celebrity

Jennifer Lopez’s ‘devastating’ career turn can be traced to one moment.

Did you have Jennifer Lopez getting cancelled on your 2024 bingo card? 

If not, prepare to learn all about the reason the public — or namely, people on TikTok — has swiftly turned on the singer, actor and businesswoman.

This shift in public opinion comes as Lopez has recently released an album and accompanying film This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, along with a behind-the-scenes documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told.

The film was self-financed with the 'Get Right' singer reportedly spending $20 million of her own money to fund the project. This Is Me…Now: A Love Story was a chaotic (albeit-endearing) dedication to Lopez's search for true love, which she ultimately found with her now-husband, Ben Affleck.

Watch: A look back at Jennifer Lopez' Halftime show trailer. Post continues below.


Video via Netflix.

The film itself was released to largely positive reviews, but it was a different story for the accompanying documentary.

One particular clip has gone viral, in which Lopez stares at her reflection in the mirror as she tousles her hair and speaks about growing up in the Bronx.

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"I like taking my hair out like this," she says. "It reminds me of when I was 16 in the Bronx, running up and down the block. Crazy little girl who used to f**king be wild and no limits, all dreams."

@ariisaysso #stitch with @Prime Video WHAT IS THIS!?😭 #jlo #fyp #foryou ♬ original sound - ariisaysso

The clip was classic JLo: overly earnest and dramatic, throwing back to a time living on 'the Block' that she built her brand around — at least, at the beginning of her music and film career.

But while a clip like this might have gone under the radar a decade or two ago — shrugged off as Jenny being Jenny — it fell flat with the majority of TikTok.

While many of the TikToks created in response were simply laughing at how over-the-top Lopez's confession was, others cast doubt over the singer's claims that she was, in fact, ever a "crazy little girl" with wild hair, with some users simply writing, "What block?" in the comments.

In one TikTok, since-deleted user @photosbyangela posted a video alleging she attended the same high school as Lopez, and it wasn't quite the "wild" environment the singer depicted.

"We both attended an all-girls high school in an Irish and Italian neighbourhood, so you weren't 'running up and down the block,'" the user said.

According to The New York Times, while Lopez was born and raised in the Castle Hill neighbourhood of the Bronx, she seemingly enjoyed a middle-class upbringing. Her father was a computer technician, the family lived in a two-story house, and she did indeed attend an all-girls Catholic high school, Preston High School.

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All that being said, Lopez was raised in the Bronx (this is very much a fact) by her parents David López and Guadalupe Rodríguez, who were both born in Puerto Rico before meeting in New York City.

This isn't the first time Lopez has been accused of exaggerating her working-class background and Bronx upbringing — but it is the first time that such a volume of people have joined forces to publicly mock her for it.

The pile-on has never been quite this nasty.

And some of the criticism is valid.

An old interview of Lopez's has surfaced that is straight-up offensive and cruel. In a 1998 interview with Movieline, Lopez dismissed the acting careers of several Hollywood starlets, from Claire Danes to Gwyneth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz.

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It's worth noting that at this time, Lopez's main acting credits were for Selena and Anaconda.

Others have called out Lopez for being notoriously rude or unpleasant to fans and staff, although most of these alleged encounters with the Maid In Manhattan star have gone unsubstantiated.

But the criticism on TikTok has since spiralled to attacking her character and her talent. Some have said her new movie proves how much she is a self-absorbed diva and there's a rising consensus on the platform that she cannot sing.

A resurfaced clip has been doing the rounds featuring Ashanti saying in an interview that she wrote and even provided vocals for Lopez's 2001 hit, 'Ain't It Funny'.

At this year's Met Gala, a video of Lopez went viral after USA Today reporter Anika Reed called out to ask about the designer of her dress, and she appeared to snap back "Schiaparelli" before quickly turning away.

For millennials and baby boomers, this discourse is nothing new.

Lopez being known as a diva who doesn't possess a particularly outstanding singing voice has been an ongoing joke for decades. But it has always been just that: a joke.

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These claims were as much a part of Lopez's brand as her fragrance empire, stunning fashion moments, iconic music videos and her penchant for shouting 'The Block!' at any given moment.

For older generations, Lopez has not been someone worth getting angry at. She is who she is. And there's a reason she still manages to get people worked up. 

Throughout it all, Lopez has continued to release chart-topping music, make box-office gold, win countless accolades, build a beauty empire... and all before she turns 55 later this year.

She's Jennifer-f**king-Lopez. 

But the mood has clearly shifted. Off the back of her album, movie and documentary, Lopez announced her first North American tour in five years, but had to cancel seven shows reportedly due to weak ticket sales.

She's also rebranded the tour as a show dedicated to her entire discography rather than her latest album, which has failed to set the charts alight. The tour was initially called 'This Is Me… Now' tour but is now being branded the 'This Is Me… Live | The Greatest Hits' tour.

It's become a particularly bad time to be Jennifer Lopez, given the news cycle is currently alight with reports that her upcoming $135 million Las Vegas residency deal could be cancelled. According to reports from Page Six, Lopez was set to do a series of shows at the MGM Grand but poor concert ticket and album sales may have ended the agreement before it even started.

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At the same time there are ongoing reports that her marriage to Ben Affleck is over, with many (quite sexist) headlines claiming that Affleck has filed for divorce due to her 'high-maintenance' behaviour, although the couple have been photographed together this week. 

This week, Lopez confirmed that she had canceled her 2024 North American tour, with a representative from Live Nation saying: "Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends." 

 In her OntheJLo website and newsletter, Lopez wrote: “I am completely heartsick and devastated about letting you down. Please know that I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary.”

There is an extreme amount of online commentary at the moment reveling in Jennifer Lopez's 'downfall' citing her recent string of releases as the career moment she'll never come back from. Starting from the one moment she began releasing her This Is Me…Now content. 

But while Jennifer Lopez is certainly in the centre of a criticism storm right now, history tells us that it's not going to slow her down.

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