Lopez had everyone taling at the American Music Awards.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]
Words by Nikki Peach<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/imago820734290-scaled.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”2025 American Music Awards – Winners Walk” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”] Jennifer Lopez is back \u2013 back on stage, back on the dating scene and back making headlines. Hosting the American Music Awards, she performed a mash up of recent hits on stage including Billie Eilish\u2019s \u2018Birds of a Feather\u2019, Kendrick Lamar\u2019s \u2018Not Like Us\u2019 and Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga\u2019s \u2018Die With a Smile\u2019. That\u2019s not what everyone is talking about, though.<\/p>\n In a choreographed moment during her rendition of \u2018Lose Control\u2019 by Teddy Swims, Lopez was approached by two male and female dancers before kissing them both. \u2018I had to kick things off, you know that, turning it up to the biggest songs of the year and dancing my heart out for all of you,\u2019 Lopez said after the set.<\/p>\n Before we get into the inevitable uproar, it\u2019s worth remembering the cultural legacy of on-stage kisses at music awards shows, which began with Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera locking lips during a joint performance of \u2018Like a Virgin\u2019 at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. Since then, everyone from The 1975\u2019s Matty Healy to Tate McRae have smooched on stage \u2013 with dancers, partners and sometimes even fans. This is nothing new or inherently outrageous.<\/p>\n And yet, Lopez\u2019s steamy on-stage moment has sparked a tired debate. She has been called everything from \u2018cringe\u2019 and \u2018embarrassing\u2019 to \u2018desperately trying to stay relevant\u2019. This is thinly veiled misogyny posing as cultural commentary. As a 55-year-old artist, it\u2019s clear that a lot of these social media critics don\u2019t think Lopez is qualified to express her sexuality on stage anymore. Despite the fact she has been a music icon \u2013 and a sex symbol \u2013 for the best part of 30 years. Not many people could pull off the crystal-covered Michael Ngo catsuit Lopez wore during said performance, but she did along with seven (yes, seven) other incredible outfits.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2217244244.jpg” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”] Then followed absurd commentary about whether her ex-husband Ben Affleck, who she was married to for two years between 2022 and 2024, would be \u2018cool\u2019 with the public kisses so soon after their divorce. A divorce, we hasten to add, that was filed last August and settled in February, even though Affleck and Lopez had already been separated since last April. Not only have they spent more than a year apart, but their divorce settlement was swift and amicable, and it\u2019s widely thought that the exes have remained on good terms. Why, then, would Affleck be bothered by Lopez kissing her dancers as part of an awards show performance? It was only a few months ago that he praised her for being \u2018spectacular\u2019 in their film, Unstoppable<\/em>, so it\u2019s curious that anyone would get offended by Lopez\u2019s behaviour on his behalf.<\/p>\n Rather than telling us anything particularly interesting about the singer\u2019s \u2018divorce era\u2019, her relationship with Affleck or whether she\u2019s trying to \u2018stay relevant\u2019, the backlash surrounding Lopez\u2019s AMAs kiss is more revealing of the puritanical state of pop culture. It seems that when any female artists, and it is almost always female artists, express even a modicum of sensuality on stage, a tirade of regressive, out-dated criticism follows. We\u2019ve seen it recently with younger artists like Sabrina Carpenter too; she was scorned during her Short n\u2019 Sweet tour in Paris after simulating the \u2018Eiffel Tower\u2019 sex move with two male dancers on stage and performed a similar gag at her show in Copenhagen. Instead of being accused of being \u2018desperate to stay relevant\u2019, Carpenter was criticised for performing in a sexually suggestive way in front of children. Petitions were even launched off the back of her performance, despite clear age restrictions and the shows prohibiting anyone under the age of 15 from attending without an adult.<\/p>\n Carpenter\u2019s response to the backlash was refreshing. \u2018My message has always been clear,\u2019 she said earlier this year, \u2018if you can\u2019t handle a girl who is confident in her own sexuality, then don\u2019t come to my shows. Female artists have been shamed forever. In the noughties it was Rihanna, in the \u201890s it was Britney, in the \u201880s it was Madonna\u2026 It\u2019s essentially saying female performers should not be able to embrace their sexuality in their lyrics, in the way we dress, in the way we perform.\u2019<\/p>\n It’s a message Lopez\u2019s naysayers would do well to listen to. She\u2019s just a woman enjoying herself on stage, when and why did that become a crime?<\/p>\n Lopez\u2019s AMAs show also marked one of her first performances since her greatest hits tour was cancelled last year. In the immediate aftermath of her separation from Affleck, she was set to embark on 30 shows to celebrate her career, which were cancelled because she needed \u2018time off to be with her children, family and friends\u2019. Perhaps a year later she is out the other side and settling back into her confidence \u2013 a confidence she has earned as one of the highest grossing female artists of the century. If that means kissing her dancers on stage, why not? When did pop performance have to become so serious?<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”] Photo: <\/b>IMAGO<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lopez locked lips with two of her dancers and it’s becoming a global talking point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10192"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10251,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10192\/revisions\/10251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘If you can\u2019t handle a girl who is confident in her own sexuality, then don\u2019t come to my shows’ \u2013 Sabrina Carpenter<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]