During the ‘premiere’ of the ceremony, 45 of the 53 awards of the night will be awarded. The party will be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
A constellation of artists will parade at the Latin Grammy Awards, which this Thursday, November 18, return to Las Vegas for their first face-to-face ceremony in two years, with Camilo, Juan Luis Guerra and C. Tangana leading the nominations.
The ceremony, which in 2020 was held virtually from Miami due to the pandemic, is also marked by a recent exchange of words between the Colombian J Balvin and the Puerto Rican René Pérez about the prominence that reggaeton has achieved in the biggest awards party. to music in Spanish and Portuguese.
The Latin Recording Academy confirmed the participation of the Spanish C. Tangana, the Mexican Gloria Trevi, the Chilean Mon Laferte, the Cubans from Gente de Zona, Jon Secada, the Colombian Camilo and the Brazilian Nando Reis in Thursday’s gala.
Salsero Rubén Blades, who the night before the ceremony will be honored with the Person of the Year award, will also sing accompanied by about twenty musicians.
“The ceremony promises to be an exceptional celebration of musical excellence, which will go hand in hand with an inspiring narrative,” anticipated the organizers of the party to be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Camilo, with ten nominations, leads the list of awards. The 27-year-old Colombian competes with Rich life to the song of the year and the recording of the year, and with My hands for album of the year.
Dominican Juan Luis Guerra continues with six nominations, including record of the year and album of the year.
For his part, C. Tangana (whose real name is Antón Álvarez) won five nominations with his successful work The Madrilenian, which mixes rhythms from Spain and Latin America, and which competes for the best album of the year. The Spanish artist, who has shown great versatility, also disputes, in various collaborations, categories such as best alternative song and pop / rock.
‘They don’t value us’
After the announcement of the winners in September, Colombian reggaeton J Balvin sparked a controversy by asking to boycott the ceremony on his social networks.
“The Grammys don’t value us, but they need us. It is my opinion and nothing against the other genres, because they deserve all the respect. (…) We give them rating but they don’t give us respect ”, tweeted the singer, who this year got three nominations, compared to ten last year.
Puerto Rican René Pérez, Resident, stepped out and confronted Balvin: “If the Grammys don’t value us, then why am I 31? I’m not urban, I don’t rap? What genre are we talking about? ”, Said the former vocalist of Calle 13.
Residente turned up his response by comparing Balvin’s music to “a hot dog cart”: popular, but not worthy of a Michelin star.
The virtual confrontation once again highlighted the dissatisfaction of some reggaeton exhibitors with the Latin Recording Academy, which last year, after repeated criticism for the absence of the genre, included for the first time the category best reggaeton performance.
This year the reggaeton players did not dominate the general nominations, but performers like Bad Bunny dispute the most important items of the night.
Tribute to Marília Mendonça
During the premiere 45 of the 53 awards of the night will be awarded from the ceremony. Meanwhile, the Latin Recording Academy announced a special prelude for the delivery of the seven Portuguese-speaking categories, in which great names of Brazilian music stand out, such as the samba players Paulinho da Viola and Martinho da Vila.
The so-called “queen of the sertanejo”, Marília Mendonça, who tragically died in a plane crash on November 5 at the age of 26, is nominated together with the duo Maiara & Maraísa for the best sertaneja music album, with Mistresses.
Mendonça, whose songs exceed 100 million views on Spotify, was one of the most influential artists in Brazil. The young artist, winner of a Latin Grammy in 2019 and with a meteoric career, will be honored during the premiere of the gala.
By positioning women as protagonists, Mendonça became a feminist icon and revolutionized the sertanejo, music country Brazilian.
The director of the Latin Recording Academy, Manuel Abud, promised “an afternoon full of camaraderie and unique moments”, and said “he was excited” to gather members and nominees in the run-up to the main awards of the night. (E)
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