Jennifer Lopez Defends Mariah Carey’s Album Sales And Responds To The First-Week Sales Projection Of ‘A.K.A.’: “We Are In A Different Status”

Mike Wass | June 20, 2014 11:51 am

The whole concept of Jennifer Lopez‘s A.K.A. album is that she’s still the same girl who rode the six and dreamed of finding stardom. If you still question her realness, take a quick listen to an interview she had with Power 105.1 FM this morning (June 20) where she defends the as-yet underwhelming chart performance of Mariah Carey‘s Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse and reacts to the disappointing first-week sales projection of her own LP.

“Mariah and I, we did what the kids are doing already,” J.Lo begins diplomatically. “You know, we had the time when we would drop a thing and it would go straight to number one and the album would go straight to number one. We did that two, three, four times over. She’s probably done it many more times than even I did.”

“We are in a different time of our career. We are in a different status than the ones who need to prove themselves and come out go ‘my thing has to be number one right now!’ Ours doesn’t have to. We have a fanbase, we have years behind us, we have loyalty, we have people who are interested and that’s a blessing,” she continued.

Interestingly, Jenny revealed that she’s committed to promoting A.K.A. over the course of the year and believes it will eventually find an audience. “At a certain point in your career there’s a reinvention that has to go on but you’re in it for a marathon,” she explained. “There are singles that are going to come out over the course of the next six months. For me the release of the album is a celebration because it’s the beginning of something new and this whole year we’re going to be dealing in that.”

This is one of the best interviews I’ve heard in a while. Jennifer spoke realistically about the commercial prospects of her album but subtly put the next generation of divas back in their place. It’s also heartening that she defended Mariah so vigorously. At one point, they had a complicated relationship and Mimi went as far as denying that her then-rival even existed. Watch the full conversation below.

Can J.Lo turn things around with A.K.A.? Have your say in the comments below.

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