Last Friday, Jennifer Lopez announced the cancelation of her This Is Me… Live Tour, which was supposed to start this summer. Jennifer has been in the dance studio for months, working out the show, so it came as a surprise in a narrow way – Jennifer is a workaholic and it felt like she would just barrel through with the tour, even as her life was falling apart. Now, that being said, I’m sure she was hurt by the poor ticket sales and the general ambivalence towards the album and the tour too. It was going to be a flop tour to support a flop album and the optics would have been awful. Jennifer spent the weekend being seen out and about in LA, going to the farmer’s market with Emme and going to her stepson’s basketball game. According to People Mag, J.Lo’s life is “a lot right now.”
Jennifer Lopez is taking time to recalibrate her life after canceling her upcoming tour. A source close to the singer-actress tells PEOPLE that Lopez is “devastated” to call off her summer concert tour but understands the extra time to dedicate to herself and her loved ones is key.
“Life is a lot right now. As sad as she was to cancel the tour, she’s also relieved. She needs to take care of herself,” says the source.
“The decision was something that her team encouraged,” the source adds. “Everyone is supportive of her focusing on family right now.”
Lopez’s This Is Me… Live tour, in support of her latest album but also rebranded to be a greatest hits concert, was set to kick off June 26 in Orlando, Florida, and travel for shows in Austin, Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami, Toronto, New York City, Boston and more. It would have been her first tour since 2019’s It’s My Party Tour.
The news comes as sources told PEOPLE that Lopez’s marriage with husband Ben Affleck is “not in the best place at the moment.” The two, who famously rekindled their decades-old romance before marrying in 2022, have been living under different roofs while both in Los Angeles.
It feels like no one is capable of giving both Jennifer and Ben the benefit of the doubt here. I think it’s more than possible that Ben gave her an ultimatum: it’s our marriage or this dumb tour. As in, you need to stick around this summer and we need to spend time as a family, or else it’s over. Now, was Ben also following the fact that the concert tickets weren’t selling and the whole thing was going to be a disaster? For sure. Anyway, I genuinely hope that Jennifer spends the summer… chilling out with her kids and stepkids and working on her marriage.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Hollywood, CA – The premiere of “This Is Me…Now: A Love Story” at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California. Pictured: Jennifer Lopez BACKGRID USA 13 FEBRUARY 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Los Angeles, CA – Jennifer Lopez, with manager Benny Medina, exits the dance studio in Los Angeles, showcasing her abs while discreetly hiding her finger. Pictured: Jennifer Lopez BACKGRID USA 24 MAY 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: @CelebrityLivin_ / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- los angeles, CA – After recently cancelling her Summer Tour to spend more time with family, superstar singer Jennifer Lopez is spotted at the Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles with her daughter Emme. Pictured: Jennifer Lopez, Emme Muniz BACKGRID USA 2 JUNE 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- los angeles, CA – After recently cancelling her Summer Tour to spend more time with family, superstar singer Jennifer Lopez is spotted at the Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles with her daughter Emme. Pictured: Jennifer Lopez, Emme Muniz BACKGRID USA 2 JUNE 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Los Angeles, CA – Couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez seem to be in good spirits as they exit Samuel Affleck’s basketball game in Los Angeles. Ben’s ex Jennifer Garner was also seen leaving the game. Pictured: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez BACKGRID USA 2 JUNE 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: The Hollywood JR / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Santa Monica, CA – Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck leave their son’s basketball game to enjoy lunch together at Jack N The Box! Pictured: Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck BACKGRID USA 2 JUNE 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Jlo strikes me as very stubborn and frankly quite delusional. It’s not a small deal to be a star for 30 years but she over sells herself. She has achieved a lot for good dancer,awful singer and mediocre actress. And she made it by all means necessary, but I think in her head she really feels she is up there with the Mariahs,Beyonce or even Barbara Straisand and Cher.
You’re right that she seems very stubborn and does oversell herself, but Jennifer Lopez is anything but mediocre. She is absolutely a workaholic. Most of us have no idea how to even define that word. She has reached a pinnacle of success with enough talent and capability to continue being an icon in her 50s, dancing acting and singing – and she has most definitely worked on her singing. She has been so successful that blowing tens of millions of dollars on a bad film likely won’t really affect her bottom line. If her personal life is in some kind of disarray, as the media wants us all to believe, then it is best for her to shrug off some pressure and take stock. What an absolute privilege of position to be able to do that. Let’s be honest if it was us supposedly in struggling marriages with family life balance issues, we couldn’t just press pause. Leave the woman alone. She’s allowed to go outside and she’s allowed to live and breathe.
WORD.
All pop stars have had flops.
It’s alright. The only thing now is that the internet is all up in it.
absolutey agree
Cher is the original come back kid – J Lo may still surprise us with 2nd act hits after this flop –
agreed! I have always thought that
Excellent analysis. It’s as if she inherently understands she is a genuine imposter and works hella hard to hide her lack of authentic talent.
Her formula worked for years, but this facade is now laid bare because people and life have evolved.
I appreciate that younger generations demand real talent, not celebs dressing up, calling the paps, slapping on Hollywood filters and parading around the streets and social spaces.
We see so much of her because this has always been her game-
A stylist/makeup and hair employee/publicist/paps 💃🏽📸
We could all look fabulous with long golden highlight extensions and a makeup painter.
I workout every day just like she does but I can’t afford a glam squad 💋
I think she had been seeing Beyoncé’s film projects and Taylor’s mega-successful tour and desperately wanted a piece of all that. But with those movies, oof, did she ever misread the room. Big reality check right now. I hope she’s ok.
Lopez can act. And if she’d concentrated on turning out a solid body of work there, she’d be in a lot better professional place. But she has let image and image management swamp what talent she has, and that never leads anywhere good. (As well, one gets the feeling that the directors who would be good collaborators for her refuse to deal with her drama.)
I was looking forward to her concert tour and would have gone for the first time to see her. From what I’ve seen, she’s a dynamite performer.
She spent 20 million dollars of her own money to make a movie about herself. I do not believe for a second that it was her idea to cancel the tour.
I agree @Kirsten. My first thought when reading this headline was, This is what happens to you when no on in your life feels comfortable telling you things you don’t want to hear.
All of this. Reality is tough
Sorry but I don’t believe Jennifer canceled the tour for family. I’m sure if it sold out she would be on the road right now. She was still in rehearsals just a few days ago. Likely her team maybe even promoters pulled the plug because everyone would be bleeding money. As far as the marriage, I don’t know. Everything could be fine or easily be a disaster.
Why can’t it be both reasons though? Her album and ticket sales have been disappointing AND her marriage is apparently falling apart. Two great reasons to kill the tour entirely.
I’ve said this before but there was a tabloid report several weeks ago that Live Nation sat down with her and her team about dropping out but she said no way. Goes to show sometimes the tabloids are right they just print what more established People Magazine won’t. I think she’s probably very stubborn and prideful but the writing was on the wall and THEY pulled the plug not jlo. Doing the shows would be her therapy and release because that’s what she loves to do.
I agree, Louise. No doubt she’s having personal issues, but business-wise, companies put on tours to make money. If you can see it’s not going to turn a profit, you have to cancel before too much money is spent in pre-production. I’m sure it helps her that this will free her up to spend time with family, but the decision probably centered on financial spreadsheets.
I think we focus a lot on the “focusing on her marriage” part, but her kids aren’t exactly in that lump of clay stage where you just take them wherever and tell them nothing and all is fine. The marriage stuff is probably affecting them, too and her daughter at least seems pretty close to his girls. There are 5 children of divorce involved in the Bennifer marriage, and JLo had intertwined them all up with ARod’s kids too, only for that to go south, sideways and belly up. She probably has more than a marriage to shore up, honestly.
And the cycle continues. Media build people up then tear them down and the audience laps it up. Some might like this form of entertainment but it’s cruel and not going to change. Not a fan of either of these two but not going to kick people when they’re down.
Totally agree. It is really a “chum in the water” scenario isn’t it. One headline becomes 100, then becomes 1,000 jokes.
For a workaholic who enjoys the work, the tour would’ve been therapy for JLo. And a successful tour might have taken some of the heat off the marriage, allowing her to bask in the adoration she craves. But now that we’re getting blended family coverage it seems that her focus is still on delivering content.
This is giving distance to the Diddy association too.
Frankly, this comment should be at the top.
J Lo’s issue is that she hasn’t done what other divas in her age range have done, like Madonna Kylie Minogue or Cher, which is to continually reinvent herself both musically and in terms of her image. Her image and music is still very late 90s: the spicy hot chick shaking her ass to pop. If she came out with a new musical direction, people would be interested.
She’s J Lo, she could easily hire the very best songwriters and producers. If she came out with an absolute banger, people would want to buy it and see her in concert and no one would care about anything else. She’s trying to promote her music career on the basis of her love life, not her music.
I also think she’s missing a trick in not pivoting to a gay audience. Madonna, Cher, Kylie, all had success in later age by leaning in hard to their status as gay icons. Because realistically gay men are the main target audience in female singers over 60. I assume J Lo is pro-LGBTQ rights but her image is so aggressively heteronormative and it feels like she’s marketing herself to straight men, but straight men don’t go to those kinds of concerts. If JLo released a disco album and performed at a few Prides, then did a smaller concert (rather than stadium) tour then she could get her music career back on track.
100% Latina here and I have followed and love Jlo but yes her sound is tired and dated and so was the film and the god awful tour would have been months of mockery until she got handed divorce papers on stage. It made me a little sad that the documentary made it sound like Ben gave Jlo a huge confidence boost. I think that is the inner wounding we are seeing that she wanted to get past to really enjoy her marriage. I think she carried that around for 20 years feeling “how did I get it so wrong?” and off he went to marry someone else right away. She will come back from this and I hope with Ben. She needs therapy and I don’t mean it as a diss but to work out why she is trying to re-write (her and Ben) and write-out (Gardner and Marc) as if they never mattered to make her new marriage the REAL marriage. That is the part even my mom hated and made her remember how Jlo torpedoed Marc’s marriage to get married asap because been did. My mom “oh yea I forgot how embarrassing she is Marc should have never married her” (my mom be brutal like that) . It just brought up old history of why it took her a long time to stop being a joke in the industry just to mess it up again. She should have a great summer and put this behind her.
@yupyup, great analysis of J-Lo, but you got one thing wrong. J-Lo married first (not Ben) in response to her humiliation regarding the marriage being called off and ultimately the relationship ending a few months later. But like you said, she grabbed the next available guy, a married guy, and married Marc for selfish reasons as soon as his divorce was final.
After he and J-Lo split, at some point in 2004 Ben dated a Bostonian girl, Enza Sambataro, for several months. Then he moved on to Jen Garner.
@SamuelWhiskers — totally agree with this analysis of JLo being stuck in a 90s heteronormative sound and approach. Pivoting toward gay icon status would be amazing and such a good next step. Would love a disco album performed at Prides and smaller venues!!! But as you and others say, she seems caught up in her own hype/nostalgia/insecurities/focus on straight male gaze to expand in those directions ATM. Very much a wasted opportunity. Hope this summer off gives her some needed time for self-reflection and perspective.
I like that for her she’s also been in jeans and dressed down for her. Her kids often scream I’m trying to be as individual and authentic as possible in my giant jorts and t shirt. It must be hard on these kids to have such public parental figures especially when j lo is so over done and sexy sometimes when she is w them in public.
I think they both throw themselves into work instead of dealing with their marriage issues. And they have so much $ that they can just escape & rent or buy another mansion, while others have to live & work on their marriages in the same home. I think she was disappointed her tour was canceled. She worked hard to prepare for it & it had to be a huge let- down! She has alot to rebuild now with her career & now her marriage. I think she will continue acting but it will be awhile (or maybe never) before she tours again….
Regardless of why she cancelled it, I hope she’s actively working to find jobs for the crew and performers who just lost what could be their entire year’s worth of income with two weeks’ notice at the moment all the other summer tours are already staffed up and hitting the road.
That’s all I could focus on. The musicians, backup singers, dancers, stage crew, set design drivers, and choreographers left high and dry, and it’s June. It’s too late to pick up another tour. They are the true victims in all of this.
That’s why I know there is no way she canceled because of her kids and Ben. This is a business. If it was going to make money, she is a professional and would have toured, never canceled just weeks before. I wonder if they are protected in their contracts and will get any compensation for at least part of their lost wages.
Her tour was opening in my area in just a few weeks. It definitely wasn’t sold out, but we have a large Latino population here in the tri-county area. I thought it would probably keep filling up in the last few weeks as ticket prices dropped to fill the seats.
I thought J-Lo and A-Rod were a better pairing – both like attention, both entrepreneurial workaholics, their families blended well, and they also seemed to have a lot of fun together. Of course, he’s a cheater and Jennifer never got over Ben….
I honestly thought ARod was better for her because to him, she was the star and acted like a “groupie.” That said, he was cheating.
I agree with above analysis, JLO’s singing is not here, but her dancing, her theatrics etc. could have been great if she had done it in Vegas or something. Her wanting a tour and thinking she’s Taylor Swift and can do that and make a movie about it? I think that was what got her thinking she could do this cause she sees herself in terms of Taylor Swift and others who have done that. I do think she needs to change her “pop” music and maybe try a different genre or different anything.