Jennifer Lopez and Maluma open up about their roles in ‘Marry Me’

Jennifer Lopez and Maluma in "Marry Me". IMDB
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Updated 21 February 2022
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Jennifer Lopez and Maluma open up about their roles in ‘Marry Me’

DUBAI: Film star Jennifer Lopez says she didn’t need to do much research for “Marry Me” as it is very relatable to her life in the spotlight. She was talking to Arab News about her role in the newly released movie.  

US-Puerto Rican Lopez stars with Owen Wilson and Maluma in a romantic comedy about the unlikely marriage between a pop superstar and a math teacher.

She plays Kat Valdez, a singer megastar who discovers her fiancé, played by Maluma, has cheated on her. She decides to marry a stranger (Owen Wilson) onstage at a concert.

“The difficult part was kind of the meta part which was the idea of showing what it’s really like inside my bedroom when something goes wrong and you suffer a heartbreak like this in front of the whole world and the media kind of goes to town on you,” she said.

American romantic comedy veteran Wilson stars alongside Lopez as her romantic interest in the film. The pair have worked together before, the first time being in the 1997 horror movie “Anaconda.”

This is the first live action film for internationally known singer Maluma, who was prompted to take the role by co-star Lopez.

“I didn’t know how it works. It was my first time and then when I was there with Jennifer, she was like, ‘yo, we’re gonna do this. You’re gonna kill it. Just get focused, you know’” She gave me a bunch of advice,” the Colombian-born songwriter said to Arab News. 

Lopez took on the responsibility for the music as it plays a major part in the film. Working alongside the creative team, she sorted through possible songs and chose what would work best for which scenes and characters.

She said: “Picking the songs was such a pleasure for me. And then to have Maluma fill in the blanks for his character — he did such a great job with the two songs that he did. I just felt we really found the characters within those songs.”

Lopez and Maluma joined forces to record songs for the soundtrack, some of which are already hitting top of the music charts.

“Marry Me” is now showing in theaters in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.


Highlights from Saher Nassar’s ‘Chronicles from the Storm’ exhibition in Dubai

Updated 27 February 2026
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Highlights from Saher Nassar’s ‘Chronicles from the Storm’ exhibition in Dubai

DUBAI: Here are three highlights from Saher Nassar’s ‘Chronicles from the Storm,’ which runs until March 18 at Zawyeh Gallery in Dubai.

‘Chronicles No. 1’

In his latest solo exhibition, the Palestinian artist “reimagines events that push past emotional capacity toward moral exhaustion, questioning the ethical certainty of the human spirit when faced with immense suffering,” according to the show catalogue, with works that “contemplate the devaluation of hope as a fundamental factor of human survival, sometimes revealed as currency for escape, sometimes seen in people resorting to their primal instincts to endure.”

‘Chronicles No. 8’

“Drawing from both personal and collective experiences, the exhibition unfolds as a layered reflection on how repeated trauma reshapes perception, belief, and the instinct to survive,” a press release for the show states. “Nasser translates lived realities into visual studies that move beyond immediate reaction. Rather than seeking resolution or catharsis, the works dwell in a state of moral exhaustion.”

‘Chronicles No. 3’

In “Chronicles from the Storm,” the UAE-based multidisciplinary artist is not attempting to offer answers, the press release suggests; rather, he is “bearing witness” and “inviting viewers to sit with unresolved questions and the uneasy persistence of the human spirit in the aftermath of the storm.” The works on show “carry a restrained intensity, resisting spectacle in favor of contemplation,” the release continues.