Jennifer Lopez’s Emotional Decision to Have Marc Anthony Sing With Her During the Dance Again Tour

Jennifer Lopez went on her first world tour, Dance Again, in 2012. She made an emotional decision to sing with her ex-husband, Marc Anthony, during the tour’s final show.

The Dance Again tour was cathartic for Jennifer Lopez

In her book True Love, Lopez says the tour provided her with a way to process some of the emotions she was feeling after her divorce from Anthony. It was a relief for her to be able to let go of the sadness she was experiencing during that time.

“During all those shows, and being embraced by the crowds, was a cathartic process that helped me heal,” wrote Lopez. “Benny could see it too, so one day toward the end of the tour he made a suggestion that he knew I wouldn’t have been able to consider even just a few weeks earlier.”

Jennifer Lopez was hesitant to invite Marc Anthony to sing with her

Lopez’s Dance Again tour was coming to an end, and she wanted to do something big for the final show, which would be in Puerto Rico. Lopez says her former manager, Benny Medina, suggested asking Anthony to join her onstage for a song.

Lopez says she was speechless at first. She didn’t know how to feel about the possibility of being reunited with her ex. She was concerned she would have a repeat of the American Idol performance where she gave up her spotlight for Anthony. She didn’t want that to happen again. Lopez had a lot of concerns:

I thought about that, thought about whether doing this would be like giving the spotlight to Marc on that American Idol finale, letting him have a moment that might have been mine. Was I falling into the same old pattern that I had spent months pulling myself out of? Would inviting him to sing with me be a step backward?

Jennifer Lopez, True Love

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony reunited to sing ‘No Me Ames’

Lopez called Anthony and asked if he would sing with her for the final performance of her tour. After thinking about if for a few days, he agreed to join her. Lopez says this was an emotional moment for her because the song they were going to sing together, “No me Ames,” was one of the first songs they sang together. (The title of the song means “don’t love me.”)

When the song played during their practice, Lopez says a lot of emotions came flooding back. At one point, Anthony asked her, “How the hell did all this happen?” Lopez says she wondered the same thing.

“How did we end up recording this song all those years ago and how did we not get together then?” wrote Lopez. “And then how did we wind up getting married years later, having kids, and then divorcing? And now how was he sitting here with our kids, looking up at me as this song played again? It was this lovely, bittersweet lifetime of moments, all summed up in that one question.”

Jennifer Lopez says signing with Marc Anthony provided closure

Lopez was happy she performed along side her ex-husband. She says the performance provided her with a “perfect, beautiful” closure. “Things might not have worked out the way I had planned, but I was so proud of where we had come, especially after all that heartache,” wrote Lopez. “It was the perfect start to the rest of my life.”

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