Jennifer Lopez Was Not Too Keen On Sharing The Super Bowl Stage With Shakira
Did you think Jennifer Lopez wasn't going to give us any good tea in her new Netflix documentary, "Halftime?" Well, turns out Lopez is not shying away from the truth, no matter how salty. As J-Lo says herself, "I'm Real." The documentary is loosely centered around preparations for Lopez's Super Bowl LIV halftime show, which she performed along with Shakira.
The two powerhouses put on a stunning performance and, watching from home or from the stands, you'd never have guessed that there was any tension or that the two women were anything but the best of friends filled with mutual respect and love. But mutual respect and love notwithstanding, Lopez reveals in "Halftime" that she was not exactly thrilled that she would be performing with Shakira for the halftime show. In fact, she was downright angry and maybe even a little insulted. Here's how it all went down according to the doc.
Jennifer Lopez called sharing the stage 'the worst idea in the world'
At one point in the "Halftime" documentary (via the New York Post), a fed-up Jennifer Lopez says, "This was the worst idea in the world," referring to the fact that she was being forced to share the stage with Shakira. The documentary shows Lopez attempting to get through it and make nice, saying to Shakira over Zoom, "We can bring everybody together in this moment" — but it didn't make rehearsals or the situation any less tense. Lopez's manager Benny Medina got even more direct, saying, "It was an insult to think that you needed two Latinas to do the job that one artist historically has done."
If Shakira agrees with that sentiment in private, she hasn't said so in public. In a 2021 Cosmopolitan interview, she said, "It wasn't an easy show to put together. There was a lot of work behind it [and] a lot of stress." However, the singer noted that "it was one of the highlights of my career" and that she "really thought it was a great opportunity to make a strong statement about what an important part of the American fabric the Latino community is."