A Spanish musician says that the year he attended the Latin Grammy gala in Las Vegas he realized where he was when he was subjected to the red carpet protocol of these awards. Journalists from 200 media outlets from around the world were waiting in this glamorous and uncomfortable anteroom. The objective: to ask inconsequential matters to the musicians who pass by, most of them nominees or presenters. To avoid the “and who are you”, lesser-known musicians carry a sign in their hands where their name is written. The situation can be taken as a humility cure for the musician or as a somewhat cumbersome contact with the gala. This year, at least the Spanish artists will be able to escape this step, since the gala will be held this Thursday, November 16 in Seville (the first time outside the United States in 24 editions, broadcast in Spain on TVE’s La 1 from 10:30 p.m. peninsular time; in Latin America, on Televisa Univisión) and it can be assumed that of the 150 accredited media outlets it is possible for Spanish journalists to identify the artists from their country (are those from Murcia Arde Bogotá over there?). It will be up to Colombians, Mexicans, Argentines to carry the bill, then… The favorites are three Colombians, each with seven nominations: Shakira, Karol G and Camilo. The Spaniard with the most nominations is Pablo Alborán, who has five.
The sun rises in Seville on the eve (Wednesday the 15th) of the Latin Grammys. About 23 degrees for almost the entire day, which makes the efforts to obtain accreditation for the 6,000 people who carry out these awards more bearable. A certain atmosphere of chaos that forces some artist to wait almost an hour and a half until they find their way. This was the case of the Brazilian Anitta. Not so bad for journalists, who only They wait an hour. The cooks at the gala have it more complicated, as for unknown reasons their names do not appear on the computer. They have arrived in Seville from a restaurant in Mallorca. It is to be hoped that in the end they will gain access and be able to serve the 2,000 guests at the Grammy Person of the Year dinner/gala, which this year falls to the Italian Laura Pausini, which is held at night. Everything will happen in the different buildings that make up the Seville Exhibition and Congress Palace (FIBES).
The Latin Grammys were born in 2000 as an appendix to the International Grammys, whose first gala was held back in 1959. Advised by Miami heavyweights such as Emilio Estefan, Tonny Motola or Mauricio Abaroa, the original Grammys agreed to bifurcate their brand “to serve to the projection of Latin music.” The venue that has been repeated the most is Las Vegas, but they have also been held in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Houston. Members of the Latin Recording Academy vote. “More than 5,000 people from 43 countries,” the organization reports, including “musicians, composers, producers and other creative and technical professionals who specialize in Latin genres.” The main rule is this: “All songs that are considered for nominations must be new and have a minimum percentage of the lyrics (51%) in Spanish, Portuguese or any regional autochthonous dialect.”
In 2010, the gala was scheduled to leave the United States for the first time. And the chosen city was Valencia. The outbreak of the Gürtel case with the involvement of Francisco Camps, president of the Generalitat Valenciana at that time, stopped the project. Luis Merino, former director of Los 40 Principales and member of the Latin Grammy Academy for years, has attended several galas: “It takes a lot of work to get the Latin Grammys out of the United States and there has to be a very powerful offer in every sense for let him get out of there. It is much easier to put on a show of this type in the United States. There are many more production and lighting companies, they are very used to it and it is cheaper. And the guarantee you have of services is absolute. If you do it in Las Vegas you have transportation, hotels… They told me that 700 limousines had been hired at a gala. Setting this up in Seville has had to be very expensive.” Specifically, about 20 million euros, which the Government of Andalusia has contributed with some help from the Regional Development Funds of the European Union.
There is one more commercial reason: to use Spain as a springboard to expand the current craze for Latin music to the rest of Europe (France, Germany, Italy, northern Europe…). Once the markets of Latin America, the United States and Spain have been conquered, it is now time for the rest of Europe.
A few drawbacks could be cited to this awards ceremony (is it necessary to cover so much to include a category for best Christian album?), but it would take up too much space and exhaust the reader. They are highly commercial awards and this means leaving out the other part of the world. In the magma of categories (there are 56) there are notable proposals that do not appear in the lists of the most listened to on sacrosanct digital platforms such as Spotify. Some of them: Natalia Lafourcade, Valeria Castro, Silvana Estrada, Babasónico, David Aguilar, Israel Fernández, Dante Spinetta… Also AleMor, a Colombian who has sneaked in with her precise album Beautiful Humans in the category of best vocal album, competing with established artists such as Pablo Alborán or Camilo. A 34-year-old Colombian living in Miami, AleMor (Alejandra Mor) responds to this newspaper from Madrid about whether winning a gramophone changes your career. “Completely. I could charge more…”, she laughs, and adds: “It opens more doors for you and generates more opportunities, that’s clear. “I almost dropped the coffee out of my hands the morning they told me she was nominated.”
Some veterans like Molotov respond from Mexico: “We feel comfortable with the awards because we are going to have a good time, greet friends, meet people we almost never see. We also feel that the artists who should be there are not always in the nominations. On many occasions you find artists who do not exactly correspond to the genre of the nomination one hundred percent. But perhaps it is because many times there is a lack of more music, a lack of more quality and a lack of more nominees to be able to do these categories properly.”
The boycott proposed by J Balvin in 2021 due to the low presence of the urban genre is now forgotten. The 2023 Latin Grammys have happily embraced the urban and the nominations are full of reggaeton, trap, rap… This is AleMor, whose proposal as a pop singer-songwriter is an exception: “I have not encountered any obstacles in my career for being a woman and Latina, but I have found a lack of space to be able to express my art by making music that is not urban. I have nothing against the urban genre, but I do think it takes up too much space and overshadows other styles that are beautiful.” The urban genre dominates the world and awards so attached to the market cannot do anything other than follow the trend. The Mexican-American composer and producer Edgar Barrera, who has accumulated the most nominations (13), offers some information to EL PAÍS about the fervor for singing in Spanish: “I worked with The Weeknd recently and he wants to do something in Spanish.”
The Grammy ceremony is basically a television show. This year only professional audiences and guests will attend. “Due to capacity limitations, the 24th Latin Grammy ceremony will not have tickets for the general public. The majority of attendees will be nominees and people from the Latin music industry,” the organization reports. The Seville Congress Palace has 4,000 seats. And since a gala of this type is worth what its guests look like, the organization has put all its energy into displaying the biggest stars of the moment on stage. They have achieved it. Just seeing Shakira and Rosalía’s performances is worth going to work on Friday with some sleep. They say that the Catalan is preparing something in tune with International Flamenco Day, which is celebrated precisely on November 16. We will see…
Rauw Alejandro, Bizarrap, Pablo Alborán, Maluma, Camilo, Alejandro Sanz… Around twenty artists will also perform. Karol G, another of the stars of the night (seven nominations, like Shakira and Camilo), will be in Seville, but will not perform. The only thing missing would be the current god of Latin music, Bad Bunny, who has five nominations, but the organization is not aware that he will appear. The presenters are the Colombian musician Sebastián Yatra, the Mexican singer Danna Paola, and the actresses Roselyn Sánchez, from Puerto Rico, and the Spanish Paz Vega.
And don’t be scared if you are going to follow them on television: of the 56 categories, only a dozen, the most important, will be awarded at the gala. The rest will be done in a non-televised ceremony.
The most nominated Latin Grammys 2023
Edgar Barrera (composer and producer): 13 nominations.
Shakira: seven nominations.
Karol G: seven nominations.
Camilo: seven nominations.
Kevyn Mauricio Cruz Keityn (composer and producer): seven nominations.
Bizarre: six nominations.
Pablo Alboran: five nominations.
Bad Bunny: five nominations.
Maria Becerra: five nominations.
Feid: five nominations.
Natalia Lafourcade: five nominations.
Main nominations for the 2023 Latin Grammys
song of the year
- Friends – Pablo Alborán and María Becerra
- She dances Alone – Armed Link and Featherweight
- Shakira: BZRP Music sessions, VOL. 53 – Shakira
- POT – Alejandro Sanz and Camilo
- If you love me – Fonseca and Juan Luis Guerra
- TQG – Karol G and Shakira
- Of all the flowers – Natalia Lafourcade
- Brown eyes – Lasso and Sebastián Yatra
Record of the year
- It’s not that I miss you -Christina Aguilera
- Road and blanket – Pablo Alboran
- let me cry for you – Paula Arenas and Jesús Navarro
- Shakira: BZRP Music Sessions, vol. 53 – Shakira
- If you love me – Juan Luis Guerra
- While I heal from my heart – Karol G
- Of all the flowers – Natalia Lafourcade
- Brown eyes – Lasso
- The formula -Maluma and Marc Anthony
- Desperate – Rosalia
- roadrunner – Alejandro Sanz
Album of the year
- The fourth sheet – Pablo Alboran
- Blindly – Paula Arenas
- From inside to outside – Camilo
- Fourteenth – Andres cepeda
- Daily life – Juanes
- Tomorrow will be nice – Karol G
- Of all the flowers – Natalia Lafourcade
- play – Ricky Martin
- Eadda9223 – Fito Paez
- Escalona had never been recorded like this – Carlos Vives
New artist
- Borja
- Divine Connection
- Ana del Castillo
- Natasha Felcao
- Gale
- Paola Guanche
- Joaquina
- Leon Leiden
- Maréh
- Timo
See the complete list of nominees for all 56 categories at this link.
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