Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on July 24, 1969, in the Castle Hill neighborhood of The Bronx, New York, to Puerto Rican parents Guadalupe Rodriguez and David Lopez. She has an older sister, Leslie, and a younger sister, Lynda, a journalist. David worked the night shift at the Guardian Insurance Company before becoming a computer technician at the firm, while Guadalupe was a homemaker. When Lopez was born, the family was living in a small apartment.

Considered one of dance's "greatest success stories", Lopez felt an emotional connection to dance since her youth, when she specialized in ballet, jazz and flamenco. Her career commenced on the variety television sketch comedy series In Living Color, where she was a part of an ethnically diverse dance group known as The Fly Girls. Janet Jackson, whom she briefly served as a backup dancer for, has been credited by Lopez as an inspiration for her own dance and videos. Since beginning her own recording career, Lopez has become known for her body-emphasizing music videos, which often include dance routines. Some of them have been the subject of controversy, including "Jenny from the Block", "Dance Again" and "Booty". Her provocatively choreographed music video for "If You Had My Love" allowed Lopez to become a dominant figure on MTV networks worldwide, while the accompanying video for "Waiting for Tonight" established her as a "dance princess" according to MTV. On stage, Lopez is recognized for her showmanship and sex appeal, and often includes costumes such as bodysuits as part of her performance. Author Priscilla Pena Ovalle stated in Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex and Stardom (2011) that Lopez was one of the Latin stars who "used dance to gain agency as working performers with mainstream careers, yet many of their roles paradoxically racialized and sexualized their bodies". Troy Patterson of Entertainment Weekly also observed that she used her body for emphasis on stage, "She turned herself out as the fly girl hyperversion of postfeminist power, flaunting her control by toying with the threat of excess. In consequence, her star went supernova." Her signature movements include "clock-wise pivoting with salsa hip circles and sequential torso undulations". While being noted to lip sync in the early stages of career, Lopez's Dance Again World Tour was praised for showcasing live vocals and choreography synchronously. In a review of her Las Vegas residency All I Have, Los Angeles Times writer Nolan Feeney called her "Queen of the Strip" and remarked that her dancing is "undoubtedly the centerpiece of the show". Lopez's provocative stage performances have also drawn scrutiny at times. In May 2013, her performance on the finale of the television series Britain's Got Talent was deemed inappropriate for family-friendly television, and drew viewer complaints to Ofcom. Following her controversial performance at the musical festival Mawazine in 2015, Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane called it "indecent" and "disgraceful", while an education group claimed that she "disturbed public order and tarnished women's honor and respect". CANNOTANSWER

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