Back To The Future: In 1999, Jennifer Lopez Earned Her First Hot 100 No. 1 W/ ‘If You Had My Love.’
“It’s May 4, 1999, and Jennifer Lopez releases “If You Had My Love,” the song that marked her embarkation to a fruitful dual-track career.
The Rodney Jerkins-produced single came as a surprise to critics then, as Lopez became one of the relatively few actors to effectively crossover from the screen to a successful recording career. “I embraced all of it to be who I was and offer something really different,” Lopez told Billboard in 2020.
“When I started working in my early 20s, it was size 0 models on the cover of magazines,” Lopez mused. “Tall, blonde, white, sometimes Black. But never Latina. I didn’t shy away from being from the Bronx, I didn’t shy away from my humble beginnings.”
The single, the opening track from Lopez’s 16-track debut studio album, On the 6, her first of eight top 10s on the Billboard 200 chart, was initially intended for Michael Jackson, but the King of Pop passed as he thought it was a better fit for a female artist, and he was right.
With “If You Had My Love” — written by Rodney Jerkins, LaShawn Daniels, Fred Jerkins III and Cory Rooney — Lopez broke the surface of the mainstream as the commercial hit propelled her to a maiden entry on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart. It debuted at No. 81 on the May 15, 1999, chart and hit No. 1 on the June 12-dated survey, beginning a five-week command.
The 2020 Billboard Women in Music icon joined Ricky Martin for the longest-leading Hot 100 No. 1 of 1999 to that point, as the Puerto Rican’s fellow Latin pop explosion “Livin’ La Vida Loca” ceded the top spot to “If You Had My Love.”
The song’s 25-year anniversary arrives on the heels of the star’s recently canceled This Is Me… Live Tour, which was scheduled to be her first concert run in five years, in support of her ninth studio album, This Is Me… Now, her first in a decade.
To date, “If You Had My Love” has pulled in 3.8 billion in radio audience, 122.8 million official on-demand U.S. streams and 263,000 downloads sold, according to Luminate.
Lopez, who also boasts three No. 1s among seven top 10s on the Hot Latin Songs chart over 1999-2020, subsequently led the Hot 100 with “I’m Real,” for five weeks in 2001, “Ain’t It Funny” (six, 2002) – both feature Ja Rule – and “All I Have,” featuring LL Cool J (four, 2003). She has notched 10 top 10s, through the No. 3 hit “On the Floor,” featuring Pitbull, in 2011.” – Billboard.com
