Jennifer Lopez has officially set a date for her return to music -- and 2024 has never felt so far away.
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The new album, This Is Me…Now, will act as a sequel to her 2002 third studio album, This Is Me...Then. At that time, Lopez was deeply in love with her boyfriend Ben Affleck, to whom she openly dedicated the album. “That album… really captured a moment in time where I fell in love with the love of my life. It’s all right there on the record,” she told Zane Lowe of Apple Music to announce the sequel. “I didn’t even realize what was happening and what I was doing. It was just every day going from the set to the recording studio, doing the thing, being in love.”
As we all know, the two split in 2004 which left Lopez in such anguish that she couldn’t perform the album. But the two have since rekindled their romance and are now happily married. This gave her the “happy ending” she needed to return to that album, and music, after a nearly decade-long hiatus. “When he came back into my life again, the same thing happened where I felt so inspired and so overtaken with emotion that it was just pouring out of me,” she said.
This Is Me… Now will be released on February 16 and reportedly features thirteen tracks, including a song titled, “Dear Ben pt. II.” Luckily, a single from the album called “Can’t Get Enough” will be released on Wednesday, Jan. 10. From what we can hear in her social media teasers, the single is an easy-going celebration. She sings, “Can’t get enough of you/ I’m still in love / With you boy” with a Hip-Hop-inspired staccato beat.
And if that wasn’t a big enough announcement, don’t fret. JLo is also pairing up with Prime Video to release This Is Me…Now: The Film. The streaming giant has labeled the film a “Musical Experience” equivalent to the album. “When I was a little girl,” Lopez narrates in a video clip, “when someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always… in love.” It’s unclear if the film will have its own featured storyline or act as a massive, narrated music video. However, the credits note Lopez, director Dave Meyers, and Chris Shafer in an additional “story” component, so the film will still feature new content.
Both versions of This Is Me…Now will drop on February 16, 2024. Let it be known -- Jenny from the block is back!