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Bronx’s Jenny Back on the Block

By ALEX KRATZ

Never underestimate the power of J-Lo.

Need evidence? Take the hundreds of screaming, starry-eyed fans who lined up last week for a chance to meet the multi-talented Bronx-bred performer, otherwise known as Jennifer Lopez, at an autograph session inside F.Y.E. music store on Jerome Avenue near Gun hill Road.

That’s right, if you missed it, Jenny was definitely back on the block. Not exactly her block (that would be in the east Bronx), but a block in the Bronx with a heavy Hispanic population nonetheless.

Lopez was there with husband Marc Anthony promoting her new album, Como Ama Una Mujer, the Bronxite’s first all-Spanish language effort. Anthony, a veteran singer with several Spanish language albums on his resume, produced the record, which critics are calling a big risk.

When Anthony and Lopez emerged from a black SUV, the crowd went nuts, wildly waving marketing posters and homemade collages as Lopez smiled and waved back.

Outside the store, there was a bullpen for all the television cameras. All the major New York networks and news stations were there, as well as several radio stations, MTV and Univision. Small local print outlets were told they would have to be snuck in because the place was overrun with big-name media brands.

Surrounded by a hefty group of handlers and police officers, J-Lo went inside and took a seat behind a long table, a large sultry picture of herself forming a background. Television cameramen and photographers jockeyed for position on a platform facing the mega-star. Anthony drifted off to a corner and tried to be inconspicuous, while Lopez signed copies of her new CD for giddy fans who filed in one by one.

“I told her she’s beautiful and that I love her,” said Evelyn Gonzalez, a University Heights resident who showed up at F.Y.E. at 7 a.m. the previous morning, two hours before the store opened, to buy a copy of the album and get a wrist band (the first 300 people to buy Lopez’s new CD received a yellow wristband that granted them autograph access).

Others were equally gushing with praise for J-Lo. “Oh my God! She’s so beautiful and she’s from the Bronx” was a popular refrain from people in the crowd, which ran the gamut from first grade girls and teenage boys to grandmothers and aspiring rappers.

Crystal Rosa, 13, who lives just a couple of blocks away on Knox Place, was on her cell phone trying to find a way to see J-Lo even without a wristband. Her mother was sick, so she had to visit her in the hospital rather than buy Lopez’s new CD.

“I love the way she sings,” Crystal said. “I want to be just like her.”

Crystal frowned when she turned and saw a friend waving her wristband around like it was a magic wand.

Others were there to catch a glimpse of the hyphenated one. “I just came to see if she was pregnant,” said one fan, who remarked on Lopez’s baggy, belly-hiding shirt.

Standing on the fringes of the crowd, sporting a mustache and a look that can only be described as glowing, was a middle-aged white man from Long Island named Greg Packer. He found out about J-Lo’s Bronx appearance from the F.Y.E. Myspace page (who knew?) and made the trek to the northwest Bronx the day before to buy the album and get a wristband. He returned the next morning at 7 a.m. and proudly became the first person to receive Lopez’s autograph.

“I’m a big J-Lo fan,” Packer said. “She’s from the city and she knows how to represent and put out a sweet, beautiful album.”

 Case closed.

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