Jennifer Lopez says new album sums up her feelings, could be her last: 'True love does exist'

Jennifer Lopez is all about love.

Love for her husband, Ben Affleck, whom she famously reconnected with and married in 2022, two decades after “Bennifer” became a celebrity portmanteau.

Love for her new album, “This is Me … Now,” a sequel of sorts to her 2002 album “This is Me … Then” and its complementary musical film, “This is Me … Now: A Love Story.”

And love for herself. Not in an egotistical way, but, as she puts it, “Be good for yourself and you can be good for the world. Everything starts with you, and we sometimes forget that.”

Lopez will rekindle her love for performing when she embarks on her first tour in five years, This is Me Now … The Tour, which kicks off June 26 in Orlando, Florida, and will visit more than 30 cities. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Feb. 23 via livenation.com. Various presales begin Tuesday.

'This is Me ... Now: A Love Story' is both bonkers and delightful

Lopez, 54, is chatting with USA TODAY the day after the Super Bowl. As if she doesn’t have enough happening with the Friday release of her new album and film (on Amazon Prime), the famously indefatigable multitasker also helped win the commercial wars during Sunday’s game. The comical spot for Dunkin’, featuring the Boston conglomerate of Affleck, best pal Matt Damon and former New England Patriots hero Tom Brady as the hip-hop trio DunKings, highlights Lopez eye-rolling her way through her husband’s mortifying musical efforts.

“We had so much fun that day,” Lopez says of filming the commercial. “Ben came up with the whole idea. Matt and Tom were hysterical and there were so many outtakes I wish you guys could see.”

Lopez’s multidimensional acting career, from the frothy rom-coms of “Maid in Manhattan” and “Marry Me” to her critically lauded turn in “Hustlers,” takes another direction with “This is Me … Now: A Love Story.”

Elaborate and self-deprecating, the film is bonkers in the best way. Lopez’s quest for love brings her through a “Mad Max”-looking heart factory – yes, she did her own stunts – for the song “Hearts and Flowers” and into an argument in an obviously toxic relationship (“Rebound”) in a glass room. The film starts with a fiery motorcycle crash with a guy who shares Affleck’s profile (he’s in it, just not how you think), includes the springy “Can’t Get Enough” video, where Lopez marries three suitors, and, amusingly, offers a motley collection of celebrities on the zodiac love council.

Oh, and rapper Fat Joe wears cardigans and plays her therapist.

Jennifer Lopez wanted to 'capture a moment in time' with new album, film

It’s not even close to conventional, which is exactly what Lopez wanted.

“I wanted to make a record in a way I hadn’t done for a long time. When it was done, I realized it wasn’t the whole story, so I got with (director) Dave Meyers and said, 'I don’t want to do the normal video with this, this is something very special,' ” Lopez says. “I never thought I’d get a second chance at this love. I’d like to capture this moment in time because I feel it’s even more incredible than the first time. What I want to say with this album is that true love does exist and some things are forever. They may not take a straight road, but they don’t leave you. I made the most honest, true music I’ve ever done … So I sat with Dave and said, 'I want to do a mini-movie-musical, but also not just videos. I want to do something new and different.' ”

One of the most gleeful aspects of the film is that zodiac council, which includes Trevor Noah, Kim Petras, Sofia Vergara, Jenifer Lewis, Post Malone and the queen of every committee, Jane Fonda.

“We have a real kinship between us,” Lopez says of Fonda, her 2005 “Monster-in-Law” co-star. "(Jane) has always been very supportive of me and is very vested in me and Ben. It was hard to get her – and the other people – to understand what I was trying to do. They couldn’t quite grasp it. They were all handpicked by me. Either they’ve inspired me by how they live, their music, something they said online. I just said, ‘You’re gonna have to trust me. I promise I won’t make you look bad.’ Thank God they did. I think.”

A behind-the-scenes unwrapping of the $20 million self-financed movie and Lopez’s album will arrive Feb. 27 with the Amazon Prime documentary, “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” named for a collection of letters Affleck wrote to his now-wife.

Why 'This is Me ... Now" might be Jennifer Lopez's last album

Lopez recorded “This is Me … Now” primarily between May and August 2022 with a small group of producers including Rogét Chahayed (Big Sean, Doja Cat), who wanted to “preserve the sound and energy” of Lopez’s hits (“Jenny From the Block,” “I’m Real,” “Love Don’t Cost A Thing,” among her many), but also lean into the tenderness she exposes in her new songs.

“Dear Ben Pt. II” is especially sweet and Chahayed said while watching her record he “could feel how much she loved Ben and how much she loved music at the same time. I’ve never seen an artist happier to be in the studio.”

He also praises her rhyme skills, which she drops on “Not Going Anywhere.”

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“I mean, she’s got bars,” Chahayed says. “She’s got bars and vocal chops and really, any time she got on the mic I was blown away not only at how involved she was in the studio with us – being there from start to finish, which is very rare for an artist of her stature – but working with the writers, pitching in on melody ideas, choosing the right beats and chords. There’s nothing she can’t do.”

Lopez has said that this might be her final album and she doesn’t suggest otherwise when asked to explain why she would be happy with “This is Me … Now” as her swan song.

“This was going to be the quintessential thing I have been searching for and wanted to say about love. I’ve been on this search for so long, since people first met me and my first record came out and even before that in my first movie role, where I’ve been on this journey trying to figure this thing out for myself. This (album) kind of closed the loop in a way,” Lopez says. “It captures this moment to really say the things I want to say about love, and that is that true love does exist and some things are forever. Please don’t give up on that because that’s all that matters in life … love.”