Behind the scenes with Jennifer Lopez as she prepares for her Las Vegas residency

We're going into the inner sanctum. Hi. We don't mean to interrupt. It sounds so beautiful. Hi. Hi. I'm Jennifer. I'm Juju. Hi, Juju. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Jennifer Lopez has had a challenging few years, a failed marriage, a canceled tour, endless headlines. How did you get through the hard part? How did you pick yourself up? I had to stop. I had to stop everything. And I took a year off. I canceled tours. I just decided to just be home and sit in what had happened without running away from it and figure out why things like that keep happening to me. But now, she says she's feeling more like herself than ever before. And it's coming at the perfect time. She's back in Vegas for a one-month residency at Caesars Palace that features new music, her classic hits, and even some Broadway show tunes. I've seen a clip of the show. It's truly like gymnastics. Thank you. I wasn't intending for it to be so athletic in that way. I was actually trying to make an easier show for myself. It just didn't. It just never works out that way. And yet, I've read that you're entering your happy era. I am. What does that mean to you? I'm not entering my happy era. I'm in my happy era. You're in your happy era. What does that mean to you? For the first time in my life, I feel like I'm free. I'm on my own. And it feels really good. I didn't really know what that felt like since I was in my early 20s. And even before that, I always had a boyfriend. There was always someone in my life. And so many other things that I felt like were out of my control. And I just am at a point in my life where I really trust myself. And have learned to appreciate myself a little bit more. And that new J.Lo is going to come popping out of a champagne bottle. Yes! She does! And that's why it's the happy era. That is exactly right. J.Lo giving us a sneak peek at her many different looks planned for the show. This is from years ago. I just had it just in case. That's amazing. And you know, sometimes I'll switch the costumes at the last minute. I'll be like, let's wear the red instead of the black. And they'll be like, ah! See, only you can pull this off. Look at this. Yeah, this is one of my favorites. That's amazing. Because we do the tango in this. Ladies and gentlemen, the one, the only, Jennifer Lopez! That massive champagne bottle that she enters from each night. And a nearly 20-piece orchestra. All part of the new era she's sharing with fans. What's it like when everybody's screaming for you here? Oh, it's lovely. And it's different because, no, I love people. That's one of the things I love about performing, because I don't go out a lot. And when I get here, it's like I have really close interaction in Vegas with people. It's different in Vegas than it is anywhere else. Ever have dance injuries, though? You must. Yes, I try to take very good care of myself when I'm doing my shows. I ice every night. It's like being an athlete. It is. After the show, I go, my legs in ice, my feet are wrapped in ice, my back. And then he heats my neck. Like there's a whole ritual that we do. Vegas may be far from her Jenny from the block Bronx roots. But J.Lo says this new show pays homage to each stage of her life and her career. Act one is the beginning, like the early days. Childhood. Yeah, and then act two is kind of. Terms of Manhattan. Yeah, when I got to the city. The six train. And went into Hollywood and all of that and what all happened there. What happened there? Nine studio albums with multiple hits and dozens of movies. Like her breakout role as singer Selena Quintanilla Perez. In the biopic, Selena. My dreams were the same as the dreams of all those people who are out there in the audience. And more romantic roles, like playing opposite Matthew McConaughey in The Wedding Planner. Don't dance around the issue. You didn't show that day because you don't want to get married. She's had more than 30 songs hit the Billboard Top 100, including Love Don't Cost a Thing. And Waiting for Tonight from her debut album. But that's just act one and two of the Vegas show. Her high profile love life, act three. And the third one is kind of like the dark night of the soul. You know, where you like, what am I doing? Love, life, what is it? And kind of that type of thing. Her romance is dominating headlines for decades. And especially over the last few years. Shortly after Lopez called it quits with ex-fiancé. The Yankees Alex Rodriguez in 2021. She reunited with actor Ben Affleck. That was nearly two decades after the tabloid obsession known as Bennifer. But Lopez filed for divorce after just two years of marriage in 2024. And canceled her tour around that same time. You were quoted that year as saying, it's like my life exploded. It did. It did feel that way. Because people were saying, oh, she canceled her tour because it wasn't selling tickets. No, we had sold hundreds of thousands of tickets already. And I was devastated to have to disappoint that many fans. But I couldn't do it. I needed to be home with my kids. And that was the priority at that time. I really wanted to figure myself out. The more self-aware I am about what my little wounds are. My little traumas are. That lead me to make bad choices for myself. The more I won't make those choices. The thing is, knowing that and then changing the behavior. And to trust myself and to love myself enough to stand on my own. At 56, J.Lo says she's now single. And genuinely happy about it. Please tell me you're dating up a storm. No. No, I'm not. God forbid I want to ruin anything. It's so nice right now. I'm so happy. It's the best. I just feel really good right now. And that was a scary thing for me when I was younger. I was always really afraid to be alone. This is J.Lo's second time taking the Vegas stage. Her first residency was about a decade ago. When her twins were just seven years old. You mentioned that your kids would be proud of you to watch this. But what message do you have for them and for your fans through this? Yeah, I think it's, I hope you dance. I sang that for them in my first Vegas residency ten years ago. And as I put this show together, it became kind of an evolution of that same message. Which is, no matter what happens to you, that life kind of will throw things at you. But dance. Keep dancing. And keep finding the joy in every moment and every day.