There’s a point in Jennifer Lopez’s new documentary “The Greatest Love Story Never Told” when the Bronx-born diva questions just how much the public might care about her — and her much-hyped comeback album “This Is Me… Now” — in today’s pop landscape.
After all, it has been 10 years since Lopez’s last studio LP, 2014’s “A.K.A.” — and a whole 22 years since 2002’s “This Is Me… Then” gave her two of her biggest hits in “Jenny from the Block” and “All I Have.”
“I didn’t even have to make the record,” says Lopez, 54, in the doc, which premiered on Prime Video Monday night.
“It’s not like anybody was clamoring for the next J.Lo record, you know what I mean?”
Well, damn, she was sure right about that.
Despite a major promotional campaign — including a star-studded short film, “This Is Me… Now: A Love Story,” that accompanied the album release — Lopez’s ninth studio LP made an absolutely abysmal debut on the Billboard 200 at No. 38.
Just to put that into perspective, seven of the singer’s previous studio albums debuted in the Top 10 — with 2001’s “J.Lo” opening all the way up at No. 1. And 2007’s “Brave” just barely missed a Top 10 debut at No. 12.
No. 38 is a long, hard fall from glory for a woman who — after making her 1999 debut with “On the 6” —was once running the block in pop.
Even over two decades into her recording career, the former Fly Girl on “In Living Color” was busting some major moves, co-headlining the Super Bowl halftime show with Shakira in 2020, singing at the presidential inauguration in 2021, and, just a few weeks ago, getting the coveted spot as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” in her mid-50s.
But this is a Bronx bomb.
“This Is Me… Now” is just two measly spots ahead of “Confessions,” the 20-year-old blockbuster from Usher that had a resurgence after the R&B star headlined the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 11.
In a bizarre twist, though, “This Is Me… Now” opens at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart, which doesn’t factor in the streaming numbers that count the most in today’s market. Basically, no one is buying physical product these days — as Lopez’s chart-topping tally includes only 6,000 CDs and 5,000 vinyl records (as well as 3,000 digital downloads).
And even that paltry sum of the times — by contrast, “J.Lo” sold 272,300 copies in its opening week — was boosted by the fact that Lopez had multiple covers for both the CD and vinyl editions of “This Is Me… Now” to entice the hardest of hardcore J.Lovers to buy more than one.
But this is clearly a passion project for Lopez, who poured $20 million of her own money into the making of the album and short film. (We’re guessing that a lot of it went into the latter.)
And you gotta respect how driven and committed she is to her vision in “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” which goes inside the making of both “This Is Me… Now” releases.
The doc reveals that its title — which is also the name of the last track of the album — comes from “The Greatest Love Story Never Told” book that husband Ben Affleck gave to Lopez on the first Christmas after they got back together in 2021, 18 years after their famous flameout in 2003.
“It has every letter and every email that we wrote to each other from 20 years ago and today,” reveals Lopez, who shared the book with her creative squad for her new album. (And they humorously dubbed her hubby “Pen Affleck.”)
But sadly, the fantastic flop of “This Is Me… Now” is giving us “Gigli” all over again.