J-Lo embraces roots with Latin-themed projects
Jennifer Lopez catapulted her acting career with her starring role in “Selena,” a biopic on the Latin Tejano star who sang in Spanish and was on the verge of an English-language crossover prior to her death. Ten years after “Selena,” and following a multiplatinum recording career in English, Lopez is ready to sing en Espanol once again.
“Como Ama Una Mujer” (”How a Woman Loves”), Lopez’s first Spanish-language album, hits stores April 3 through Epic Records, supported by groundbreaking media synergies.
At the heart of it all is a deal in the works with the Univision TV network to produce a five-part miniseries based on a treatment by Lopez, which in turn is based on the content of the album. The series will feature the album’s music. Lopez will not act in the series, but she will perform a track at the end of each episode.
“It’s the first time we’ve done something like this,” says Simon Fields, Lopez’s production partner in Nuyorican Productions, the Los Angeles-based film and TV company. Each song will embody one of the series’ storylines. “It will be scored as if it were a movie series,” Fields says.
The deal — still under negotiation — would also encompass tie-ins with a major retailer, as well as opportunities with other Univision properties and tie-ins in the digital and mobile arenas.
However, “Como Ama Una Mujer” wasn’t conceived as a clever way to utilize multiple media platforms. The notion of recording in Spanish was behind Lopez’s very first demo when she finished filming “Selena” in 1997. The concept materialized three years ago, when Lopez’s husband
Marc Anthony was wrapping up production of his album “Amar Sin Mentiras.”
Lopez went into the studio to record one song with her husband and got hooked. “Emotionally speaking, to me this album is more me than any other album,” she says. (Anthony co-wrote and co-produced the album in conjunction with Latin tunesmith Estefano, and Julio Reyes.)
“Como Ama Una Mujer” makes no concessions to the English market. It is mainstream, traditional Latin pop, with no English-language versions on the album nor any plans to record them. Lopez is working on a more urban-leaning, full-fledged English-language album for release before year’s end.
A consistent multiplatinum seller, Lopez has seen declining sales for her recent releases. Her last album “Rebirth,” released in 2005, was her first to miss the million mark, selling slightly more than 700,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Regardless, Epic executives fully expect the album and the single, “Que Hiciste,” to get plenty of attention in both Latin and mainstream marketplaces. It has yet to break major ground in radio. It entered the current Latin Pop Airplay chart at No. 29, with plays at 20 stations — four less than the week before.
Lopez has just started to dip her toes into Hispanic media to support her album. She was recently featured on the cover of People en Espanol’s “100 Most Influential Hispanics” issue, talking about the record, and has done a few interviews on Spanish-language stations around the United States.
Lopez’s first major public appearance to support the album came January 23, at a private listening session in a Miami Beach studio. Some 300 guests sipped martinis as Lopez stayed away from the fray, chatting with Anthony for nearly two hours.
“Como Ama Una Mujer” sounds nothing like Lopez’s previous English fare. Unabashedly romantic, it is quintessentially Latin in its big arrangements, romantic themes and vocally dramatic interpretations. With no musical indication of crossover aspirations into English, the album is not exactly what the world might have expected, but exactly what Lopez wanted to do.
The album comes at a time when Lopez seems to be getting more in touch than ever before with her Latin roots. It is just one of a string of recent, current or upcoming Latin-themed projects. This coming summer will see the release of “El Cantante,” a film based on the life of singer Hector Lavoe, starring Lopez and Anthony. The film is set for theatrical release July 27 with a soundtrack to be released on Sony Records (although Lopez does not sing on it).
Also hitting theaters with Lopez as star will be “Bordertown,” a political thriller surrounding the missing women of Juarez, Mexico. There is also a new, Latin-named perfume to be launched later in the year, and several Latin-themed TV shows in various stages of development. Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions is involved in the development of a TV show for Fox called “The Brethren”; another TV show titled “Ayuda,” about the world of Latin nannies in Los Angeles; a movie for Lifetime TV; and a TV series titled “Echo Park.”
Reuters/Billboard
