Jennifer Lopez's comeback flop era: Inside the star's declining popularity

Fans and critics question her authenticity, while experts point to a lack of connection with her younger audience.

Jennifer Lopez, the multi-talented star once hailed as the "Queen of Dance," has seen her star power dim in recent years. Her latest tour, her first in five years, has been plagued by low ticket sales. Her new album, This Is Me...Now, debuted at a disappointing number 38 on the Billboard 200, despite decent physical sales. This marks a sharp decline from her early 2000s peak, when she sold over 80 million records and headlined global tours.

Lopez's heavily publicised Super Bowl halftime performance with Shakira just four years ago was widely praised. So, what's behind this sudden downturn?

The album, inspired by her rekindled romance with Ben Affleck, was accompanied by a visual film This Is Me...Now: A Love Story (deemed  "bonkers" and "over-the-top" by critics).  A companion Amazon Prime documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, promised an intimate look at the couple's romance. However, its choice of title, given the couple's first cancelled wedding due to "excessive media attention," raises questions about Lopez's judgement.

Far from warming fans' hearts, the documentary fueled backlash, with some viewers dubbing the star "out of touch" and "delusional." One widely-shared clip from the film shows J-Lo reminiscing about her Bronx upbringing: "I like taking my hair out like this. It reminds me, like, when I was 16 in the Bronx, running up and down the block. Crazy little girl who used to f***ing be wild and no limits, all dreams."

TikTok users were quick to criticise, with one claiming to have attended the same school as Lopez alleging, "she was lying to look more human." Critics, too, gave the documentary and album a negative reception, questioning their sincerity.

Much of the online criticism stems from Lopez's failure to connect with her audience or evolve her image, explains brand expert Emily M Austen, founder of the PR agency EMERGE.  "As her fans have grown older with her, she's not done a good enough job of engaging with new fans and bringing them on the journey with her.”

Austen believes the documentary was a major miscalculation: "As with any launch, product-market fit is important. Fundamentally, this was a documentary no one needed or wanted."

Last month's sudden cancellation of several tour dates and the surprise rebranding of the tour from This Is Me...Now: The Tour to This Is Me... Live, with a focus on her greatest hits, suggests an attempt to salvage ticket sales by appealing to nostalgia.

Austen believes J-Lo's focus on her love life rather than her professional achievements, combined with promotional choices that seem out-of-touch, have damaged her brand. "Social media is an easy tool to ridicule," she added, emphasising the online backlash Lopez has faced. "J-Lo needs to reconnect with her community, listen to what they want, and focus on giving them that."

Whether these course-correction efforts prove successful remains to be seen. For now, it seems the "Queen of Dance" may have lost a step.