Jennifer Lopez is reflecting on her growth. The multi-hyphenate superstar unveiled her ninth studio album, This Is Me… Now, on Friday (Feb. 16).
This Is Me…Now is the sister album to 2002’s This Is Me…Then, which was dedicated to her partner at the time, Ben Affleck. Lopez and Affleck have since rekindled their romance, and the couple married in 2022. It’s also Lopez’s first full-length solo release in nearly a decade. Her last album, 2014’s A.K.A., reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200.
“This Is Me…Then was something that I wrote at that point in time that wound up capturing a moment where I fell deeply in love for the first time in that way, and I didn’t know that I would look back and I think. ‘What a kind of poetic thing to say,’” Lopez told Billboard in a recent interview.
She continued, “Then to have this kind of crazy, strange, magical, surrealistic plot twist where I wound up back with that person, it was insane and it was also very inspiring. So I went back in the studio, and in the way that This Is Me… Then captured that first moment in time, I wanted to capture this moment in time. It’s even more beautiful and inspiring than the first time. I have something to say about love now that I’ve been looking for which is — I’m sure people wonder because I did — does true love exist? Is that type of love real? Does anything last forever? When I felt like I had the answers to that, I wanted to share that with all the people who’ve been on this journey with me, who watched me get up and fall down, in and out of relationships. It may not be a straight road, but the love is there.”
Listen to This Is Me… Now in full below.
