Jennifer Lopez is returning to music with her upcoming album This Is Me…Now (a reference to her 2002 album title This Is Me…Then), and it looks like the project is going to be visual. And maybe also three-dimensional? A new teaser has us curious! Here’s everything we know.
You can “live” the album.
In her newsletter “On the J. Lo,” the actor-singer-dancer promises “HEAR IT. SEE IT. LIVE IT…SHARE IT…The Musical Experience Begins 2.16.24,” which seems to indicate that there will be visual components as well as…merch? Or maybe we “live it” simply by embracing the values of the music. Hmm!
What is the project?
Variety reports that the album will be accompanied by a “short film” directed by Dave Meyers, whose many music video credits include collaborations with Britney Spears and Ariana Grande, and previous work with Lopez. It will be “a narrative driven, intimate, reflective, sexy, funny, fantastical, and highly entertaining musical and visual reimagining of her publicly scrutinized love life,” per the outlet, which also points out parallels to her album This Is Me…Then, which included the song “Dear Ben” about Ben Affleck; the new album’s track list includes “Dear Ben Pt. II.”
Per the YouTube description, the project is “Unlike anything Jennifer has ever done before” and a “fantastical…reflection of her personal journey of self-healing and self-love.” It was written in part by her husband, Ben Affleck, and is “an immersive world where music and visuals intertwine, revealing the challenges faced and the triumphs achieved.”
If that’s not appealing enough, consider that “Audiences will witness the transformation and vulnerability in every frame.” The immersive world promises to be “the defining era” in her “illustrious career.”
“With an unprecedented rawness and vulnerability, Lopez has crafted a powerful and heartfelt homage to the profound beauty of true love and the indomitable strength of the human spirit. What began as a return to the recording studio after an almost decade long absence, and inspired by love, evolved into a vision to weave her songs into an abstract biography reverse engineered from the powerful music she had written, recorded and produced,” the description adds. But it’s also a call to change the world: “[The project] is…a celebration of [Jennifer Lopez’s] commitment to doing what is right. This collection of work is a beacon of hope, a celebration of love, and a call to make better choices for ourselves and for the world around us.”
Is there a trailer?
On November 27, Lopez shared the first look at the forthcoming “experience.” Lopez boogies in a wedding dress with strategic cutouts, pays homage to Singing in the Rain, and works in a factory with a “Heart Stats” board. Okay!
We also see a young girl gesture to what looks like the Bronx, Lopez’s hometown.
The intro also shows a hummingbird tapping at the window, and there is hummingbird iconography on her website currently. In December 2022, Lopez revealed that her song “Hummingbird” was inspired by the creatures that are, to her, messengers of love, so expect more of this motif.
On January 17, Lopez dropped the full, two-minute, theatrical trailer for the upcoming film and boy oh boy is there a lot going on.
Based on this trailer, This Is Me…Now: A Love Story will be part music video, part rom-com, part gritty marital drama, part sci-fi action flick, part psychological thriller, and part tabloid clap-back.
It begins with a classic JLo voice over, where she says, “I know what they say about me. About hopeless romantics. That we're weak. But I'm not weak,” while clips of Lopez in various stages of romance flash across the screen. Then suddenly we're in some sort of dystopia, then even more suddenly, we're in a normal living room and Lopez's friends are telling her she's a sex addict. The credits promise cameos by: Fat Joe, Trevor Noah, Kim Petras, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Lewis, Jay Shetty, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Sadhguru, and Derek Hough, which is a truly wild list of names to see on the same title card.
When does it come out?
In the trailer Lopez sits alone in a mansion, wet from the rain outside. She burns love letters (including one signed “B” and dated December 24, 2002) in a fireplace as a voiceover tells us, “When I was a little girl, when someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always…in love.” So it makes sense that the Prime Video film will be available on February 16, just after Valentine’s Day.
This post may be updated.
