-Our first guest is one of the biggest music icons
in the world.
Her new album, "This Is Me...Now,"
is officially out,
and her Amazon original, "This Is Me...Now: A Love Story,"
is streaming on Prime Video.
Please welcome Jennifer Lopez. Come on, now. This is...
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪
This is a big day.
-It's launch day. -This is a big launch day.
Your album and your Amazon Original
both dropped today.
How does it feel? Are you exhausted?
-I'm exhausted, but I'm also very excited.
I've been working on this for two years,
so it's a big deal for me and the whole team.
So we're all, like, over the moon.
-I want to know how you pulled the Amazon thing off,
but first, let's talk about the album.
This is "This Is Me...Now."
You came out with "This Is Me...Then."
Did you plan on having "This Is Me...Now"?,
like, when you put out "This Is Me...Then"?
-No. -You didn't?
Because it's perfect. -I know.
And, you know, sometimes, you know,
you have these moments in life where you feel like,
"Oh, this was meant to be somehow."
And I didn't know that when it was happening then,
when I decided to call it "This Is Me...Then"
and capture kind of -- And didn't even realize, like,
it was capturing a moment in time,
you know, where I kind of, like, fell in love
for the first time in that way and, like,
wrote this whole album, and it was very that thing.
And I was like, "Oh, I'll call it 'This Is Me...Then.'"
And then, you know, as fate would have it,
you know, 20 years later, here we are,
and I'm like -- I felt inspired in the same way
that I did when I did that first record.
And I was like, "I'm going to make 'This Is Me...Now.'"
And I went in. I hadn't made an album like that in 10 years.
This is my first album like that in 10 years.
-You said that this --
You think this is your best album you've ever made.
-It's my most honest, for sure, you know?
And I believe it's the best thing
that I've ever done, musically.
-It's fantastic. -I love it. Thank you.
Thank you. -It's fantastic. I love it.
I also read somewhere that you said
this might be the last album you'll make.
-You know, this project took so much out of me.
-You're like, "I don't know if I can do it again."
-You're just so obsessed with something
and you can't stop and you're just, like --
every detail and every thing.
And it turned into, you know,
the Amazon Original musical that I made.
And then it turned into this documentary.
And it was, like, all of these things together.
And every single lyric,
you know, I was part of on this record
and I wrote, and it was just -- it's just draining.
And you think to yourself, "This is it.
This is my last hurrah."
-No, no, no. -"I'm done."
-You've been making music for 25 years.
-I know.
-You've paved the way for so many.
-Thank you.
-Do you ever, like, have a time to reflect,
as I was watching this, to even just go back
and go like, "Look at what I've accomplished.
Look at what I've done.
Look at what I've made
and all the hits and the, you know, movies and --"
-You know, I don't think about that,
but what I did do when I was in the studio
and I started making this record,
it did make me look at the past 20 years
and that journey that I'd been on
and more of my own kind of personal,
private journey that really nobody knew about,
you know, which is my private life,
and the growth and all the falling down and getting up.
And I think you guys were a little bit kind of witnessing it
and wondering and stuff like that and going,
"What the...is she doing right now?"
And this was me kind of reconciling with all that.
And I realized that my music was always very much born
from that personal side of myself.
Like, I got to act and do movies and play characters,
but my music was always very, very personal.
And this is kind of like -- This is not an album like --
This is like a 20-year journey.
This project is a 20-year project
of my whole entire music career
and where -- how I got to from then to now.
-It's fun. It's beautiful.
But you just announced the "This Is Me...Now," the tour,
kicks off this summer.
-Yes, we did. Yes. -This summer.
-This summer. -You're going right back in.
-We're going in! My last hurrah!
-I mean, really -- I mean, where --
You don't even have any time off.
I mean, you're going right back in.
I've seen you firsthand on tour.
If you ever want to go see a show,
nobody -- nobody -- You're dancing,
the singing, the choreography, the surprises that --
You just go, "This is the most entertaining show
I've ever seen in my life." I was exhausted.
-That's my goal when people come to my show.
It's like I always want people to leave and be like,
"That's the best show I ever saw."
-Yeah, ever. -You know what I mean?
Like, that's what I want when -- And this one is very --
Of all the albums I've ever made,
I feel like this one is really ready for the stage
because of the Amazon Original that I did with it.
It's ready. Like, all the choreography,
It was all ready to go.
-Do you think about that when you play the album back
and you're mixing?
You're like, "I can see myself onstage performing it"?
-Because I think I started as a dancer,
everything I do is about movement, you know?
Everything is about kind of like,
"How will I perform to this?"
And even as I'm creating music, I tell the producers --
I was like, "I got to be able to, you know,
perform this onstage.
Like, we got to pick it up. Like, come on," you know,
and things like that.
And even though I have kind of, like,
an R&B, mid-tempo feel to my music, in a way,
I always try to get that little funk in there.
I always try to get a little bit of that stankiness in there,
because I got to be onstage and doing my thing.
-Tickets go on sale February 23rd
for the "This Is Me...Now," the tour.
Let's talk about this Amazon Original,
"This Is Me...Now: A Love Story."
How did you find the time to do all this?
It is a -- It's a masterpiece. You're doing everything.
There's -- I mean, I don't want to spoil it for --
but it's like -- it's a story.
It's music videos. It's choreography.
It's crazy shots. Beautifully shot.
-Yeah, I did -- Dave Meyers directed it with me,
and he really brought the vision
that I had to life in a way that, you know, elevated it.
-You describe it as a musical experience.
-It is a musical experience, because it's really
about a hopeless romantic who --
-Eh, sound like anybody? -Yeah.
A hopeless romantic's journey through life
in their search for love.
And, you know, it's -- That's how I would describe it.
And then, you know, you kind of go on this surrealistic,
magical, very artistic, and creative way
of how I decided to tell that story.
-With lots of great cameos, by the way.
-Oh, yeah. -Post Malone is in it a lot.
-Yes. -Jane Fonda.
-Yes. -Keke Palmer.
-Yes. Neil deGrasse. -Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is funny.
Kim Petras. -It's just -- When you see it --
-Jay Shetty, Trevor Noah. -Trevor Noah is great.
-Yeah. Yeah.
-And then, also, there's this guy, too,
makes a cameo, too.
I forget his name, but he...
You got Ben Affleck in there.
Did Ben like playing this character?
-He loved playing that character.
-He's funny. -He is so funny.
-By the way, the Dunkin' commercial.
Can we just talk for two seconds?
[ Cheers and applause ] It was amazing!
It was so great!
It was the best. I mean, it was so funny.
You were phenomenal. -Thank you.
No, I didn't do anything. It was all him.
-No, no. He was funny. -Yes.
-But you reacted like, "Honey, please stop doing this."
It's so good. Everyone loved it. Everyone related.
-It's very funny.
-But this is -- I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Jennifer Lopez in
"This Is Me...Now: A Love Story,"
Take a look.
-I know what they say about me, about hopeless romantics,
that we're weak.
But I'm not weak.
It takes strength to keep believing in something
after you keep falling flat on your face.
And I do. I do, Joe. I believe in magic.
I believe good things happen if you're a good person.
I believe in soul mates and signs and hummingbirds.
I believe that love never dies and that forever is real
and that as long as I keep.
[ Beeping ] -Time's up.
Let's pick this back up next week.
-I mean, come on. Who else -- Who else can do what you do?
No one.
You brought us a bottle of Delola, your --
-This is launch day.
-I mean, it is launch day. We have to celebrate, okay?
On the album, on the Amazon Original.
Let's do a little toast to "This Is Me...Now."
-This is us now, baby. -This is us now.
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪
Whoo! It's perfect. -It's really good.
-It's so refreshing. -It's really good.
-I love this. But wait.
This is not the only thing you brought.
I just happened to notice this over here.
This is -- Your album has six different album covers.
-Yes. -Look at this.
This is -- Only you can do this. How do you pull all this off?
-No, I'm not the only one. -No, you are.
Look at this. There's this gorge right there.
-What I did was, I did... -There's this.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-You know the thing nowadays is that everybody --
-No, everyone's loving -- Come on.
I can't get enough. We can't get enough.
We love all of these.
-So, the thing is, like,
everybody wants exclusives nowadays.
They're like, "The Amazon exclusive,
the Spotify exclusive, the this exclusive."
So you wind up making, like -- You do this --
-Special thing. -Yeah.
You make special things for everybody.
But I was really happy. I loved doing this.
I shot this with Norman Jean Roy,
who's a legendary photographer who I love.
-I noticed that you autographed these, as well.
-I did.
-I think it'd be kind of fun if we could give it out
to some audience members.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Do you want to?
♪♪
-Who wants one? Anyone want...
-Oh, my God! I don't know! I can't -- I don't know!
-Who else?
-Jennifer Lopez, everybody.
Her album, "This Is Me...Now," and her Amazon Original,
"This Is Me...Now: A Love Story,"
are both out right now.
Tonight. Big day.
We'll be right back with more "Tonight Show."
How fun was that?