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Inspired by her marriage to Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez is bringing her music full circle.
On Saturday, the singer and actress announced her upcoming ninth album, titled This Is Me... Now, a sequel to her 2002 album This Is Me... Then, which Lopez released during her first engagement to Affleck. The two split up shortly after, with Lopez marrying her second husband Marc Anthony in 2004, while Affleck married actress Jennifer Garner the following year.
Dubbed "a musical experience," a trailer for the album shows the color green, Lopez's "lucky" color, along with shots of her dancing in the rain, down the wedding aisle, and in a factory. In another promo video, Lopez replicates the This Is Me... Then album cover before switching to her This Is Me... Now era, and presumably the album's artwork. Lopez's last album was 2014's A.K.A.
The news for This Is Me... Now, due to arrive in 2024, was accompanied by the album's tracklist, including a song titled “Dear Ben Pt. II," a follow-up to the original "Dear Ben." To celebrate the couple's first wedding anniversary, Lopez posted lyrics to "Dear Ben Pt. II" on Instagram, along with pictures of their wedding in Georgia.
“Sitting here alone / Looking at my ring ring / Feeling overwhelmed / It makes me wanna sing sing / How did we end up here / Without a rewind / Oh my / This is my life,” Lopez wrote.
Lopez and Affleck began dating in 2002 while filming romantic comedy Gigli. The couple also starred together in the 2004 film Jersey Girl, although the two split in the same year.
Lopez gushed about the rekindled romance in a 2022 chat with Apple Music 1's Zane Lowe. “That album, This Is Me…Then, really captured a moment in time where I fell in love with the love of my life. It’s all right there on the record. I didn’t even realize what was happening and what I was doing," she said.
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Lopez continued, "It was just every day going from the set to the recording studio, doing the thing, being in love, him coming into the studio, writing ‘I’m Glad’ and going, ‘This reminds me of….’ You know what I mean? Me tweaking the lyrics with him. Every single song that we wrote there, me writing ‘Dear Ben,’ it was such a special moment in time to have captured."
