Growth
of a Future Superstar
Lopez was born and raised in the Castle Hill neighborhood in the
Bronx, New York City, New York to Puerto Rican parents Guadalupe
Rodriguez and David Lopez. Lopez spent her entire academic career
in Catholic schools. She also financed singing and dancing lessons
for herself from the age of nineteen. After leaving a one semester-long
career at Baruch College, Lopez divided her time between working
in a legal office, dance classes, and dance performances in Manhattan
clubs at night. After months of auditioning for dance roles, Lopez
was selected as a dancer for various rap artists' music videos,
and was given a guest spot on the American Music Awards. After
being rejected for the gig twice, Lopez gained her first regular
high-profile gig as a "Fly Girl" dancer on the television
comedy program In Living Color in 1991. Soon after, Jennifer Lopez
became a back-up dancer for famed singer Janet Jackson and made
an appearance in her 1993 video "That's the Way Love Goes".
Scheduled and contracted to go on Janet's world tour, she asked
the superstar to be let out of her contract to pursue her acting
career.[citation needed]
Acting
Lopez has appeared on the short-lived television programs South
Central, Second Chances, and Hotel Malibu, and the made-for-television
film Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7. Lopez broke into
the big screen in 1995, in the drama My Family and then appeared
opposite Wesley Snipes in the action film Money Train. Lopez has
also played roles in Francis Ford Coppola's 1996 comedy Jack starring
Robin Williams, and the 1997 thriller Blood and Wine with Jack
Nicholson. Lopez played the lead role in the 1997 film Selena
for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for "Best
Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy" in 1998. She
also became the first Latin actress to get paid $1 million or
more for a film role.[3] Some of her other critically-acclaimed
films include Selena, Out of Sight, The Cell, and An Unfinished
Life. Lopez's performances were less well-received in the financially
successful films The Wedding Planner, Maid in Manhattan, and Monster-in-Law.
Lopez has
finished shooting two new independent films: Bordertown and El
Cantante. El Cantante was shown at the Toronto International Film
Festival where it got positive to mixed reviews. Bordertown was
shown at the Brussels Film Festival. Lopez also guest-starred
in the sixth season finale of Will & Grace in 2004 playing
herself.
In May 2006,
MTV gave the greenlight on her executively produced reality show,
Dance Life. The show will follow the lives of six aspiring dancers
as their struggle to make it in the competitive world of professional
dance. Lopez, who took an active role in selecting the show's
participants, is also slated to make cameo appearances over the
course of the season and the show's eight-episode run is scheduled
to begin on January 15, 2007.
Music
On the 6 (1999)Lopez's debut album On the 6, a reference to the
6 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 Billboard Hot 100 number-one
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. Though "No Me Ames" never had a commercial
release, it reached number one on the U.S. Hot Latin Tracks. Despite
this, the music video for "No Me Ames" received moderate
airplay on the music channels VH1 (United States) and The Box
(United Kingdom). On the 6 also featured guest artists such as
Big Pun and Fat Joe on the track "Feelin' So Good".
It failed to make the top fifty of the Billboard Hot 100. "Let's
Get Loud", the final single, earned Lopez a Grammy Award
nomination in the "Best Dance Recording" category in
2001. "Waiting for Tonight" was nominated for the same
category the previous year. "No Me Ames" received two
nominations at the 2000 Latin Grammy Awards "Best
Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" and "Best
Music Video".
Lopez's second
album, J. Lo, was released on January 23, 2001 and debuted at
number one on the Billboard 200. The lead single, "Love Don't
Cost a Thing", was her first number-one single in the United
Kingdom and took her into the top five on the U.S. Billboard Hot
100. She followed it up with "Play" which gave her another
top twenty hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number three
in the UK. Her next two singles were "I'm Real" and
"Ain't It Funny" which were quickly rising up the charts.
To capitalize on this, Lopez asked The Inc. Records (then known
as Murder Inc.) to remix both songs, which featured rap artists
Ja Rule (on both) and Caddillac Tah (on the "Ain't It Funny"
remix). Both remixes reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100
for several weeks. She re-released J. Lo on her thirty-second
birthday with the remix of "I'm Real" as a bonus track.
Following the success of the album re-release, Lopez decided to
devote an entire album to the remixing effort, releasing J to
tha L-O!: The Remixes, on February 5, 2002. This album debuted
at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming the first remix album
in history to debut at the top on the chart.[4] Featured artists
on J to tha L-O!: The Remixes included P. Diddy, Fat Joe, and
Nas, and the album also included rare dance and hip-hop remixes
of past singles.
On November
26, 2002, Lopez released her third studio album, This Is Me...
Then, which reached number two on the Billboard 200 and spawned
four singles: "Jenny from the Block" (featuring Jadakiss
and Styles P), which reached number three on the Billboard Hot
100; "All I Have" (featuring LL Cool J), which spent
multiple weeks at number one; "I'm Glad"; and "Baby
I Love U!". This album included a cover of Carly Simon's
1978 "You Belong to Me". In 2004, Lopez once again participated
in a duet with Marc Anthony, called "Escapemonos", this
time on his 2004 albums Amar Sin Mentiras and Valio la Pena. Lopez
and Anthony performed "Escapemonos" at the 2006 Grammy
Awards. Lopez was criticized for a poor vocal performance. Her
reps blamed the performance on a cold.
Rebirth (2005)After a year away from the music scene, Lopez released
her fourth studio album, Rebirth, on March 1, 2005. Although debuting
and peaking at number two on the Billboard 200, the album quickly
fell off the charts. It spawned one hit in "Get Right",
which reached the top fifteen in the U.S. and became her second
Platinum hit (after "If You Had My Love"). "Get
Right" was also successful in the UK, becoming her second
number-one single there. The second single, "Hold You Down",
which featured Fat Joe, reached number sixty-four on the U.S.
Hot 100; it peaked at number six in the UK and ascended to the
top twenty in Australia. Rebirth was certified Platinum in the
U.S. by the RIAA. The album was criticized for a poor vocal range.
Lopez was
later featured in the LL Cool J's song, "Control Myself",
which was released on February 1, 2006. It reached number four
on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the UK Singles
Chart. It was Lopez's first U.S. top ten hit in three years.
She is to
release her first full Spanish-language album, titled Como Ama
Una Mujer, on April 3, 2007. The lead single, the ballad "Que
Hiciste" (Spanish for "What Did You Do"), was released
to radio stations in January 2007. The follow-up single is rumored
to be the title track of the album. Its music video is said to
be shot in Puerto Rico.
She is also
working on her fifth English studio album, in which she is working
with producer Swizz Beats. "It's coming out incredible",
he said. "We're putting together some great things, and not
what everyone's expecting. Think a little Jamiroquai, a little
Sade. It's real feel-good music". Other producers are Timbaland,
Cory Rooney, and Jermaine Dupri. It has been confirmed to be released
in late 2007. It has been confirmed that Jonathan "J.R."
Rotem is working on some tracks as well.[5]
Jennifer is
currently featuring in the new MTV series DanceLife, premiering
January 2007.
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