The last time Jennifer Lopez made an album -- 2002's This Is Me... Then -- she was deeply love with actor/Academy Award-winning screenwriter Ben Affleck, a relationship immortalized in the video for "Jenny From the Block" and "Dear Ben," a ballad that rivals Billy Bob Thornton's "Angelina" as the greatest celebrity love song of the 2000s. Of course, the relationship was also immortalized in the notorious Martin Brest disaster Gigli, released eight months after This Is Me, and that film's abysmal box office was the beginning of the end for the couple, whose engagement was called off in early 2004. Lopez rebounded quickly with a marriage to Latin pop singer Marc Anthony and with the new romance came an opportunity to restart her career -- hence Rebirth, the title of her fourth album. While she doesn't avoid the subject of her highly publicized romantic life, she does bury two seemingly confessional ballads at the end of the record (not counting the album-concluding reprise of the opening single, "Get Right"). Voyeurs may find interest in "He'll Be Back" (a tune not written by Lopez, but a breakup song that certainly recalls the Bennifer saga) and "(Can't Believe) This Is Me" -- a collaboration with her new husband that suggests Lopez may not have learned the lesson of Gigli -- but they're easily the worst moments on an album that's otherwise a sleek, sexy blast. Apart from those turgid ballads, Rebirth is a straight-ahead dance album, alternating between sweet, breezy pop tunes like the irresistible "Still Around" and hard-driving club tracks like the surprisingly heavy, infectious "Cherry Pie." Lopez may not be a flashy singer, but she's appealing on record precisely because she and her collaborators -- chief among them executive producer Cory Rooney -- know those limitations and present them in tuneful packages with big, exciting beats. Since it doesn't deviate from the blueprint she's followed on her first three albums, it's hard to call this record a literal creative rebirth, but song for song, Rebirth has more energy and better hooks than her other albums. It may not be deep, but it sure is fun -- and after the tumult of 2003 and 2004, Lopez sure does deserve to have a little fun. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Marc Anthony (Producer), Tim Kelley (Bass), Tim Kelley (Keyboards), Tim Kelley (Drum Programming), Herb Powers (Mastering), Bruce Swedien (Engineer), Bruce Swedien (Mixing), Rodney Jerkins (Programming), Rodney Jerkins (Producer), Timbaland (Producer), Mike Evans (Production Coordination), Corey Rooney (Keyboards), Corey Rooney (Producer), Corey Rooney (Executive Producer), Corey Rooney (Vocal Producer), Julian Peploe (Art Direction), Erben Perez (Bass), Hector Diaz (Programming), Hector Diaz (Producer), Big Boi (Producer), Scotty Beats (Engineer), Cutmaster Swift (Producer), Jennifer Lopez (Vocals (Background)), Jennifer Lopez (Main Performer), Jennifer Lopez (Executive Producer), Jim Annunziato (Assistant Engineer), Dylan Ely (Assistant Engineer), Andrew McKay (Production Coordination), Rich Harrison (Programming), Rich Harrison (Producer), Fred "Uncle Freddie" Jerkins III (Producer), Robert Anthony (Producer), Danja Mowf (Producer), Mert Alas (Photography), Katie Grand (Stylist), Peter Wade Keusch (Engineer), Peter Wade Keusch (Mixing), Chris Avedon (Engineer), Oribe (Hair Stylist), Makeba Riddick (Vocals (Background)), William E. Pettaway Jr. (Production Coordination), Gregory Bruno (Producer), Mike Tschupp (Assistant Engineer), Geneva Randolph (Production Coordination), Marco Britti (Drums), Mario Guini (Guitar), Rudaina Haddad (Vocals (Background)), Candice Nelson (Vocals (Background)), Nyce Boy (Producer), Marcus Piggott (Photography), Bob Robinson (Guitar (Electric)), Delisha Thomas (Vocals (Background)), Delisha Thomas (Vocal Arrangement), Charlotte Tilbury (Make-Up)
Rebirth is the fourth studio album (fifth overall) by American singer Jennifer Lopez, released in the United States on March 1, 2005 by Epic Records. It spawned the single "Get Right", a smash hit in several territories.
The album's working title, Call Me Jennifer, was a response to the "J.Lo" moniker which Lopez claims gave her an unfair reputation as an over-the-top diva. The eventual title was chosen as an attempt to start a new beginning after the "Bennifer" fall-out and the immense critical and commercial failure of the 2003 film Gigli. The music itself is standard Lopez fare, '80s-tinged urban pop and funk combined with orchestral ballads. Her current husband, Marc Anthony, co-wrote and co-produced one of the album's tracks, "(Can't Believe) This Is Me".
Rebirth was released in a DualDisc format, which contains the album in enhanced stereo, the "Get Right" music video, the "Get Right" remix music video featuring rapper Fabolous, and a short documentary on the recording of the album, originally shot by acclaimed director D. A. Pennebaker, who also shot Bob Dylan's 1967 Dont Look Back.
"Cherry Pie" was planned as the album's third single. However, due to low album sales it was cancelled.
Chart performance
The album debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 the week of March 19, 2005 (behind 50 Cent's The Massacre) selling 261,000 copies.[1] The album sold 731,000 copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan,[2] and earned a platinum certification from the RIAA. The album enjoyed international success, especially in Europe, reaching the top spot in the Netherlands and Switzerland; the top five in Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Hungary; and the top ten in the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, and Poland. Furthermore, it became Lopez's most successful album in Japan when it peaked at number three, selling 244,689 copies. Rebirth was also Turkey's best-selling foreign-language album in 2005.[3] Because of the humble sales and the international bomb of the second single "Hold You Down", the foreseen release of the song "Cherry Pie" as the third single had been scrapped. Worldwide, the album sold around two million copies. Rebirth was listed as one of the twenty best albums of 2005 by the Brazilian website Canal Pop.[4]
