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She conquered the big screen with her knockout performances in Out Of Sight and Selena. And now she's ready to blow up the music scene. Actress Jennifer Lopez reveals a new persona as la cantante with her singing debut.

It's a winter night in New York City, and outside a freezing wind whips indiscriminately, pitching icy gusts into the teary faces of strangers. Meanwhile, inside the womb of Sony Studios with Jennifer Lopez, the temperature is steadily rising. "This track is hot!" she screams over the blare of "Let's Get Loud," a selection from her very first disc, due out this spring.

Lopez is a vision of loveliness in her winter whites and her lavender boots - even more so, perhaps, because she is fulfilling a dream. The biggest Latina movie star around these days, Lopez is on a mission to launch another successful career - as a recording artist.

"I recorded this with Emilio Estefan in South Beach," she says, as the pulse of Estefan's beats begin to fade. She opens a bottle of grape drink before sitting down on the studio's leather couch. "He played me a bunch of tracks, then Gloria [Estefan] remembered a song she had recorded but decided against using. It was Gloria who suggested that Emilio give me this song." The autobiography continues. "After I had finished filming Selena, I was really feeling my Latin roots. I cut a demo all in Spanish, but the big companies were more interested in doing an English record. So I decided the record would be a blend of all of my influences."

Curvy, nervy, and a competent songstress, the 28 year-old just experienced a somewhat imperfect year - a roller-coaster ride, really. For one thing, Lopez divorced her husband of one year, Ojani Noa (a subject not open for discussion). Then there are those rumors of romantic ties to rap impresario Puff Daddy. But Lopez insists it's all about the music. "Puff Daddy has heard some of my stuff, and he really likes it. He feels I created something different and new," she says, laughing. "And he should know because he's the best in the business." And last summer, though she won critical acclaim as the high-heeled, fierce femme in the film Out of Sight (with George Clooney), her unscripted performance on the pages of film magazine Movieline sparked quite a flap.

"Sometimes journalists try to create a persona that's not really there," says Lopez, who was accused of dissing fellow Hollywood dream kittens Cameron Diaz, Winona Ryder, and Gwyneth Paltrow, among others, in that infamous interview. "It used to bother me being portrayed as this bitchy person, but now I feel that the public understands me better than some writer. There are people who know who I really am, and that's good enough for me."

To be one of those people would be to know of Lopez's unpredictable sense of humor and her unexpected playfulness. She recently returned to the Bronx of her childhood to do a photo shoot for a book on best friends. With Arlene Rodriguez, her best friend since second grade, Lopez decided to relive the Catholic-school days for the shoot. "It was all her idea to dress up in the plaid Catholic-school uniforms," says Rodriguez, who works as her personal assistant. "I was really scared because those plaid skirts never looked good on me, but we had so much fun." Growing up, Lopez was surrounded by diverse musical genres. "I was in third grade when The Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight' changed my life," she reminisces. It's difficult to imagine Lopez break dancing in her Jenny Jen graffiti sweatshirt, Lee jeans, Adidas sneakers with phat shoelaces, and big hoop earrings.

As she walked to school in her uniform, the seminal sounds of the Bronx underground and neighborhood boom boxes became her sound track. "But then, when I came home, my mother would be listening to Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, or Diana Ross. That's my background, so I wanted to include all of those elements in my own music. It's what I call Latin soul."

Unlike many actors who have recorded instant bargain-bin bombs, the shrewd Lopez is bringing more than ego and nostalgia to her debut project. "After signing with Sony, I discussed how I wanted the record to sound," she says. "I was played many songs, by artists ranging from Babyface to Diane Warren, but I felt it was important that my record be less pop and have more urban Latin appeal. Of course, that took a little explaining." Blessed with a dream team of collaborators that includes co-executive producer Cory Rooney and her resident vocal coach, soul survivor Betty Wright (whose sassy "Clean Up Woman" is an R&B classic), Lopez has already recorded a batch of songs with noted songwriters/producers, including Track Masters (who worked with Mariah Carey) and Emilio Estefan. She cowrote the lyrics for the touching "Should Have Never." And she even sings an enchanting Spanish-language duet with spicy salsa dish Marc Anthony, who gave her some advice. "'Make the listener feel every word,' he said, and that's what I'm trying to do," she reports.

"I've been trying to discover what works, to tap into the emotion and drama that I bring into my acting," she adds. "And believe me, there has always been a lot of praying on my part."

Chuckling at her vocal protegee's serious tone, Wright says, "Since the first day we began working together I've called her Sister Face. It has two meanings: First, she is so cute, but at the same time Jennifer doesn't have a problem facing down any issues that might bother her. There are folks who will backstab or talk when you're not around, but Jennifer will face anything. She also has to be one of the most spiritual persons I've ever met."

Like many young Puerto Rican princesses coming of age in the wild kingdom of the boogie-down Bronx, Jennifer Lopez is a product of her parochial school upbringing. "Although I went to church every Sunday, it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized how important it is to have a relationship with God."

But what about the curse of guilt that is supposed to loom over every Catholic's head like a dark cloud? "I've been doing a lot of reading recently about the way the human mind works," says Lopez. "What stayed with me was a chapter describing guilt as a useless emotion. It doesn't make you feel good, it doesn't change anything. If you want to change something, then change it. That's the only way to get rid of ugly feelings."