Jennifer Lopez is reflecting on last weekend’s Super Bowl halftime show and shared that she wanted the performance, led by two Latinas — her and Shakira — to have an empowering message for women.
During Friday’s appearance on the ”The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” she explained why she kicked off her segment by standing on top of a replica of the Empire State Building.
“I wanted it to be like women are on top of the world, we’re on top of the world right now. On top of the Empire State Building and do ‘Jenny from the Block,’” Lopez told Fallon.
Another memorable part of the halftime show was Lopez’s pole-dancing.
“That was my little nod to ‘Hustlers,’ I was like, ‘I learned some pole things, lemme see what I could do, we can put it in there,’” she said about the film where she plays a stripper who scams her Wall Street clients.. “And I felt, again, it was a very powerful move.”
Lopez’s pole-dancing combined intricate choreography from her and Shakira didn’t sit well with some people. After their high-energy performance, the duo sparked an online debate: is a show filled with scantily clad women, suggestive dance moves and pole-dancing empowering, objectifying or something that should come with a parental warning?
”I think that’s honestly silliness,” Lopez told Variety at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday.
She continued: “Both of us are really respectful performers who are moms and have kids and are very conscious of what we do. We did a show that I believe was a celebration of women and our Latino culture that I think was really well reserved. And that small faction of people who want to be negative about it, I can’t even let in because it was such an amazing night.”
Lopez said she’s proud of her and Shakira’s performance and that it delivered an empowering message.
“The message of standing up for yourself, being a woman, that’s what I want to pass on to little girls... everything about you — be proud of it,” she said. “I’m very proud of the performance that night.”
The Super Bowl halftime show also included a special guest who stole the spotlight — Lopez’s 11-year-old daughter, Emme Maribel Muñiz.
After Lopez threw it back with a performance of “Jenny from the Block” and “Get Right,” she was joined by a children’s choir that included her daughter. Emme sweetly sang Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” as Lopez returned to the stage draped in a dual-sided feathery Puerto Rican and U.S. flag.
The “Waiting for Tonight” artist shared her daughter wasn’t the least bit nervous before making her halftime debut.
“She has the performance gene. She doesn’t let it in her mind how big it is or how it scares you,” Lopez told Fallon. “She has that gene, that gene of ‘I’m comfortable up here.’ ... I wish I felt more like her.”
She added: “She has a good time with it, and I would never make her do it if it ever made her uncomfortable in any way.”
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