Jennifer Lopez constantly gets a bad wrap as an artist. People don’t actually think she’s bad, just that she’s sub-par.
But I’m here to tell you that JLo doesn’t deserve your judgement because she’s actually a really strong performer. She doesn’t have a voice like Adele but her songs almost always make me want to drop and boogie (yes, I just said boogie like a middle aged woman) which is something.
What use is music if it doesn’t make you feel something? And any song which makes me feel good gets instant brownie points. JLo has a string of these: ’Let’s Get Loud’, ‘Waiting For Tonight‘ , ‘If You Had My Love’, and ‘Get Right’ just to name a few.
Oh and a small little track called ‘Jenny From The Block’, you might have heard of it?
Her acting isn’t Oscar worthy but movies are iconic. Maid In Manhattan is in the same league of classics like Pretty Woman and The Wedding Singer: certifiably trashy 1990s romcoms that just make you feel good about life and love.
JLo is an all-rounder and her performance is consistent, which she’s proved once and for all in her latest movie Hustlers in which she plays a strip club head honcho called Ramona.
Hustlers is based on a true story about a group of strip club dancers in New York City who began drugging, and then stealing from, their Wall Street clients.
But this isn’t some basic girl B.S. – it required lots of preparation by the actors, especially of the physical variety. Proving movie prep is no joke, JLo posted a video which shows the intensive 6 week training she did to learn to pole dance, a skill which normally takes a lifetime to master.
“Cardi [B] was telling me it took her years to figure out all this stuff,” J.Lo says in the video. “And Johanna’s trying to teach me in a matter of six weeks.”
As a mere mortal, I can’t even contemplate holding myself up on a pole let alone twisting and flipping around it with ease.
But JLo is no mere mortal (seriously, have you seen her abs?) and she takes her work very seriously.
According to J.Lo, the dance rehearsals are just part of her preparation process. For Hustlers, she really wanted to take a holistic approach to get into character and fully take on the role and habits of a stripper who can smooth-talk and move her way into rich men’s wallets.
“This is just as hard as anything I’ve ever learned. It might be the hardest,” she shares in the video. “I’ve never been bruised like this for anything I’ve done.”
If JLo wasn’t committed to her work she wouldn’t even try to learn to pole dance – body doubles are easy to come by in Hollywood. But she just ain’t that type of woman.
Which brings me back to my original point: JLo is not an overrated artist, she’s an underrated one. Respect her work, respect her process and, who knows, maybe one day she will get that Oscars nom.