Jennifer Lopez in Concert

Last night I stayed up until 12:50am watching J-Lo Live In Puerto Rico on Channel 4.

Recently I've heard/read people insulting Jennifer's singing, saying stuff like it's not very strong, and also female singers also seem to sound a bit rough and shouty live (Christina Aguilera) also put me off, so I have to admit, although I love Jennifer a lot and ahe's my favourite artist, I wasn't expecting much from her voice live.

Hell was I wrong. From the moment "Lets Get Loud" kicked in and she came down the stairs singing I was hooked and didn't want it to ever end. I was blown away. She sounded brilliant, and I think the fact that she's also an actress doesn't get her as much recognition for this, as most singers/actresses are stereotyped as not being good at one or the other. It was fantastic. The songs sounded even better with the live band. The choreography was just great - done by her husband Cris, but I would have liked to have seen him on stage with her, when they're on stage together they work really well and feed off each other. I seriously couldn't fault it, it was just excellent. It's coming out on DVD soon, I'm going to buy it! I really hope she does a UK tour and I'll be the first to get tickets if she does!

You know, I really tried to give her a chance... I watched about 20 minutes and I gave up. She cannot sing! Yeah, she's okay at entertaining a crowd (that ALREADY loves her), but she has no vocal talent. Jennifer's biggest strength is her dancing and her ability to draw attention to herself... that's about it. Sorry J-Lo.

A local electronics' store used to play "Only for Tonight" from this DVD repeatedly, to showcase their various entertainment centers and televisions.

So I broke down and went and checked out a copy.

Ehh... I'm not a Jennifer Lopez fan, but some of the tunes were catchy. Even so, I have to agree with anniemay73's assessment of the concert, though I wouldn't completely knock Lopez's effort. She is, after all, on stage.

When I used to go to concerts I went to see the performers perform live. When they were on stage singing it was their actual live voice the audience was hearing, and not some prerecorded track. Song and dance people of days long gone actually had to SING and DANCE, and not substitute one for the other, nor rely on some technical wizardry to help them out. For a woman like Jennifer Lopez, one who touts her authenticity, it's pretty disappointing (though not entirely unexpected) to see her lip-sync her songs to her fans.

That, combined with her being lowered on a swing (which nearly had me bursting out loud with laughter), and a couple of the wigs she put on, made me shake my head. For someone who supposedly can carry a tune as she claims, one would think it unnecessary for all the theatrics, because they're really unecesaary... then again people want to see a show... mostly people who don't seem to care about the music, so much as the spectacle on stage; fireworks, dancing, et al.

The dancing; you know, people of different cultures often whine and complain about how stuffy white-American culture is. But when you see the dances in so-called "ethnic" offerings one has to wonder why they leave their clothes on at all? Part of the whole reason and logic behind so-called "stuffiness" is that people who are either weary, offended, or disappointed with sexually suggestive moves already know the message. To the performer we ask; "what else you got?" and "... is that your best?" Seeing Lopez flirt with a tap dancer was unique, and somewhat thought provoking. Seeing she and her dancers perform mock sex was just tiring. If I had wanted to see that, then I wouldn't have rented her DVD.

Lip-synced tunes, "dirty" dancing, a campy swing set, wigs rejected from Cher's collection... it's a wonder this concert didn't bomb like "Gili." Unless you're a fan of Jennifer Lopez don't waste your time.

Well, this movie vet has now had a sampling of "J-Lo," and I think that's about all I want to experience... that, and she's not all that attractive.

She can't sing live - basically all her singing was on tape - and the whole concert was more about this so-called artist showing off her latest outfits and wigs and watching her get off on herself than J.Lo and her musicians trying to bring something real and genuine to the audience. The whole show is pathetic and embarrassing and I couldn't see one genuine and uncalculated emotion in her performance. Jennifer Lopez makes, well, Destiny's Child seem deep and profound in comparison.

That J-Lo concert moved me so much. In some of the songs, especially the ones with Latin roots, I was dancing out of the chair. "Let's Get Loud" was the best song in that concert.

There are several other things that I liked about the concert:

The concert had a variety of songs---a mixture of Latin songs and some that were not Latin. This shows J-Lo's talent as a real crossover artist like that of Ricky Martin.

The house band in the J-Lo concert reminded me from something taking out of the Escovedo orchestra. For instance, in the song "Carino", the house band started out the song as a rumba, and then later on, the music morphed into a cross between salsa and funk---also known as Latin fusion--often done by the Escovedo orchestra. This variety of music moved me since I am a fan of the Escovedo family of musicians, and I loved it.

I also like the varied use of theatrics in the J-Lo concert, from the Jumbotron visualizations and moving theater lights all the way to rising stage platforms and pyrotechnic effects. Therefore, it was like a magical and a circus-filled atmosphere from start to finish.

I also like J-Lo by itself. Her dance moves were varied and I especially like the sequences when she does side-by-side movements with her house dancers.