‘This Is Me Now’ is a ’20 Year Journey’

Jennifer Lopez marked the release of her ninth studio album This Is Me… Now with a visit to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday.

When discussing the inspiration behind her new record, Lopez said the process of being back in the studio and working on the project made her look back at the past two decades, including that “personal, private journey that nobody knew about.”

When acknowledging “the growth and all the falling down and getting up” throughout the years (and the public’s perception at the time), Lopez said that This Is Me… Now was her “reconciling all that.” She added, “This is a 20 year journey. This project is a 20 year project of my whole entire music career, and how I got from then to now.”

On Friday, the album rolled out alongside its accompanying film, This Is Me…Now: A Love Story. Directed by Dave Meyers, the film was billed as a “genre-bending Amazon original showcases her journey to love through her own eyes.” The movie features a star-studded cast, including Fat Joe, Trevor Noah, Kim Petras, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Sofia Vergara, Jenifer Lewis, Jay Shetty, and Ben Affleck.

When Fallon showed the audience an image of her husband’s cameo in the film, Lopez laughed, “He loved playing that character.” Fallon also gave the couple kudos for their coffee-dunking, boy band Super Bowl commercial that aired last Sunday.

The release of Lopez’s album and cinematic original will be followed by the documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told, on Feb. 27. The upcoming doc, which is directed by Jason Bergh, will showcase behind-the-scenes footage of how both projects came to be including interviews, “candid” home moments, and “a vulnerable portrait of an icon who put it all on the line and discovered a newfound determination in self-acceptance and love.”