Jennifer Lopez career is presently flying on a downward slope … no one actually saw it coming for the ‘Queen of Dance’ who is considered one of the most influential Latin entertainer of all time with six albums going Platinum.

He recent tour, her first in five years, has been met with low ticket sales, while her new album is lacking her typical fanfare, debuting at number 38 on the Billboard 200.

This is so unlike her early noughties peak, when the singer sold more than 80 million records and had global headline tours.

As recent as four years ago, the mother-of-two’s was applauded for one of the greatest Superbowl halftime shows in history, where she performed a medley of her greatest hits with Shakira as millions of people watched around the world.

How she suffers ‘plateau’ of late is baffling. What was she doing then that she’s not doing now? Will there ever be a comeback for her??!

J-LO campaign for her latest album, This is Me… Now, is self-financed – at a striking cost of $20million.

The album, which is heavily-inspired by her rekindled romance with husband Ben Affleck, has been accompanied by a a visual film, This is Me Now… A Love Story (dubbed ‘bonkers’ and a ‘over-the-top delight for fans’ by critics).

An Amazon Prime documentary titled The Greatest Love Story Never Told, about her romance with the Batman star, also accompanied the release.

The moniker is an interesting choice, given the couple called off their first wedding due to ‘excessive media attention’.

It All Started With ‘Backlashes’

Her appearance in the documentary, has seen her dubbed ‘out of touch’ and ‘delusional’ by some fans. In one – widely reshared –   moment J Lo plays with her hair in the mirror while reminiscing about her upbringing in the Bronx, a famously working-class neighbourhood of New York.

‘I like taking my hair out like this,’ she says. 

‘It reminds me, like, when I was 16 in the Bronx, running up and down the block. Crazy little girl who used to f***ing be wild and no limits, all dreams.’

The clip gained backlash on TikTok, with one user – who goes by Angela and claims to have gone to the same school as the hitmaker – saying she was ‘lying to look more human’. 

‘We both attended an all-girls high school in an Irish and Italian neighbourhood, so you weren’t “running up and down the block”,’ she said.

Critics Slam Her Documentary

Critics too have met the documentary – and album – with a lukewarm response.

‘For all her promises to show us the real her, it’s a struggle to see it in the slick and sexy production,’ per The Independent.

The Guardian added it ‘offers very little outside of simply soundtracking a cosy night in chez Bennifer’ adding it was ‘hopelessly middle of the road’.

What Expert Thinks

A brand expert Emily M Austen, who runs the PR agency EMERGE has this to say about her career taking a ‘reverse’: ‘The backlash against J Lo has for sure been bubbling for a while. 

‘In the last decade, despite her love life being well broadcasted, there was still an air of mystery around her, as a mega superstar,’ the expert said. 

‘The control of what was fed out to fans via social media and press coverage meant it was much easier to control her image. 

‘The first big moment for the backlash came as the Superbowl documentary, Halftime, aired in 2022. 

‘J-lo Has Been Mundane’

‘Her behaviour seemed uncompromising and whingy, having to share a stage with Shakira. 

‘Her grievance about it wasn’t expressed eloquently and made her seem unlikable.

‘In the shadow of beloved and long suffering Jennifer Garner,  [Ben Affleck’s ex-wife] much of the imagery we have seen from J Lo has been mundane – car rides with Ben, curb side arguments, fast food takeaways. 

‘Often looking miserable. This has shattered the fourth wall, one which we’d all bought into. We didn’t want her to be a normal person.

‘The big challenge with a star like J Lo is staying power. As her fans have grown older with her, she’s not done a good enough job of engaging with new fans and bringing them on the journey with her,’ she concluded.

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‘She Doesn’t Have a Devoted Fan Base’

Another Brand expert Hayley Knight reasoned: ‘Unlike the likes of Taylor Swift, Madonna, Britney Spears and Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez doesn’t have a devoted fan base.

‘She has more casual fans of her music, who may or may not choose to go and see her live, or listen to her new album, so there really isn’t a buzz about it.

‘Also, it isn’t a world tour – just North America, and this can be incredibly detrimental on ticket sales when the fan base isn’t necessarily large,’ he added.

‘For example, she’s isolating her Spanish and Latin American fans.

Jennifer also doesn’t really sit in the generation of ‘stans’ (devoted fans), and appeals more to the older generation, who aren’t consuming content on social media (TikTok), so her marketing channels are limited – and outdated.