Pablo Gil Madrid
Madrid
Updated Friday, February 2, 2024-00:14
Music Fans who stream entire Taylor Swift and Aitana concerts on TikTok: "There were 140,000 people listening to me scream, sing and cry"
Concerts Enrique Iglesias receives the worst reviews of his career for his successful tour: is the show really that bad?
Music The millionaire fraud of Spotify ghost artists: 20 people are behind more than 500 aliases
If love stories make you lazy and cause what cold ads describe as general malaise, don't read this interview.
Because we are not talking about a normal love story, but about
a great, passionate, unusual and very notable love story
. That's what each of the songs on
Jennifer Lopez
's new album is about , the first she's recorded in 10 years! That's also what the special film that she will release on Prime Video tells, and love, love, love is what What the veteran American star wants to talk about: the "surreal miracle", in her words, of
sharing her life with Ben Affleck again
.
J. Lo's love life has an entry of more than 700 words on Wikipedia and is so well known that almost no one needs to be a fan of the tabloid and/or yellow press to know the details. A year and a half ago she married Affleck and rediscovered "true love," as she explains, after an odyssey of
rocky relationships
, including her first romance with Affleck himself two decades ago
and, in some cases, abusive
. The singer and actress managed to stop the publication of a sex video recorded by her first husband, Ojani Noa, from whom she divorced in less than a year; she was later arrested with Sean
Diddy
Combs for weapons possession after a shooting when they were a stormy (and fleeting) couple; She quickly divorced her second husband, Cris Judd, and called off her wedding to Affleck in 2003 due to infidelity. After several relationships, the most stable of which was her marriage to Marc Anthony, the shortest of which was her
affair
with Drake, the artist has once again shared her breakfasts and red carpets with Affleck.
To know more
Music.
Maná: "Reggaeton falls into vulgarity, it takes a little ingenuity to make something better"
Editorial: NOA DE LA TORRE Valencia
Maná: "Reggaeton falls into vulgarity, it takes a little ingenuity to make something better"
Awards.
Pinch of Spanish music at the Latin Grammys in Seville: only Quevedo, Niña Pastori and Nathy Peluso won the award
Editorial: PABLO GIL Sevilla
Pinch of Spanish music at the Latin Grammys in Seville: only Quevedo, Niña Pastori and Nathy Peluso won the award
What's all this soap opera about? Well, because the love life of Lopez, a Latina without an accent, born in the Bronx of New York 54 years ago, a star of music and cinema for three decades, is the common thread of her new album. It is titled
This Is Me... Now
and it is, effectively,
the second part of
This Is Me... Then
, her great commercial hit from 2002
, a decisive turn to R & B inspired by her lovey-dovey relationship with her best friend. by Matt Damon.
In addition to the album, a film (
This Is Me... Now: A Love Story
) will also be released on Prime Video on February 16, in which music videos are combined in the form of a sentimental chronicle of autobiographical inspiration, with
links, breakups, husbands who come and go and, be careful, more than one toxic relationship
. Cameos are not lacking, by the way: Jane Fonda, Sofía Vergara, Fat Joe, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Jenifer Lewis, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Trevor Noah and, of course, Ben Affleck.
In the videoconference interview, shared with several European media, Jennifer Lopez is everything JLo anyone can imagine: relaxed, determined, powerful and self-confident.
It's been 10 years without making an album. What motivated you to want to compose and record again? Well (laughs), I think it's pretty obvious. I made
This Is Me... Then
when Ben [Aflleck] and I fell in love, twenty-something years ago, and as fate wanted us to share our lives again, on the 20th anniversary of the release of that album I announced that I would make
This Is Me... Now
. The album is inspired by this kind of surreal miracle that has happened and that I would never have expected. I felt completely in love and with the answers to the questions that I have been searching for all my life as a hopeless romantic. In fact there is even a song titled
Dear Ben Part 2
, in reference to
Dear Ben
, from the previous album. That album was influenced by somehow for Ben, the same as this new album: because he has come back into my life and because we have gotten back together in a way we never expected, for this incredible second chance at true love. All of this was the inspiration to get into the studio and want to make music again. I worked with a small group of collaborators: the producer, the musicians and the lyricist. None of them knew me and I didn't know them, and I told them the first day we were in the studio: I want to capture this moment in my life the same way
This Is Me... Then
It captured what I experienced 20 years ago, because it is an even better moment than the first. I shared with them a lot of stories about my journey and about love and how I felt. I have wondered a lot if true love really exists. Is there anything that lasts forever? Many times we have been told no, but I wanted to share with the world that I believe that things can last forever and that true love really exists. I told them that there is a certain kind of love that never goes away and that we could convey that message to the world and give people hope. That's what I've learned and I think my job as an artist is to be vulnerable and share those things, even if sometimes it's an uncomfortable truth. There are uncomfortable things in the film, things that were very difficult for me. This is probably the hardest fucking thing I've ever done in my life and the scariest. It was very scary, but now, in retrospect, when I see it and we are about to make it known to the world, although I am still scared, I feel very proud of myself for having forced myself to face those uncomfortable situations and be able to say something which I think is really worth sharing. The film connects the songs through a story of love relationships that he co-wrote with Ben Affleck himself. What was his idea? The film is a love story, but not in the traditional sense. It's not just a celebration of love. I made it after finishing the album with [director] Dave Meyers and [screenwriter] Matt Walton, but I asked Ben, who is my partner in life and everything I do and obviously an incredible writer, to look at the script. and help us with everything he could. The story tells the journey of a hopeless romantic and her ideas about love and what she discovers after 20 years of pursuing it. It's a beautiful little narrative about that idea. In a way, it's very meta. The film has some dark moments, such as the violent arguments during the song 'Rebound'. How much reality is there behind those images? That whole glass house scene is about how when you're hopelessly romantic you can sometimes get into toxic relationships. And I have certainly experienced those types of relationships in my life. I had this song,
Rebound
, and in the journey that the script recreates, the hopeless romantic bounced quickly from one relationship to another. Dave came up with the idea of doing it in a glass house, because he is one of those who thinks that those types of relationships always fall apart over time. In fact, that's one of my favorite scenes in the special because I think you can't tell the story of a hopeless romantic without showing some of those pitfalls. Pop music today is dominated by female artists who control their music and their careers. . What do you think about it? I love it! Of course. What do you think I can say? Well that's great. It's fantastic to see so many women at the top of the music industry, dominating the way they are. Anyway, I've never thought of myself as a female artist. I was just thinking about being an artist, and I'm sure that these women who are doing it right now, like Adele and Taylor [Swift] and Beyoncé and Billie Eilish, who are all very different from each other, are all making music that is an artistic expression. direct from what they are. And that's how it should be. I don't think we should see them as women, but as the best artists in the world, because that's what they are. How did you face the idea of making an album that is like a twin brother of another that you published 20 years ago, with everything What have you changed since then? The funny thing is that I didn't plan to emulate the sound or style of
This Is Me... Then
, but being in the studio, when I was helping produce the album, I realized that in the end it comes out a certain type of sound (laughs). The two albums have a similar atmosphere and share the same type of sound because of the things that I have been inspired by as an artist. That's why they have an almost identical title and we added a little
Jenny from The Block
in some songs, and a
Dear Ben Part 2
... On the Golden Globes red carpet we saw actress Brie Larson super excited to meet her. What is it like being an idol for young stars? Yes, she was so charming, but for me it's a bit surreal (laughs). I always saw myself as a girl from the Bronx who was chasing her dreams, trying to make it big and all that. Then I look back, as I do with this project, at the 20 or 30 years I've been doing this, and I think: wow! I grew up watching
West Side Story
and I was inspired by Rita Moreno or Selena, but I never expected that someone would say the same thing about me as Brie did. It was incredible. Numerous actors participate in the film, including a legend: Jane Fonda. I adore Jane, I adore her as a person and for what she represents. And honestly, of all the people who participate, who I love and who I chose for very specific reasons, she was the one who made me happiest to participate. She showed a lot of faith in the project, she was one of the first to accept the proposal. She was great. I loved that she did it and I will be eternally grateful to her.