Jennifer Lopez delivered an emotional, impromptu speech during her birthday concert at the Regnum Carya hotel in Antalya, Turkey, on Wednesday, July 23.
Toward the end of her Up All Night show, Lopez’s backup singers and dancers surprised the multihyphenate with an audience sing-along to “Happy Birthday,” which inspired her to take a moment to address the thousands of fans in attendance.
“I don’t like to give advice to anybody,” began Lopez, who officially turned 56 on Thursday, July 24. “I feel life is a journey, and we all have lessons to learn and are just doing the best we can as we go along the way.”
That said, J. Lo shared that she had “one piece of advice” for the crowd: “Do what you love with people that you love. You can never go wrong. You will go [through] every day happy. I believe that the happiness that you have in your heart is directly tied to the people around you and to how free you can feel around the people around you. And I hope that each one of you can feel as happy and as free as you made me feel tonight.”
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Lopez concluded her speech by saying, “I love you so much” before performing one of her aptly titled new songs, “Free.”
Us Weekly exclusively reported earlier this month that the Grammy nominee held an intimate listening party in Los Angeles, where she debuted six tracks, including “Free” and “Birthday,” the latter of which she released on streaming services on Thursday. She also played an unreleased ballad titled “Wreckage of You” at the July 2 event.
“She mentioned how last year was a very difficult time for her both personally and professionally. She had to cancel her tour and really focus on herself,” attendee Edgardo Luis Rivera relayed to Us at the time. “Fast-forward to one year later, and she feels better and stronger than ever, so she wanted to write a song about coming out of a bad situation much stronger.”
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Lopez, who finalized her divorce from Ben Affleck earlier this year, “kept thinking of the word ‘wreck’ because it means destruction, but she wasn’t destroyed,” Rivera continued.
After Wednesday’s concert, J. Lo went out to celebrate her birthday in a long, backless silver dress. She posted videos on her Instagram Story of herself dancing with her tour crew near a three-tiered cake topped with sparklers.
Lopez has her actual birthday off but will resume her international tour on Friday, July 25, in Warsaw, Poland. Later this year, she is scheduled to bring the show to Las Vegas for a three-month residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace beginning on December 30.
