J. Lo and Marc Anthony: Her Love of Success

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony splitting up over their busy schedules couldn’t be more predictable. Usually a couple tries to make compromises before resorting to divorce to solve their marital problems, but J. Lo is on a different wavelength when it comes to dealing with her relationships.

J. Lo was notorious for her quickly disintegrating, high profile relationships until Marc Anthony came along. After surpassing the two and a half year benchmark with Anthony (J. Lo’s longest prior relationship), we were able to stop holding our breath for their break-up. Then, when she gave birth to twins we hoped they would be in for the long haul. Wrong.

Despite her multi-faceted career as an actress, entrepreneur and philanthropist, J. Lo is first and foremost a singer and will not give that up. While married to Anthony, J. Lo released four records: Rebirth (2005), Como ama una Mujer (2007), Brave (2007)and Love? (2011). From 2005-2007, her albums had as many hit singles combined as her first album, On the 6. For J. Lo, those were pretty bad stats, which might have been enough to make her wonder, “Is it me? Am I my own demise?” She gave us a clue about what was on her mind when she titled her last album as a question rather than a statement. Love? Who needs love?

J. Lo has always had a flirty aura surrounding her music. She is a fierce and attractive Puerto Rican chick from the Bronx who mysteriously gets better with age. Seriously, how is it possible that a forty-one year old woman could still look as good as she did when she was twenty?

J. Lo wins the award for best-surviving artist of the 90s. You can say that she has undergone a ton of plastic surgery to maintain her figure and complexion, but I’ll say “Give me her surgeon’s number,” because I’ve never seen such natural looking cosmetic improvements. Regardless, plastic surgery won’t keep a girl shaking her booty like it’s 1999. She must have a beastly work out routine, because she’s not frail either. Have you seen those abs? So she’s not breaking out into a dance routine like she did in her video for “Love Don’t Cost A Thing,” but she can still move. That’s better than Britney Spears can do, and Britney’s only thirty!

Aside from being a mom with a hot body, J. Lo’s music sends contradictory messages about love and relationships. She’s always fluctuating between being a party girl and settling down, but that doesn’t mean being vulnerable. Have you ever heard her belt out a love ballad? No.

When J. Lo sings a song about love, it’s playful and catchy. She toys with the corny, happily-ever-after clichés and turns them into Bar and Bat Mitzvah classics. J. Lo just wants to have fun, and she wants you to have fun while listening to her music. “I’m Real,” her famous duet with Ja Rule, is the closest thing she’s gotten to a romantic song to be played over a candle-lit dinner.

Before J. Lo was a singer, she was a dancer, so it makes sense that she wants to dance and party and wear lots of sequins. If you can’t keep up with that lifestyle while being a hard worker, she’ll drop you.

A singer who is happily married eventually asserts that in her music, hence Beyoncé and her new album, 4. Beyoncé’s and J. Lo’s music is incomparable, but J. Lo could learn a thing or two about being an independent woman and having a stable relationship with a man. A girl who is happily married with two kids isn’t making a track like “On The Floor” in which she promotes grabbing someone and drinking a little more. Even though she isn’t overtly singing about herself doing it, her video doesn’t suggest that she’s standing by idly while everyone else does. She is dancing on a table by herself in the middle of a crowd at a hopping club, and she seems pretty happy being the center of attention.

Though we can largely blame J. Lo’s unsuccessful relationships on her refusal to back down from her persona as a vivacious Puerto Rican goddess, there is something more. The only song that really gives her listeners some insight into her mind is “Jenny From The Block.” She basically says, “I worked hard to become a foxy lady with a lot of bling bling and platinum records, but I worked my butt off to get here. I want you people to know that I still remember what it’s like to be from the hood, so that makes me down to earth.” She’s always asserting how real she is. Her love doesn’t cost a thing. She’s still Jenny from the block, but she’s unstoppable. She loves to work and no man’s love will ever supersede her love for success.