Love?

Love? is the seventh studio album by American singer Jennifer Lopez. It was released on April 29, 2011, by Island Records. Produced during the pregnancy of her twins Emme and Max, Love? was cited by Lopez as her most personal album to date, taking inspiration from the birth of her twins and her own experiences with love.

Recording for the album began in 2009, with an original release date for the project set for January 2010 by Epic Records to coincide with Lopez's film The Back-up Plan. However following the lack of success with lead single "Louboutins", Lopez and Epic Records parted ways, leaving the fate of Love? in uncertainty. In 2010, Lopez signed a new record deal with Island Records, allowing proceedings for the release to be kept. The album includes a mixture of previously recorded material which leaked online in 2009 and 2010 during recording sessions, along with new songs with Tricky Stewart, The-Dream and RedOne commissioned by Island Records. Primarily a dance-pop record, Love? also marks a return to Lopez's pop/R&B roots.

Upon its release, Love? garnered mixed reviews from music critics. While some were critical of it, others disagreed, praising it as a great dance album. Commercially, Love? debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200 chart, becoming her sixth album to peak within the top 10 in the United States, and her highest peak since 2005's Rebirth. Internationally, Love? experienced moderate success, peaking within the top 10 in twenty-four different countries and also reaching the top five of several music markets. The album sold 353,000 copies in the United States.

The album's first single under Island Records is "On the Floor" and features Pitbull. It reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100, and topped over thirty international charts, while the second and third singles from Love?, being "I'm Into You" featuring rapper Lil Wayne and "Papi", both topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs, each becoming moderate hits. Love? has become her third consecutive album to have all singles reach number one on that chart, earning her a milestone for eleven number ones at the time tying her with Katy Perry and Kristine W.

Love? follows the footsteps of her least commercially successful album, Brave (2007), which just missed the top ten of the US Billboard 200, at position 12. Its beginnings date from late 2007 and early 2008, during Lopez's pregnancy with twins Emme and Max. While pregnant, and while at home after pregnancy, Lopez had been working on new music for future projects. In February 2009, a new song from those recording sessions titled "Hooked on You" leaked online. Lopez would address the leak on her official website in May 2009, where she said "I'm always excited about my music and this ["Hooked on You"] is one of a few tracks I'm currently working on. I'm flattered by everyone's interest in the track and really excited for you to hear the real thing..." Songwriter Wynter Gordon also addressed another leak from the album, a song that Gordon wrote called "What Is Love". In a personal blog through her official MySpace page, Gordon expressed her discontent that an unfinished, unmastered version of "What Is Love" had been leaked through the Internet. "I wrote this song from a deep place in my heart. If the world was gonna hear it, I wanted them to hear it right... It's as good as gone to me now... The story was given a Lifetime TV special instead of a movie... sad." Gordon did note that she was dissatisfied with the circumstances but was in "no way dissing Lopez." The following month Lopez told MTV's Larry Carol that she was keen to finish the album and several singles, with a potential release date for the end of 2009.

In February 2010, Lopez left Sony Music Entertainment (and Epic Records) by mutual consent. Her departure from the label temporarily halted production on the album. However upon signing a new contract with Island Def Jam Music Group, recording resumed on the album, and Lopez entered the studio with Kuk Harrell to record brand new material for the disc. The New York Daily News revealed that Lopez would be taking some of the records recorded under Sony Music to her new label so that they could be included on the album. She said "stuff I'd been performing will be on the album as will previously released dance cuts." According to the paper, Island Def Jam would also release a remix disc alongside the album. AOL's music entertainment site, PopEater, later reported that Epic Records had actually shelved Love? and never committed to releasing the album, although this was never confirmed by Lopez, Epic or Island Def Jam. In February 2011, Lopez told BBC that the album was nearly complete. She had around twenty songs recorded from 2009–2011 which were being considered for the album, but she was finding it hard to edit the final track listing. "I'm very proud of the album; it's so hard to edit it because I have recorded maybe 20 songs and of course I'm not going to put 20 songs on an album, so to cut out eight to ten of those... it's breaking my heart." Lopez credits Love? as her best album to date because on it she recorded her "best vocals". RedOne and Lopez's new label boss, Antonio "L.A." Reid served as executive producers on the album.

"I'm very proud of who I am as a vocalist from where I started... The voice was always there, I was just so insecure about it in the beginning. Marc [Anthony] helped me so much because he was the one who was like, 'You have a beautiful voice,' I think people are gonna be surprised with some of the vocals on this album. It [will have] urbanny-type tracks on it. Don't worry. Booty shakers, mid-tempos, feel-good [records]."

While on set filming for The Back-up Plan in June 2009, Lopez revealed to MTV's Larry Carol that she had been working on the follow-up album to 2007's Brave. She had been working on the album during pregnancy, but it was not until the birth of her twins, Max and Emme, that she was able to focus on the project. Carol asked about the direction of the album, but Lopez refused to comment, instead saying "You can't help but put not only your kids into it, but to put anything you are going through in your music. [...] The only thing you can really sing or write is stuff that you know. The more music you make and the more that you get into it and the more you write, the more you realize that's all you can write." At the time of the interview, two of the album's songs had leaked. The first, titled "(What Is) Love?", was written by Wynter Gordon and co-written and produced by Emile Dernst II (D'Mile). After expressing dismay at the song's leak, its writer (Wynter Gordon) spoke of why the song was very personal to her: "[What Is Love is about] not knowing what love is ...I felt like so many woman have that same story. No fathers, families, abusive boyfriends and husbands..no parental support, they feel alone .. I've had my few relationships and have yet to feel love [sic]." Jean Baptist produced a 'part-two' for the song, which was mentioned at one of the album pre-release parties, attended by Rap-Up magazine, however the second part of the song was omitted from the track listing. The original version of the song, under the title "What Is Love", was included on the soundtrack to the 2010 film, The Back-up Plan, starring Lopez.