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As the Spanish saying goes, «Life takes many turns.» Things you never thought would happen again sometimes do. The stars align, a pinch of luck puts you in the right place at the right time… and that’s when magic happens. Everything falls into place and transports you to that primal feeling you never thought you’d experience again.

Jennifer Lopez knows this firsthand. That’s why «This is me… Now» exists—and will be released on February 16—and that’s why she wanted to go a step further and create a special with Prime Video to tell, in the first person, that she is a lover of love. A love inspired by her husband and soulmate Ben Affleck, resulting in a project that captures a finite moment in time; specifically, the same moment that gave rise to «This Is Me… Then» in 2002, this time with the added maturity and experience that life (and overcome obstacles) has given her over the years.

However, «This is me… Now» is much more than a simple visual and conceptual album. It is an original film that incorporates elements from genres as varied as musical, romantic comedy, science fiction, or action. At LOS40, we have already seen it… and not only that. We have also been able to talk to its protagonist, creator, and artist. Because the occasion deserved it.

What came first: the music or the idea for the special?

JLo confesses that, for «This is me… Now,» «it all started with the music.» Reflecting on the creation process of this album, she admits that she felt inspired at levels she hadn’t felt in a long time: «I made the album, literally, in a couple of months. That’s how long it took us to write all the songs… and we still have many more in the pipeline,» she adds.

«From the moment it was done [the album], I felt the need to do something special, but even during the composition, I found myself on a kind of personal journey that spans from the album ‘This is me… Then’ to ‘This is me… Now.’ Both are inspired by the same theme (laughs) and the same person, which was a key aspect for me. So, I said to myself: ‘I want to do something different and that has never been done before…’ because I didn’t want to release music videos as such, but I wanted to do something that would help me tell the rest of this story. And that’s how, more or less, it was born,» she explains to us.

Is there anything left of ‘Jenny from the Block’?

Jennifer Lopez assures that the essence of her new project lies in «accepting who you become over time.» On a personal level, «it’s a much greater statement of intent than ‘This is me… Then’—which was also at the time—but here I say: This is me, with all my scars, the magic, and the incredible things in me, with all the romance, the sexy, the flirtatious, and the woman I am today who has overcome so many obstacles. I am the person who accepts the woman she is today: happy, more confident, and firmer than ever about what she feels and convinced of who she is. And all of this is ‘This Is Me… Now.’«

In these back-and-forths about the present and the past, the Bronx diva believes that the title of ‘This is me… Then,’ the third album of her discography, has a certain «poetic nuance that I never imagined would acquire a meaning like this even in the best of cases.» «When I think of my past self, I was a person who became what I had always dreamed of as a little girl. I released my third album, and in it, I still talked about being the ‘Jennifer from the block’ (Jenny from the Block) and falling in love for the first time in a way I had never experienced before. And that’s what inspired the music. With that album, I also built and became somehow the character that is JLo, which, in reality, is not a character but a very important part of who I am,» she affirms.

«When I started creating ‘This is me… Now,’ it emerged organically; it wasn’t something I had in mind. I mean, not in a million years would I have imagined that I would return to be with the one who was the muse of that album, much less make a totally new one focused on the same thing. For me, it’s surreal, magical, and very beautiful. Crazy! That’s when I started to reflect on everything that had happened, and I realized that I had really changed and grown a lot. I went through many situations that I hadn’t allowed myself to introspect until now. And that’s the part of the story I needed to tell through the musical special that accompanies the album as well.»

A moral: be aware of each step in the journey and not so much of the fairy tale ending

Although the Prime Video special has the subtitle «A Love Story,» the artist does not see this film as the culmination of her fairy tale but as a reflection of what life really is: «a succession of ups and downs and constant discoveries about yourself, which, if you keep an open mind, you can learn, grow, and evolve along the way to the person you are. And that evolution is something that never stops but continues to happen for the rest of your life.

And the most valuable lesson she takes from her long personal and professional journey is that «you will never be the same person forever, and you should neither assume that you have reached the limit nor give up on yourself on this prolonged journey (and roller coaster) that is life because, at every step, you will be someone new.» She says that the initial idea she had was changing as the movie was being developed and that even when they finished the final product and saw it, she realized that she had gained broader knowledge or discovered new things that she could have applied. «I am no longer the same person as when we recorded it, almost a year ago,» she exemplifies.

She reiterates that «This is me… Now» is about accepting, being okay with, and loving the person you are for a finite period of time. It’s about self-love in many ways, and that’s the message: to capture this very moment in time, how incredible it has been for me [and for Ben] to come back together, and that it is once again reflected through music. However, she maintains that this theme «has been magnified and transformed into a statement about who I am at this moment and everything it has taken for me to get here today as a person; being able to experience a different kind of love than I lived during the ‘This Is Me… Then’ era. And Ben is the emphasis and inspiration for the music. He is my life partner and everything I do now. And he has been an incredible support in this process of vulnerability that I have never shown before.

‘This Is Me… Now: A Love Story,’ where all her talents and fears converge

Jennifer Lopez is one of those superstars who, to a greater or lesser extent, has always been in the public eye. Her first attempt at a relationship with Ben Affleck, in fact, was one of the most followed stories by paparazzi and sensationalist press in the early 2000s, which was willing to do anything to profit from the privacy of these celebrities.

Therefore, being able to tell her own story and on her own terms, when «people speculate and think they know what’s going on when they’re often wrong,» has been especially «empowering to be able to stand up and say: ‘I’m ready, I feel safe enough to talk about everything that has happened to me throughout my career and use it as inspiration. Because the story [of the Amazon special] is very meta: it’s me, but it’s not me in the musical.»

Similarly, it was very exciting for her to be able to bring together all the skills she has acquired and perfected over the years. She comments that «it has been great to be able to use everything I learned and went through and put it into this project [on a personal level], but also all the things I have learned as a professional, like the musicals I have seen and grown up with, the romantic comedies and dramas I have done, the music… Everything has culminated in this, and I had to show my most vulnerable side. Many times, I wondered why I was doing it, but I felt obligated to tell this story and capture, as I said before, this current moment in time. And to do something truthful, this kind of vulnerability was required. And, although I was afraid, I am glad I did it.»

Interview and original article by Ana Escobar on LOS40