I’d say 50 is the new 20, but it’s not. 50 is 50, and 50 is beautiful — just ask Jennifer Lopez.
For her 50th birthday, she went on an all-out summer tour to celebrate. What started out as a party gradually turned into an incredible experience that she shared with women over 50 everywhere.
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JLo hit the road earlier in the summer.
Her “It’s My Party” tour made stops in Tel Aviv, Moscow, Antayla, Malaga, Egypt, and St. Petersburg.
Why? She wanted to throw herself a giant party and celebrate turning 50 for the whole summer.
She broke down her reasons in a vlog.
Chronicling her time on the tour, JLo narrated her deepest thoughts about what it meant to be celebrating being an age that women are usually dismissed at.
She didn’t realize how important the tour would be when she started it.
She started off in Moscow.
“It’s been such a cathartic experience for me.
Everybody thought I was crazy when I wanted to go out and let everybody know that I was 50,” she began, over shots of her rehearsing.
Women aren’t treated the same after they hit certain ages.
“That was just, like, something that was like, ‘Mm, why are we highlighting this, again?’”
Ugh, I hope everyone starts to celebrate their milestone birthdays with this much determination and joy.
She knew that people didn’t get it, and she did it anyway.
Women are people.
“But for me, it was important. It was important as a woman to do that.
To let people know that you don’t get to write women off at a certain point in their life. You don’t get to write people off.”
Maybe I teared up after she said that last part, but you can’t prove it.
She highlighted that they key to being happy while getting older is to always be open.
“You’re getting better and better as you go, so long as you are open to the experience of growing and evolving.
And to me that was very important to put out.”
The idea started as a summer party with her family and fans.
“And until we started this show, it just seemed like a fun idea to me to have a party all summer.
Also, also on the other hand, that it would be so much fun to celebrate my 50th birthday in this way.”
Parts of the vlog showed off what was most important to her.
The glitz and glam of performing were there, but so were quieter moments.
She prayed often and frequently before each show, holding hands with her family and team as she thanked God for everything they had.
Her prayers expressed how grateful she was to be travelling the world.
She prayed to God, “I wanna tell you how grateful I am for every single moment we’ve had. Seeing all different kinds of people, from our country, and from other countries, as well.”
She also spoke of how she viewed the world.
“Being able to experience all kids of things, and all kinds of people. And appreciating all of them, knowing we are all united by love and happiness and dance and music.
And that all we want is to live moments of joy with our families and our loved ones.”
In other parts, she, A-Rod, and their kids spent time together.
At one point, she remarked that touring took time away from being herself.
Her family would go out and be tourists while she rehearsed and performed, which she missed out on.
But she learned it was worth it.
“I didn’t realize that being myself, and being unafraid to say that to the world, ‘I’m a woman, I’m 50 years old, and I’m here, and I’m not goin’ anywhere’ was gonna mean so much to so many people.”
Fans sang her happy birthday at her shows.
In their own languages, as well as English, JLo’s fans would spontaneously break into choruses of “Happy Birthday.”
You could see how much it meant to her to get to connect with them that way.
She also notably showed all sides of herself.
Rather than only showcase herself in full makeup, she was entirely unafraid to appear on camera sans makeup, and with her hair messy.
It showed the real her, and her reality of being 50 when she’s not in the spotlight.
In the end, she had a special message for her team, too:
“[…] you guys helped me do that, by again being your best selves. So I just again want thank you guys all, and I’m just super proud of us.”
Happy 50th, JLo!
