Jennifer Lopez has noted the changes in her life over the years, and she has mentioned that many of the changes started when she joined American Idol.
Lopez has a new documentary called Halftime on Netflix and she said in the feature that after she had her twins, Emme and Max, her first big job was on American Idol.
She then admitted that it changed her life.
Jennifer Lopez on American Idol changing her life
Jennifer Lopez said in the documentary that American Idol helped her redefine the woman she had become.
For years, Lopez was a tabloid fixture, a pop music star, and a successful movie actress. However, she said that when she hit 42 years old, she no longer felt that she was as in demand as she once was before.
“At 42, movie roles were not knocking down my door. As I was getting back to work, I really felt like I didn’t know what my value was anymore,” Lopez admitted in the documentary.
However, American Idol brought her in as a new judge along with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. She left after two seasons, but then returned to work alongside Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. for the last three seasons the show aired on Fox.
The job came at the perfect time for Lopez, who had just had her twins.
“I was doing American Idol,” she said. “That was the first big job I did after I had the babies. And it was good for me at that time. People could see me for who I was and that changed everything.”
Jennifer Lopez reinvented herself after American Idol
Lopez said she was trying to build a family life but then she and Marc Anthony divorced when the twins were three and she was now a single mother.
That is where American Idol helped her.
“I really learned a lot about myself. I had [a] purpose,” she said about her role on the show. “And I just felt I’ve got to work on my acting more, my singing more, my dancing more, my everything. I just need to be better in every way.”
It was American Idol that gave her that launching point for the next stage in her career.
She went on to headline a concert tour in 2012 and had a residency in Las Vegas from 2016 to 2018. She also rebounded in Hollywood, with a starring role in Hustlers, picking up a Golden Globe nomination for the performance.
American Idol is on hiatus. The singing reality competition will return with a new season on ABC in 2023.