On The 6

I remember clearly how I first encountered the name Jennifer Lopez. I was at home watching TV with my parents when a news special about the autobiography film of the late Latina icon ‘Selena’ will finally be shown in the theaters. The actress playing the lead role is a mere newbie in the movie business. Although I wasn’t that familiar with Selena’s music and her impact to the Latino community, the actress named Jennifer Lopez has the looks, charisma and talent that the late Selena has. A couple more movies after, the actress who once played the role of a singer is now a singer making her own name in the music industry. She will no longer be known as ‘the girl who played Selena’. Nah, she’s Jennifer Lopez!

Jennifer Lopez is featured prominently in Janet Jackson’s video for her megahit “That’s the Way Love Goes” way back in 1994. She even has a line in the video where she and the other back-up dancers are talking to Janet. At that time, I didn’t know she was in that video. It was only pointed out to me when she really hit big time as a singer. It just goes to show that in showbiz, you really have to start somewhere, you really have to pay your dues – and J. Lo definitely did. I first saw her in the fun “kill that snake” movie Anaconda in 1997 which had a host of A-list and eventual A-list actors – Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Ice Cube, and Owen Wilson, fighting the monster snake in the jungles of the Amazon. Her acting was praised in the movie Selena where she portrayed the fallen singer Selena Perez. That movie gave her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. In 1999, she embarked on a new journey in her career and released her debut album aptly titled On the 6, which she said refers to the train she took when she had dance auditions in New York. What a way to pay homage from your past! Anyway, she was already a famous actress by that time, and her pleasing debut album contained all the right type of songs that would endear her not only to her film fans but now fans who are into her music!