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Let hidden faces take on new spaces.
Monday, July 15th, marked the continuation of Jennifer Lopez’s “It’s My Party: The Live Celebration” tour at Madison Square Garden, previously cancelled due to a power outage that crippled New York City two days prior. This cancellation came after Lopez was interrupted by the outage only 30 minutes into her concert. Following this, she took to social media and informed fans that the show would be rescheduled. The singer was determined to complete the second of her two sold-out nights.
Lopez first announced her tour during a recording of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, just days after she gave a controversial performance at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards held on February 10th. The controversy centered on her decision to perform a Motown tribute despite her having no history of singing music that can be described as soul, which Motown is most known for.
A key criticism of the Grammys’ decision to allow a Motown tribute headlined by Lopez was that doing so seemingly whitewashed this record label’s history and their music. As was stated by J. Stokes in “Jennifer Lopez and the threat to Motown,” Lopez occupies a unique space when highlighting racial disparities in the American music industry. Though she is classified as Hispanic or Latinx — at times used synonymously — due to her…