After less than one full season on the “American Idol” panel, Jennifer Lopez already seems like a regular fixture of the televised talent competition. Still, during a Monday morning visit to TODAY, the singer, dancer, actress and now judge admitted she was reluctant to join the hit show at first.
“I did (have second thoughts). I did,” the Lopez said of her “Idol” decision. “When they first approached me I thought, ‘This is not what I want.’ This is something that wasn’t kind of in my career plan. You know?”
So why did Lopez finally agree make the move to “Idol”?
“Cause at the end of the day, I’m really the type of person who follows her gut, and I love the show,” she explained. “I really was a huge fan of it. I’d been judging from my bedroom for years. Then I thought about it and talked to (husband) Marc (Anthony) about it, and we decided it might be a good thing for us, for the babies to be in one place for once.”
While the world’s most beautiful woman had no trouble securing an “Idol” spot as an already successful entertainer, when she considers the audition process for the show’s singers, she isn’t so sure she would have been a lock as a contestant.
“I really don’t know,” Lopez confessed. “I mean, sometimes there are some people who audition that I think, ‘God, that’s me when I first started out.’ … but I don’t know. When you’re auditioning, you have good days and bad days. I think if I would have had a good day, I would have made it through, and if I would have had a bad day, they would have just sent me home.”
When not sharing her “Idol” thoughts, Lopez offered TODAY viewers a premiere peek at her new video for the single “I’m Into You” from her latest release, “Love?”. She also explained the curious question mark in the album’s title.
“It’s funny, being in such a good place in my life right now, with the babies, with my relationship with Marc, I’m able to look at (love) in a different way and really examine it,” Lopez told TODAY host Meredith Vieira. “For me, the question mark is about always questioning yourself when it comes to that. … Am I doing my best? Am I being the best person? Am I loving in the right way? Am I being loved in the right way? All of those things that you think about over the years. I always say I’ve been working on this album for two years, but seriously I’ve working on it since the first time I fell in love when I was like 13.”
J.Lo’s “Love?” comes out Tuesday, May 3.
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