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Jennifer Lopez Brings Out Ja Rule for Powerful VMA Performance, Alex Rodriguez Proudly Cheers

Jenny from the Block definitely still has it! Jennifer Lopez took home the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards on Monday, August 20. Lopez’s boyfriend, Alex Rodriguez, as well as her 10-year-old twins, couldn’t stop cheering throughout the entire performance, giving her a standing ovation through the whole thing.

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Jennifer Lopez performs onstage during the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on August 20, 2018 in New York City. Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for MTV

Related: VMAs 2018: See What the Stars Wore

The singer and actress, 49, took the stage at Radio City Music Hall to perform a medley of her hits, starting with “Waiting for Tonight” and leading into “On the Floor.” While she performed, she was surrounded by shirtless singers, who lifted her into the air mid-song.

After stripping off one layer of clothes, she began “Dance Again” and “Ain’t Your Mama.” She then took it back a bit, singing a few bars of “My Love Don’t Cost a Thing” and “Get Right.”

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Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule perform onstage during the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on August 20, 2018 in New York City. Mike Coppola/VMN18/Getty Images for MTV

For her next section, she briefly put on a fur coat on for “All I Have,” before leaving the stage for a quick outfit change. She reentered the stage in a gold sparkly suit to perform “Jenny from the Block. Ja Rule quickly joined her for “I’m Real” and “Ain’t It Funny.” Later, DJ Khaled joined for “Dinero.” The incredible dance numbers were choreographed by So You Think You Can Dance faves Tabitha and Napoleon D’umo.

Related: Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez’s Ridiculously Chic Couple Style

Lopez made a powerful speech following her performance, thanking her boyfriend, her family and her kids.

“It has been an incredible journey of dreaming my wildest dreams and then kind of watching them come true,” she said. “This career has always been kind of an obsession for me. When people said, ‘You’re doing too much. You can only do one thing. I always had it in my mind … I was always the kind of person who said, ‘Why not?'”

Related: 2000s Pop Stars: Then and Now

“It wasn’t until I had two little angels come into my life that everything changed. I knew I had to be better … I knew I had to be stronger than I had been before,” she said. Her son Max sat on Rodriguez’s lap while her daughter Emme say with her mother. “I stand here stronger and better than ever,” she said.

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