For the first time in the history of the Latin Grammys, the prestigious music awards in Spanish and Portuguese leave the United States and will be awarded this Thursday in Spain, in a gala with Colombians Shakira, Karol G and Camilo as the main nominees.
The 24th edition of these awards, widely followed in Latin America and Spain and which in the past have honored artists such as Juanes, Calle 13, Natalia Lafourcade or Alejandro Sanz, will be held at the Palacio de Congresos y Expósitos (FIBES) in Seville, Andalusia. (south).
"Our music travels farther and farther," said Manuel Abud, executive director of the Latin Recording Academy, organizer of these awards, which are usually held in Las Vegas and have sometimes traveled to American cities with a large Latin population, such as Miami. , New York or Houston.
This will be "the first of many international editions of the Latin Grammys," Abud predicted.
– Colombian domain –
This edition will have a strong Colombian flavor, judging by the stars who arrive with the most nominations, Shakira, Karol G and Camilo, each with seven.
Shakira will fight for one of the most coveted awards, Record of the Year, with her collaboration with Bizarrap, the "Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53", a song that has almost 1.5 billion views between Spotify and YouTube and that the artist herself defined as his "great relief" after his breakup with former soccer player Gerard Piqué.
Both Shakira and Bizarrap, who at 25 years old is the most listened to Argentine artist in the world, will perform at the gala, where performances by Rosalía, Rauw Alejandro, Andrea Bocelli, Alejandro Sanz, Maluma and Sebastián Yatra are also expected, the latter one of the drivers of the night.
The multiple nominations of Karol G, who competes in the main categories, confirm the consolidation of reggaeton as a popular genre in the Latin Recording Academy, which only included the category of Best Performance of the genre in 2020 after many complaints from artists.
Karol G and Shakira compete together with the hit "Tqg" in the categories where reggaeton is king, such as Best Urban Song and Best Urban Fusion/Performance.
In the Recording of the Year category, in addition to Shakira and Karol G, solo artists such as Rosalía (“Despechá”), Lasso (“Ojosbrowns”) and Natalia Lafourcade (“Of all the flowers”), and in collaboration, such as Maluma, compete. and Marc Anthony (“The Formula”), Fonseca and Juan Luis Guerra (“If You Love Me”) and Alejandro Sanz and Danny Ocean (“Correcaminos”).
– Pausini, “half-Latin” –
Beyond the performers, the person with the most nominations, 13 in total, including Producer of the Year and Composer of the Year, is the Mexican Edgar Barrera, involved as a composer in many of the songs in contention.
"The 'cool' thing about the Grammys is that they give the honor to those of us behind it, because many times people don't know who are the ones who write and produce the songs," Barrera said this Tuesday at a press conference in Seville.
As is tradition, a large part of the 56 gramophones delivered by the Academy will be unveiled at the so-called Premiere, the preview of the biggest Latin music festival, which will take place before the gala begins at 10:30 p.m. (9:30 p.m. GMT).
One day before, on Wednesday, the Italian Laura Pausini will receive the Person of the Year award in a ceremony, coinciding with the celebration of her 30 years of musical career.
I spend "half the year in Europe, half the year in Latin America; It means that I am half Latina and if (…) I don't sing in Spanish, I am not complete," Pausini, only the third woman to receive this honorary award, after Gloria Estefan and Shakira, said at a press conference.
“I have always felt adopted” by Spanish speakers, added the 49-year-old Italian singer, who will present her new album, “Almas paralleles,” on a tour of Latin America in 2024.
At Thursday's gala, the academy will present the gramophone for musical excellence to the Spanish Carmen Linares and Ana Torroja, the Mexican Mijares, the Cuban Arturo Sandoval, the Brazilian Simone and the Argentine group Soda Stereo, led by the late Gustavo Cerati.
