Jennifer Lopez: American Idol Is the Right Job for Me

The other day, Ryan Seacrest announced that American Idol judges Simon Cowell, Kara DioGuardi and Ellen DeGeneres had officially been replaced by Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler for season 10.

Speaking with People magazine, JLo explained the decision to accept Fox’s offer was prompted by the realization that the job will mark not only an achievement of her career, but also one on a personal level.

For the first time in a very long time, the singer explains, she, husband Marc Anthony and their twins will finally be able to spend more time together like a regular family.

And she has American Idol to thank for that.

“We’re really happy that we get to be in one place with the babies [2-year-old twins Max and Emme] for a while,” Lopez gushes.

“This is going to put us here for like six months. It’s unheard of for us. The babies can do dance class and soccer practice. We’re excited about being a little bit of a normal family for a little while,” the singer explains.

However, even with that in mind, Lopez still had to do a lot of thinking before accepting the offer, partly because she still had doubts about whether she could cut it as a judge.

Luckily, she and Marc make all the important decisions together and he helped her a lot with this one as well.

“I don’t know that we ever thought I’d do something like this. But when I was a dancer, was I going to be an actress? Yeah,” Lopez says.

“When I was an actress, was I going to be a singer? Yes. I just think this is another evolution of that – and [Marc] explained it to me like that,” the singer adds.

As for how she sees her next job, Jennifer insists she will do her best to be fair and kind, investing in it everything she’s got – just like with any other project she ever got started.

“I’m going to give it my whole heart, soul and passion like I do with everything that I do. I’m looking forward to such a fun year,” Lopez says in the same interview.

That may not be enough, though, some industry insiders believe, as we also informed you yesterday, for the simple reason that a Simon is what the show needs to keep it real – and Lopez is not it because she aims to please everybody.