January 29, 2007

Jennifer Lopez catapulted her acting career with her starring role in “Selena,” a biopic on the Latin Tejano star who sang in Spanish and was on the verge of an English-language crossover prior to her death. Ten years after “Selena,” and following a multiplatinum recording career in English, Lopez is ready to sing en Español once again.

“Como Ama Una Mujer” (”How a Woman Loves”), Lopez’s first Spanish-language album, will be released by Epic and worked in conjunction with Sony BMG Latin for the U.S. Latin marketplace and Latin America. The all-Spanish album, co-written and co-produced by Lopez’s husband Marc Anthony in conjunction with Estefano and Julio Reyes, hits stores April 3 supported by groundbreaking media synergies.

At the heart of it all is a deal in the works with the Univision TV network to produce a five-part miniseries based on a treatment by Lopez, which in turn is based on the content of the album. The series will feature the album’s music. Lopez will not act in the series, but she will perform a track at the end of each episode.

However, “Como Ama Una Mujer” wasn’t conceived as a clever way to utilize media platforms. The notion of recording in Spanish was behind Lopez’s very first demo when she finished filming “Selena” in 1997. The concept materialized three years ago, when Anthony was wrapping up production of his album “Amar Sin Mentiras” with Estefano and Reyes. Lopez went into the studio to record one song with her husband and got hooked. “Emotionally speaking, to me this album is more me than any other album,” she tells Billboard.

Lopez is also working on a more urban-leaning, full-fledged English-language album that she plans to release before year’s end. “I’ve matured as a singer,” she says. “Marc gave me confidence in the studio as well. When someone believes in you so much, you don’t want to let them down. And it’s also the material. I think this material lent itself to my voice. And it actually made me approach my new English album in a different way. I have a different standard now.”