Jennifer Lopez conducted an interview with USA Today this week. They covered a wide range of topics, including the usual – American Idol, Love?, and upcoming movies roles. It’s a nice read, so check it out! Here’s an excerpt…
Lopez was initially surprised that people saw her Idol persona as a different side of her.
“I always thought people were getting that over the years, but what they were really getting was the entertainer side of me, the performer side of me,” she says. Now, “they’re actually getting to see the human side of me, because there is no script and there is nothing but me and how I feel and what I think and my emotions, whether that’s laughing at the top of my lungs or shedding a tear over a mom who is singing for her child.”
She disagrees with those who say the panel isn’t critical enough of the singers.
“We do give constructive criticism. People are used to hearing it in a different way, but if they are really listening to the critiques, they’ll hear us correcting them,” she says. “We just don’t feel we need to deliver it in a negative fashion where they’re not going to really hear it.”
Idol has helped with exposure on the music side of Lopez’s career, particularly with the premiere of On the Floor. “Clearly, the American Idol platform gave her immediate visibility that we couldn’t possibly have gotten so quickly,” says Antonio “L.A.” Reid, the album’s executive producer. “But then people love the song and people love seeing her in that element and dancing and having a great time. I think she nailed it creatively.”
The Idol effect is more than raw viewer numbers, too, says Maxim editor in chief Joe Levy. “She is now in front of what may be the only passionate music-buying audience outside of Lady Gaga’s Monsters and Glee fans.”
The album is biographical, at least to a degree, and Lopez says she’s OK if people speculate about which songs and verses may relate to a life they know so well. (“Well, they think they do,” she says with a laugh.)
“This is not a negative album in any way,” she says. “It’s really a great dance-pop-urban album that talks about all of the different facets of love in all its glory and all its pain.”
For that, she credits new label Island Def Jam and producers she worked with, including RedOne, Tricky Stewart and The Dream. “I feel glad to be with people who believe in me and who are just as excited about the rest of my music career as I am,” she says.
You can read the entire interview on USA Today’s website.
