 Cent and Nas to write rhymes for two remixes of her next single, "I'm Gonna Be Alright". In mid-2002, Lopez released a remix album called J To The L-O: The Remixes, featuring the already popular rap remixes of "I'm Real", "I'm Gonna Be Alright", and "Ain't It Funny", and well as the dance remix of "Waiting For Tonight". 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' movie, Enough.
In the fall of 2002, Lopez released her most recent album, "This Is Me... Then", which has produced three hugely popular singles: "Jenny From The Block," which included raps from Jadakiss and Styles P; "All I Have," one of 2003's most popular songs to date, which was a duet with LL Cool J; and "I'm Glad". Later she released the fourth single "Baby I Love You" the musical theme for the movie "Gigli." Last, she released her fifth single "The One", but the video was based on the remixed version of the song which featured East Coast Rapper Joe Budden, bringing a new song with a new sensation. This was the last single that closed the chapter of "This Is Me Then" album.
On November 18, 2003, she will release her fifth album called "Reel Me" which will include a DVD having all her music videos from her first video "If You Had My Love" to her last one "Baby I Love You." This album will include a bonus remix "Baby I Love You" (Remix) featuring R.Kelly. The first single will be most likely to be called "Guess Who's Back" featuring Lloyd Banks.
Claims at history making
- Lopez was the first Latina to get paid over a million dollars for a project.
- Lopez is (in 2003) the highest paid Latina actress in Hollywood.
- Lopez's first album "On The 6" was 7 times platinum.
- Lopez's first single "If You Had My Love" was #1 for more than 9 weeks.
- 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 second album "J.Lo" was 5 times platinum.
- Lopez's third album "J To Tha L-O! The Remixes" was the first album of remixes to hit #1, because no other album of remixes had climbed the chart.
- Lopez's perfume "GLOW" made history in 2001, by being the #1 perfume in more than 9 countries in more than 4 months.
- Lopez is the only woman who has been #1, 3 years in a row in the FHM list of the 100 Sexiest Females in the world.
Fashion
Lopez owns a clothing line called "J.Lo By Jennifer Lopez". Her line is the most successful clothing line of artists on the industry market. Furthermore, she is planning to launch a Jewelry Line, Hats, Gloves, and a Scarves Line.
In other news she would be launching a new clothing line called "Sweetface" which hits stores in November 2003. Also a new perfume called "Still" is planned to be introduced in October 2003.
She has done a photoshoot to represent the Louis Vuitton winter campaign, in which the pictures would be seen all over the world through TV commercials, billboards, ads, newspapers, magazines and more. The campaign will start August 2003.
Other merchandise includes clothing for men and a cologne line for men due for release in winter 2004/05.
She does have a perfume line out right now called "Glo", and she was in question before, because the name came from another patented perfume.
J.Lo Inc.
Jennifer Lopez owns a production company "Nuyorican Productions", in which she is expected to produce some of her upcoming movies. Some of the projects are Carmen, Dirty Girls Social Club, and The Hector Lavoe Project. This company was founded together with her manager, Benny Medina, against whom she filed a lawsuit 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 $500 million worldwide.
Upcoming movies
- Jersey Girl (March 19, 2004);
- Monster In Law (July 2004);
- Shall We Dance (September 2004);
- An Unfinished Life (December 24, 2004);
- Tick Tock (Spring 2005);
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, in 2001-2002, was with Cris Judd, her former backup dancer. Between marriages, in 1999-2000, she dated singer and designer P. Diddy, breaking up after a shooting incident in a New York night club. Recently, Lopez has 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.