Jennifer Lopez is officially coming out of music industry retirement to prove once and for all that any pop star currently on indefinite hiatus (cough, cough, Rihanna) can make the leap. All they need is an iconic brand, a resurrected romance from 2002, and a shiny new record deal with BMG. Luckily for J.Lo fans (and future EGOT voters? or VMA voters, at the very least), the “Let’s Get Loud” singer now has all three.
This comes via Billboard, which announced the singer’s new recording and publishing partnership with BMG today. When she wasn’t busy acting in Marry Me, Shotgun Wedding, or The Mother, marrying Ben Affleck at a chapel in Las Vegas, or becoming a meme in real-time during 2022 and 2023, Lopez somehow found the hours to record 13 tracks for her upcoming album: This Is Me... Now. The record was produced by Lopez herself, along with Rogét Chahayed, Angel Lopez, and Jeff “Gitty” Gitelman.
This Is Me...Now—which does not have a specific release date yet, although Billboard notes that it will be available “soon”—will be J.Lo’s first solo, studio outing since 2014's A.K.A. But Jenny From The Block would not make her prodigal return without a very good reason. Unlike so many artists who are simply re-recording their old material right now, J.Lo is actively expanding her lore with a cheeky follow-up to 2002's This Is Me...Then, a title that feels remarkably prescient in retrospect. Like Bennifer (and the song “Dear Ben,” which is getting its own, track-specific sequel on the record), everything old is new again.
Here is the full tracklist for the album, via Billboard:
- “This Is Me…Now”
- “To Be Yours”
- “Mad in Love”
- “Can’t Get Enough”
- “Rebound”
- “not.going.anywhere.”
- “Dear Ben, Pt. II”
- “Hummingbird”
- “Hearts and Flowers”
- “Broken Like Me”
- “This Time Around”
- “Midnight Trip to Vegas”
- “Greatest Love Story Never Told”