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Jennifer Lopez performing at the 2025 American Music Awards.
JLo kicked off the 2025 American Music Awards with an opening number that featured her kissing a woman.
Jennifer Lopez kicked off the 2025 American Music Awards with an opening number where she kissed two of her backup dancers — one of them being a woman.
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Besides hosting the awards show, JLo's opening performance at the AMAs telecast featured a medley of this year's top hits, such as Beyoncé's "Texas Hold 'Em," Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso," and Chappell Roan's "Hot To Go."
Toward the end of the performance, the recently-divorced pop star locked lips with two backup dancers: a man and a woman. In one of her interviews surrounding the event, JLo told Variety that the kissing was her idea.
"It was a narrative, there was a little story going on there," Lopez told the publication. "I like the idea of losing control… And if you look at it, you can follow a little story."
As Variety's Marc Malkin rebutted that JLo isn't known for letting go, the singer acknowledged that she often aims to be a perfectionist but enjoys the idea of letting go.
In recent years, several artists have included kissing moments with their backup dancer. Namely, there was Lil Nas X at the 2021 BET Awards, which prompted homophobic backlash and led the rapper to release a diss track calling out the awards. There was also Bad Bunny at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards kissing his male backup dancer, which sparked another conversation about queerbaiting. Now, some viewers are throwing similar accusations against Lopez.
Given that sexuality is fluid, conversations about queerbaiting are fruitless if the person has never fully disclosed how they identify. Moreover, Lopez is already moving on with a large focus on rehearsals for her newly announced Las Vegas residency set to take place at Caesar's Palace starting later this year.
Moises Mendez II is a culture journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. He covers internet culture and entertainment including television, movies, music, and more. For the last two years, he was a Culture Reporter at TIME Magazine. Before that, he was a freelance journalist and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, and more. Moises holds a master's degree in Arts and Culture journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
Moises Mendez II is a culture journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. He covers internet culture and entertainment including television, movies, music, and more. For the last two years, he was a Culture Reporter at TIME Magazine. Before that, he was a freelance journalist and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, and more. Moises holds a master's degree in Arts and Culture journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
