J.LO, ONE OF JENNIFER LOPEZ'S GREAT DISCS, IS 20 YEARS OLD
His second album was preceded by the success of 'On the 6', but it managed to cement his status as a pop star
When J.Lo was born in January 2001, Jennifer Lopez was already the highest paid Latin artist in Hollywood history. Her first album, On the 6 (1999), had sold 8 million copies worldwide, to the surprise of many. It already seemed evident that her career, then divided between film and music, was not something ephemeral: “I am an artist. I sing, I dance, I act. It is within me and it is not something that will one day disappear. Until I die I will be doing things ”.
At 31 years old, with all this path already traveled, López showed that she could continue to evolve artistically. If Selena, the movie she starred in in 1997, catapulted her to fame in the movie mecca and made her the first Latina actress to earn a million dollars, J.Lo cemented her pop star status.
Jennifer Lopez, fortune teller
“I have acquired my professional ethics from my parents. I feel like I haven't even started. I hope to get to the ninth album, the thirtieth movie. I want to write more songs, tour, find the right roles, have my own family. That is why I have so much energy. I know what I have in front of me ”. Jennifer Lopez made these statements for Rolling Stone magazine in February 2001, when she had just released her second album. As a fortune teller, she also embroidered it. Today, 20 years later, the singer, actress, dancer, businesswoman or fashion designer has achieved and far surpassed everything that she set out to do then.
Love Don't Cost a Thing, the song with which she opens the album JLO
J.Lo made Jennifer Lynn López Rodríguez an idol and consolidated her dominance as a benchmark of Latin pop. It debuted at # 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and topped the charts in Canada, Germany, Greece, Poland, Switzerland and, of course, Spain as well. It is her best-selling album to date and in 2001 it was the sixth most successful album worldwide.
It took López three months to record J.Lo, a quarter of what she used on her debut. She worked with the same team of producers, with Cory Rooney at the helm: “She has changed drastically from the first album. With the former, she had to be convinced, even eighty percent, that she could do it. In this, she brings technique and control. She knows how important it is to take time on certain songs and rest, ”said the multi-award-winning producer.
J.Lo is a nickname that my fans have given me (...) It is a kind of street terminology that has taken root. And it seems magnificent to me
Lopez wrote four songs for the album, in addition to working on production and having creative control. In his words, the themes were a reflection on where he was in life at the time. “You get to a certain age and you start to think about other things. You wonder what is going to become of your life? Is this how I am going to carry on for the next ten years or am I going to do something different? Am I going to stabilize or am I going to continue running uncontrolled? A lot of these things are on the album, ”Lopez said in Rolling Stone.
J.Lo got it from his fans ... or was it rapper Heavy D?
J.Lo, the title of the album, is the name by which many fans refer to the artist. About the origin of it, the singer has given several explanations in different media. In 2001 she told the Chicago Tribune: “It wasn't something I asked for, something like 'Call me J.Lo'. Basically J.Lo is a nickname given to me by my fans. Every time I go to a place, when I perform at different events, I see those signs that say 'JLO' or 'Jenny Lo'. It's a kind of street terminology that has taken hold. And it seems magnificent to me. That's why when I went to name the album, and since the success I really owed to the fans, I decided to call it that "
This explanation contrasts with the one he offered in July 2020, during the broadcast of the reality show World of Dance in which he participated as a jury: "J.Lo comes from Heavy D. Do you remember rapper Heavy D? He came to the studio when I was doing my first album and she always called me Jenny Lo. I was dating Puffy then, and they talked about us as' Puffy and Jennifer Lo 'or' Jenny Lo '. So I said' I'm going to call my album J. It'"
J.Lo, for the first time live
Jennifer decided then that J.Lo deserved a live performance. It would be his first concert (actually there were two), since until then he had not performed any. And Jennifer wanted that debut before the public to be in Puerto Rico, the country of her roots and "my beautiful island" as the singer calls the country of origin of her parents.
In September 2001, she arrived in San Juan accompanied by an entourage of more than 170 people, and gave two performances at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in the Puerto Rican capital. Two shows with a "Latin flavor", in which she was accompanied by 10 dancers… and by Joaquín Cortés. "It's my first live concert," Lopez said at the press conference. "We are ready and I will have the collaboration of Joaquín Cortés, with whom I have always wanted to do something since my first album."
2001, a memorable year
2001, without a doubt, was a memorable year for Jennifer Lopez. The same week that J.Lo debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, The Wedding Planer, the romantic comedy in which she starred alongside Matthew McConaughey, opened in theaters at No. 1 at the box office.
Jennifer was already a star then, but this double # 1 made her the only woman to achieve first place in film and music simultaneously.
López will also remember that year because it was the year of her sentimental break with Puff Daddy and her engagement (only three months after the breakup) and her subsequent wedding with dancer Cris Judd. The couple would announce their amicable divorce in 2002.
And in LOS40, his fourth number 1
The Spanish adaptation of the first single, Love don't cost a thing, was called Amor se paga con amor and was the only # 1 on J.Lo's LOS40. And that On the 6, her debut album, had managed to place three number 1s on the list: If you had my love, Waiting for tonight and Let’s get loud.
Love is paid with love became the fourth No. 1 in Jennifer Lopez's LOS40, on February 10, 2001.
