Name: Jennifer Lopez
Profession: Actress, Singer, Producer
Birth Date: July 24, 1969
Height: 5' 6"
Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969) is a well-known American actress, pop/latin/R&B singer, fashion designer, and dancer. She is married to singer Marc Anthony. She is also commonly nicknamed J-Lo or J.Lo.
Lopez was born in the Bronx, New York to Puerto Rican parents Guadalupe Rodríguez and David López. She has two sisters, Lynda and Leslie. Though López's parents were born in the same Puerto Rican town, they did not meet until they both had moved to Castle Hill. They were strict with their children and instilled a strong work ethic in them — no one in the family was allowed to miss a day of school, work, or church (the family was devoutly Roman Catholic). "Our parents had a strong work ethic — there wasn't really any other way," Lynda López told Rolling Stone. Lopez's parents also stressed assimilation, especially the need to speak English. López spent much of what she called "the boyfriend years" sneaking around to meet up with first-love David Cruz, whom she remained with from the time she was 16 until she was 25. "I was always climbing out windows, jumping off roofs, and he was sneaking up," she said. "It was crazy." She spent her entire academic career in Catholic school and acknowledges that she still prays regularly. She was a driven student and natural athlete. She went out for the track team, though she had no experience. Her father feared that, new to the sport, she would be outclassed, but Lopez rose to the challenge and ended up competing nationally. "Basically, anything she wants to do, she'll be as successful as you can at it," sister Lynda Lopez said. "That's the kind of person she is."
Lopez financed singing and dancing lessons from the age of 16. After she dropped out of college after one semester, Lopez pursued dancing full-time. She split her time between her job at a law office, taking dance classes, and dancing in Manhattan clubs at night. Though she did not, and still does not, drink alcohol, her parents disapproved of her working nights so far from home and feared she was associating with a dangerous crowd. She moved out of the house in protest of her parents and literally lived on the floor of the dance studio for many years until she could pay rent with occasional work as a dancer. After months and months of auditioning for dance gigs, she got her first spot and started out in television as a video girl for rap artist MC Hammer, as well as a guest spot on the American Music Awards. Her first regular high profile gig was as a "fly girl" dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color in 1990 after being twice rejected. She then left the show after the second season due to friction with another dancer.
Lopez had a small role in a short-lived television program South Central. She also found television work in Second Chances and Hotel Malibu and the made-for-TV movie Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7. She danced for Janet Jackson on tour and in Jackson's video for the song "That's The Way Love Goes" in 1993. Lopez broke onto the big screen in 1995, in the drama My Family/Mi Familia and opposite Wesley Snipes in the action film Money Train. She appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's 1996 comedy Jack opposite Robin Williams, and the 1997 thriller Blood and Wine with Jack Nicholson.
After a nationwide search of tens of thousands of women, Lopez was chosen to play the lead role in the film Selena. In 1998, the Golden Globe Awards organization nominated her for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy for her performance.
Music
Lopez's debut album, On The 6, a reference to the 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 No. 1 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, which was an international dance hit, though the song was never released as a single in the U.S. Despite this, the video received moderate airplay on the U.S. music channels VH1 and The Box as a novelty. The album also spawned another international hit in "Feelin' So Good," a hip-hop track which contained guest raps by Big Pun and Fat Joe; it failed to make the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100. "Let's Get Loud" was also released as a single, and became a minor dance hit.
Her sophomore effort, J. Lo, was released in January 2001 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The lead single, "Love Don't Cost A Thing" was her first UK No. 1 single, and, along with its follow-up, "Play" (which was written by rising teen star, Christina Milian) became a top-five hit during the year the album was released. The album's next two singles, "I'm Real" and "Ain't It Funny," ended up becoming her biggest hits ever, with both spending several weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, to capitalize on this, Lopez asked Murder Inc. to remix both songs, completely changing the lyrics and melodies and adding raps from Ja Rule in both songs, and from Caddillac Tah to "Ain't It Funny (Murder Remix)." The "I'm Real" and "Ain't It Funny" remixes were two of the biggest pop and rap hits in late 2001 and early 2002, respectively, and their more hip-hop sound gave J. Lo street credibility and brought her music to a whole new group of fans. She re-released the CD on her 32nd birthday, July 24, 2001, including Ja Rule's remixed version of "I'm Real."
The original version of "I'm Real" sparked controversy when it came to light that it contained a sample of Yellow Light Orchestra's Firecracker, originally planned to be used for Mariah Carey's single "Loverboy." Rumors suggested that this was the doing of Tommy Mottola, Carey's ex-husband. Carey was forced to scrap the sample, instead using a sample of the Cameo's song "Candy."
Following the successes of the remix, Lopez decided to devote an entire album to the effort; the result, J To Tha L-O!: The Remixes, appeared on February 5, 2002. This album, too, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, marking the first remix album in history to enter at the top on the chart. This time around, she got 50 Cent and Nas to write lyrics for two remixes of her next single, "I'm Gonna Be Alright," which ended up becoming another top-ten hit. The album also included rarer dance and hip-hop remixes of her past singles, and a new song - a ballad called "Alive" - which was included in Lopez's movie Enough.
On November 26, 2002, Lopez released her third studio album, This Is Me... Then, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned two very popular singles; the top-five "Jenny From The Block" (sampling the track from the song "Watch Out Now" by the Beatnuts, and including raps from Jadakiss and Styles P) and the multi-week No. 1 "All I Have," featuring LL Cool J. Another single, "I'm Glad," was also released, but only managed to go Top 40, a rather low result considering Lopez's usual chart success. Another song from the album was a cover of Carly Simon's "You Belong To Me."
In 2004, Lopez once again participated in duets with Marc Anthony, this time on his albums Amar Sin Mentiras and Valio La Pena.
After a considerable amount of time away from the music scene, Lopez finally released her fourth studio album, Rebirth, on March 1, 2005. Debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 to initially decent sales success, the album quickly fell off the charts. Despite that, the album did spawn the hit "Get Right," which reached the Top 20. However, it was criticized as a rip-off of Usher's unreleased song "Ride." Even so, "Get Right" was a huge hit in the UK, becoming her second No. 1 single there. The second single, "Hold You Down," which featured Fat Joe, made it into the top 75 in the U.S., peaking at No. 64. It reached No. 17 in Australia with little to no promotion and managed a peak of No. 6 in the UK. Later in 2005, it was certified Platinum in the U.S. by RIAA. To date, Rebirth has sold 4 million copies worldwide.
In late 2006, Jennifer Lopez is to release her first Spanish album titled Como Ama Una Mujer, as well as an English album rumored to be titled Abstract. She's also to make her first summer tour, which will include countries such as UAE, Bulgaria, India and Turkey.
Fashion
Lopez owns a clothing line called "JLO by Jennifer Lopez," whose brand has been licensed for a term by Warnaco Group. Her line is the most successful of any artists' in history and includes many different types of clothing for young women, including jeans, tees, coats, belts, purses, sexy lingerie and many other products. Furthermore, she is planning to launch a jewelry line and more in the future.
Lopez has also dabbled in the perfume industry, with her debut "Glow by J.Lo" breaking numerous records in sales. In October 2003, Lopez introduced a perfume called "Still." "Still" came with a detachable ring for customers, meant to perhaps mirror her infamous pink engagement ring from fiancé Ben Affleck. Before launching a completely new fragrance, she revisited 2002's "Glow," creating a spin-off "Miami Glow by J.Lo" - an homage to her adopted hometown of Miami. The fragrance was a limited edition which came with a braided type bracelet that the customer could wear - reminiscent of the "J.Lo" logo necklace that came with the "Glow by J.Lo." Around the same time, Jennifer concocted the concept of a "Glow" body line which was launched, featuring different body creams and bronzers. For the Christmas season of 2005, she launched yet another new fragrance "Live by Jennifer Lopez." Most recently, for Valentine's Day 2006, "Miami Glow" was replaced by yet another "Glow" spinoff - "Love At First Glow by J.Lo." The bottle remained the same shape as "Glow" and "Miami Glow" but is pink and comes with a "J.Lo" logo cell phone charm.
In November of 2005, Lopez also launched a new clothing line called "Sweetface."
Lopez's frequent use of fur in her clothing lines and personal wardrobe has brought the scorn of people concerned with animal rights. At the Los Angeles premiere of Monster-in-Law, more than one hundred protestors from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ("PETA") held a demonstration to highlight their concerns. Lopez told a radio DJ that she was open to being educated on the topic.
She has also done a photoshoot to represent the Louis Vuitton Winter 2003 campaign, in which the pictures would be seen all over the world through TV commercials, billboards, ads, newspapers, magazines and more.
Other merchandise includes a clothing and cologne line for men due for release sometime in 2006.
Lopez has now said that she is going to start producing clothes for dogs.
J. Lo Inc.
Lopez owns a production company Nuyorican Productions, in which she is expected to produce some of her upcoming movies. Some of the projects for the company include Carmen, Dirty Girls Social Club (featuring Jeffrey Wilkinson as Dirty Girl #4) and The Hector Lavoe Project. The company was founded together with her former manager, Benny Medina, whom she filed a lawsuit against because of alleged fraud in July 2003.
Currently, the company produces the television series South Beach for UPN.
The company produced the commercially-successful movies The Cell, The Wedding Planner and Maid in Manhattan. These three movies put together made more than $350 million at the box office worldwide.
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