Quite frankly, we worship Jennifer Lopez. As an actress, she's turned in an electrifying performance in Hustlers (and was totally undeserving of that Oscars snub, FYI.) As a businesswoman, she revolutionised the world of celebrity fragrance (Glow, anyone?) And don't even get us started on her fashion credentials. We're still not over that bridal hair...
But for all her talents, it turns out that many of Jennifer's hit songs aren't actually sung by Jennifer herself - with big stars like Christina Milian and Ashanti often doing the honours instead. This is something her SNL co-star Ayo Edebiri once referenced when she described J.Lo's career as 'one long scam' on Laci Mosley's Scam Goddess podcast in 2020. Ouch.
Of course, Jennifer does have an input and many of her songs are 100% her. But others do use the vocals of other well-known women for choruses and ad libs - with many being credited as background singers on the songs, whilst Jennifer's busy lip-syncing in music videos.
Take Play, the song that inspired us all to get a little bit sweary when asking the DJ to play our favourite song. Give it a listen, close your eyes, banish the image of Jennifer from your mind, and you may begin to hear the voice of AM To PM singer Christina Milian. Christina wrote the song, and she sings Play's entire chorus.
Ashanti has also lent her voice to a massive amount of Jennifer's back catalogue. In fact, you can hear her singing on Ain't It Funny and I'm Real.
Opening up about being Jen's double, Ashanti explained in 2014, 'I wrote Ain't It Funny. I demoed the record for her before I was signed to Murder Inc, and they kept my hook, and some of the backgrounds and ad libs, and stuff like that. It was bittersweet because I was really excited that it was J. Lo, but I was so mad [at not being able to have the record for herself].'
What did Ayo Edebiri say about Jennifer Lopez?
Comedian and The Bear actor Ayo Edebiri played host on Saturday Night Live recently, while J.Lo was the star performer. It sounded like a match made in heaven until an old podcast episode from 2020 resurfaced where Ayo Edebiri called J.Lo's career 'one long scam'.
The Golden Globe winning actor also said, 'Well, that's the thing. She thinks she's on multiple tracks, but it's not her. I think she thinks that she's still good even though, like, she's not singing for most of these songs.
'A lot of the write-ups of the songs will be like, "JLo didn't have time to make it to the studio," like, J.Lo was busy. It's like, "Doing what?" Not singing, obviously.'
However, J.Lo has since revealed that Ayo offered a heartfelt apology before the show, and it's all water under the bridge. Speaking to Variety, J.Lo said 'She was mortified and very sweet. She came to my dressing room and apologized with tears in her eyes, saying how terrible it was that she had said those things. She felt really badly and loved my performance because we had just done my soundcheck and she actually got to hear me perform.'
J.Lo then added, '[Ayo] was just like, "I’m so f***ing sorry, it was so awful of me."'
So, does J.Lo sing any her own songs?
Of course, there are many more examples that are less concrete - and by all means, they're merely conspiracy theories from eagle-eared fans.
Shawnyette Harrell is alleged to be responsible for some of the vocals in If You Had My Love, and Makeba Riddick is, apparently, the voice behind All I Have.
The chorus to Jenny From The Block was rumoured to be sung by Natasha Ramos, who demoed the song. In fact, Natasha addressed the claims in 2019, tweeting 'J.Lo did indeed go in the studio and lay down some background vocals over mine. So I wouldn't say she's so much "lip syncing," however the backgrounds are predominantly me, some ad libs (and laughs) as well.'
But when fans came for Jen, branding the music industry 'trash' and insisting Jennifer 'should not be famous for work she never did,' Natasha stood up in support for the star.
She wrote, 'Well, that's a little harsh. J.Lo is one of the hardest working women in business. In my opinion, she certainly deserves all her success... I just deserved more from that project too. That's on the label though, not Jennifer. It's all kind of history at this point lol.'
Of course, Jennifer sings 100% of many of her songs, and she does a pretty impeccable job of fulfilling the vast other requirements of the perfect pop star - her dancing, for example, is flawless. But next time you're doing a J.Lo song at karaoke, it might be fun to remember that you might be singing more of it than Jennifer herself.
Grazia have reached out to Jennifer Lopez's team for comment.