After a decade without releasing albums,
Jennifer Lopez returns
with
This is Me... Now
,
a sequel to the almost self-titled album
she composed 20 years ago, when she fell in love with the love of her life at the time, actor
Ben Affleck
.
Having a "second chance" with that love, she says in an interview, inspired her to return to the studio.
"I wrote the album
This Is Me... Then
at a time, 20 years ago, when I fell in love with the love of my life at the time and we ended up breaking up," explains the superstar from the Bronx (New York) of Puerto Rican descent.
"But 20 years later we met again and I felt very inspired to go back and write again about
the experience of having a second chance with this type of love
," says Jennifer Lopez, jealous of keeping her relationship with Affleck private. but without hiding that
the story with her current husband is a powerful force in her music
.
A
This is Me... Now
(in Spanish, 'This is me... now'), which premieres this Friday, February 16 along with a film written and starring the singer herself
with cameos from Affleck himself
, Sofía Vergara , Post Malone and
Trevor Noah, among others, Lopez describes as his "most personal project" to date.
The album is "a great love story," he admits, with songs like
Dear Ben pt.II
or
Greatest Love Story Never Told
.
But it is also much more than that.
Always together.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, at the premiere of "This is Me... Now: A Love Story", the singer's film about the love between them.
The relationship is so strong that they released an album and a movie.
Photo: Robyn Beck / AFP
This is me and my scars
"The idea of
This is Me... Now
is about
accepting yourself, accepting who you are now
. Sometimes we look back and say 'I could have done this better, I could have done that better.' But at that moment maybe "You were doing the best you could with what you knew," he reflects.
"This is who I am - continues the 54-year-old
performer
-, I have picked up some scars along the way, there are also incredible things about me, but I love this person. I accept who I am. This is me now. I have shown a part of me that I had never shown".
With the single
Can't Get Enough
as its cover letter, the album is also an opportunity for this superstar to
tell his story on his own terms, without the filter of the tabloids and the paparazzi
, although when he began to compose he did not do so. with the idea of making great revelations.
"My intention was to share what I have learned - he details - and share a story that I think is worthwhile, that has something to say and I hope that it entertains people, that it inspires people and comforts people."
That process, which makes his fans complicit in the sweet moment he is going through personally, is part of the "responsibilities as an artist."
my naked soul
"I have shared and bared a part of my soul and shown a part of myself that I had never shown before, with the intention of letting people know the different types of growth that are needed to understand love," he says.
Furthermore, after two months in the studio,
when he finished with the music he felt that there were still things to tell
.
"It was a beautiful expression of the idea that
true love exists and that 'forever' is real
. That was portrayed on the album, but there was also another part of the story that needed to be told about the journey it took to get there." get to it," he recalls.
Full body.
Jennifer Lopez says that the album and the movie are about second chances at love.
Photo: Robyn Beck/ AFP
This is how the idea arose to make the film This Is Me... Now: A Love Story
, directed by Dave Meyers and also available this Friday the 16th on Amazon Prime.
It is an extension of the album that adds the cinematographic part of Lopez's career.
Although it is not a biographical film, the singer defines the production as very "meta", with autobiographical aspects and inspirations.
"
It's the story of a hopeless romantic, which is very me
," she admits.
Putting so many things that involve her personally into the
This Is Me... Now
universe - music, cinema, love, her path of growth - was a very enriching process that she had never attempted before.
But she also, she admits with a laugh, absorbed all her energies.
"It was so hard... but it was worth every minute," he says.
And although she can't make any announcements at the moment, she says
she's excited to tour again
.
"I miss the fans. I like people so I'm excited to get back out there and jump, dance, sing, cry, scream and laugh with them," she promises.
Source: EFE/ Nerea González