It’s time to combine the Grammy Awards and the Latin Grammys
Image: Graphic: Natalie Peeples Music Features For Our Consideration
Twenty years ago, the first Latin Grammy Awards were aired as a space to highlight the achievements of Latin musicians. Now, as Latin artists are finding a seat at the table of the music industry at large, perhaps it’s time to do away with the Latin Grammys and incorporate these categories into the Grammy Awards. Along with a broader question of just who is actually being represented by the umbrella term “Latin” (and the ways it can be used to treat the music as a foreign entity), the line between what’s considered Latin and pop music is increasingly blurred, as exemplified with Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny hitting number two on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart this year. As today’s stars are singing and rapping in Spanish—and finding success equal to those doing it in English—there’s no point in treating them as a separate world of music anymore.
The first Latin Grammy Awards aired on September 13, 2000, and the 21st annual ceremony will be held next week. Prior to the inception of these awards, the Grammys included a few Latin-focused prizes, like Best Mexican-American Album. (That’s how late Tex-Mex queen Selena won a Grammy in 1994 for her Selena Live! album.) Those categories, however, didn’t capture the diversity of genres in the Latin music scene. As a result, the Latin Recording Academy that was established in 1997 launched the Latin Grammys. For the first time, Latin music was recognized in 40 categories that included genres like pop, rock, jazz, and regional Mexican music.
The Latin Grammys have represented Latin music for more than 20 ceremonies, but the awards have been criticized throughout the years over questions of who, exactly, they’re representing. The term “Latin,” originally used to describe music recorded in Spanish or Portuguese, has been fraught with controversy. For many Latinx, or people living in Latin America or of Latin American descent in the U.S, it’s ruffled feathers for this catch-all term to also encompass artists from Spain and beyond. Despite the creation of this category with an obvious Latinx connotation, the term’s application to popular Spanish artists arguably leads to them benefiting and profiting more off of the “Latin” label than artists actually from Latin America. At last year’s Latin Grammy Awards, the most-nominated act was Spanish singer-songwriter Alejandro Sanz, who has a career 24 Latin Grammy Awards. On top of that, it’s already a battle in itself to get mainstream media to give “Latin” music the time of day, as the term creates an instant other-ing of any musician categorized as such, giving the impression they are somehow separate from “regular” music coverage.
Re-examination of the term “Latin” to describe Spanish artists was reignited with the success of Rosalía, who won Album of the Year last year—only the second woman to win that award, after Colombian pop star Shakira in 2006. (That’s been another kind of representation battle.) “Latin” is also a label the media bestowed upon Spanish superstar Enrique Iglesias in his rise to the top. Last year, Billboard doubled down in classifying music recorded in Spanish as “Latin music” when it came to Rosalía. “Even though Rosalía wasn’t born in a Latin country, her music is under that great umbrella of what we call Latin Music,” said Leila Cobo, the director of Latin content for Billboard.
Over the past few years, reggaetón has put Latin music on a global stage in terms of recognition and success. At last year’s Latin Grammy Awards, it was noted that artists like pioneer Daddy Yankee, J Balvin, Bad Bunny, and Ozuna were shut out of the major categories like Song, Record, and Album of the Year. After Yankee led the social media protest “Sin Reggaetón, No Hay Latin Grammys” (“Without Reggaéton, There Is No Latin Grammys”), the Latin Recording Academy invited those artists to “get involved with the [voting] process.” This year, reggaetón—a genre that has been looked down upon for its street roots by the very Latin music industry that it’s helping support—dominated the major categories, and J Balvin broke the record for the most nominations in a single year with 13 nominations.
With the anti-Blackness of the music industry coming to light amid the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the Grammy Awards dropped the use of the word “urban” this year from its categories for its racist connotations. The Best Urban Contemporary Album category was updated to Best Progressive R&B Album. At the Latin Grammy Awards, the word “urbano” (used to lump together genres like reggaetón and Latin trap) is still very present in the categories. That’s something that needs to change. As expansive as the Latin Grammy categories are, they still fail to acknowledge genres that are reflected over at the Grammys, such as EDM. In February, Mexican DJ Broz Rodriguez and Colombian producer Sinego led the “100 Latin Producers” song project to highlight the EDM talent in places like Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. Also, there’s been an emerging R&B movement in Latin music with Mexican artists like Girl Ultra and Georgel leading the way. If these awards are going to carry on, the Latin Recording Academy needs to be mindful of all types of music being produced in Spanish.
In talking about his recent album, Agüita, which includes a few songs in Spanish, New York City-based singer-songwriter Gabriel Garzón-Montano touched on the issues of having separate Grammy Awards for Latin music artists. “You have the Grammys [and] the Latin Grammys,” he told NPR. “You have, as an American, pop records and then you have ‘world music,’ which is just literally saying, like, us and them. It’s very standoffish.” Following the worldwide breakthrough of Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” in 2017, artists like J Balvin, Bad Bunny, Ozuna, and Maluma have been helping maintain Latin music’s momentum. Their names are among the most-streamed globally on Spotify, next to pop stars like Drake, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Justin Bieber. In 2019, Latin music was the fourth-most-streamed genre in the U.S., placing ahead of EDM and country music. In on-demand video streaming, the genre moved into third place, ahead of rock music. As music has become more readily available on streaming platforms, the numbers are showing the undeniable power of Latin music in the grand scheme of the music industry.
Bad Bunny broke the record for this year for the highest-charting fully Spanish album on the Billboard 200 chart with YHLQMDLG. He peaked at No. 2 and his follow-up, a mixtape of unreleased tracks titled Las Que No Iban A Salir, reached No. 7 a few months later. It will be interesting to see if the Grammy Awards take into consideration his album’s historic feat in the nominations for the 2021 ceremony. As Latin music breaks down language barriers and settles comfortably into pop music, there’s no longer any need to draw a distinction between the two labels. The Grammy Awards should absorb the Latin Grammy Awards categories, so that music in Spanish gets the respect it deserves and is no longer treated like a second-class citizen in the industry at large. The Latin Grammys’ Album, Record, and Song of the Year can and should be re-introduced as Latin categories, but really, the Grammy general categories should be more reflective of Latin music’s impact. “Music’s Biggest Night” surely has room to fully honor the diversity of Latin music in the mix.
37 Comments
How about merging all the country awards into one? There seems to be about six in a year. There was one on tonight, and I swear it was at least the second pandemic-protocol one.
“Welcome to the Oscar Gremmy Nobel Prize Olympics!”
Now THAT I would watch. People flippin’ around to pop songs while a slideshow of recently deceased actors plays behind them? And then there’d be a TED Talk?? Hell yeah!
The term “Latin,” originally used to describe music recorded in Spanish or PortugueseNomen linguae ductum est a terra quae gentes Latine loquentes incolebant, Latium vetus interdum appellata, in paeninsula Italica inter Tiberim, Volscos, Appenninum, et mare Inferum sita.
Canis est in mensa stat. Pestus! Fercefer Grumio dixit.
heh, dixit.
gratias tibi
http://s1288.red/
Be careful what you wish for, Latin Grammys being subsumed by traditional Grammys may result in the former disappearing entirely.
That’s totally nuts, there’s a reason we have a Latin Grammys.
They’d just get washed out by the implicit bias of voters. See this all the time with rap and r&b artists.
Maybe they could hold the Latin Grammys at the same time as the Grammys, only separate them with some kind of divider. A line of tape, perhaps, or even a fence. Maybe something more robust than a fence? Even a wall?
Yeah, but who’s gonna pay for it?
Mexico?
The Latin Grammys. Duh.
On the one hand, yeah. Yes. On the other, acts that aren’t strictly pop or aren’t pop-adjacent would never get recognized or rightly awarded without the Latin Grammys. Latinidad is such a huge tapestry of countries, cultures, ethnicities, and races that even the Latin Grammys are barely able to recognize it all. I don’t know if the regular Grammys would be able to incorporate the Latin Grammys’ award categories in any meaningful way. As Latin music breaks down language barriers and settles comfortably into pop music, there’s no longer any need to draw a distinction between the two labels.
And… I get the concerns, but when it comes to music, I find it hard to exclude Ale Sanz and Rosalía from … ‘Latin’ music as an umbrella. There’s a lot of crossover between Spain and Latin America in musical terms.
i had a discussion with one of my professors after watching the first latin grammys. his opinion was that it was basically created by the estefans to launch shakira as an international artist.also: latin grammys be real light-skinned. cafe con leche or GTFO.
My guess is you’d end up with one or two nominees per category out of the current “Latin” basket. It would be good exposure for those acts, less for the others. I don’t see why an artist or song that’s big in general wouldn’t also be thrown into the pool with everyone else. Seems you could keep the Latin Grammys while expanding the scope of who’s included in the big show.
But also consider how long the show will be if they combine. At least 4+ hours? Then they’ll add the Black Grammys (BET) and World Music…. Make a day of it.
2021: “It’s Time To De-Combine The Latin Grammys From The Grammys Again So They Can Get Proper Exposure”
Funny how the world turns, isn’t it?
To be clear, the Oscars are a great example of why this isn’t a good idea.
Jesus H. Christ (that’s Him here)
What next? You gonna let black/brown chicks in the White Miss America?
Counterpoint: it’s time to do away with the Grammys altogether.
Now you’re talking!
Jethro Tull disagrees.
From what little I pay attention to Grammys they seem to have little interest in music and more interest in pop name recognition and record label clout. You can be the best musician in the world but if you don’t have a major label at your back you basically don’t exist.
I don’t think that’s a good idea on the count that I don’t recognize any of these faces on the header image and didn’t even know the Latin Grammys existed. Putting in a few Latin categories is the most you can do right now. But having them compete for the same awards would be like introducing your new girlfriend to your kids as “your new mommy from now on”. You do it too fast and there could be a lot of resentment. I think, introducing this conversation is the excellent first step. I think the second step should be getting the Latin Grammys on mainstream TV as a seperate show.
I think it speaks more to the fact that you don’t keep up with pop music if you have no idea who these people are. You probably don’t know who the Chemical Brothers or Flume are, or even what category they were nominated under, do you? If you’re not into EDM you probably wouldn’t.Do you know who Tyler the Creator is and what grammy he won and what he was nominated for the time before that? If you aren’t into rap and r&b you probably wouldn’t.Hispanic people are becoming a huge demographic in the US. They will soon be the majority.I saw more of the same from ignorant people who had no idea who Travis Scott was and why McDonalds has a meal with his name on it. Music is much bigger than just The Beatles nowadays. Just because you don’t understand that doesn’t mean these artists aren’t huge. It probably means you’re out of touch, which happens to all of us eventually.
Yeah, but you said it the best. Hispanic people are becoming a huge demographic. So, what makes these artists “pop”ular is the increasing Hispanic population, not the overwhelmingly increasing interest in Hispanic music from other demographics. If all of a sudden, every other nominee is in a language majority of people don’t speak, it could be seen as a hostile takeover.
And I still know who Billie Eillish is. And Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, The Weeknd, Maroon 5, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Charlie Puth, Ed Sheehran, Shawn Mendes. These are just from the top of my head. I am 31. Not 65. I listen to these artists more than the Beatles. I see the chances of BTS being nominated for the Grammys more likely than “those” guys.
It’s basically the Puerto Rican Grammys this year (with some Colombians too). Brazil and Mexico are the largest “Latin American” countries yet you don’t see them at all you until get down to the awards for regional music genres. There was complaints that they weren’t nominating reggaeton last year, so this year it’s almost all reggaeton and urbano in the top categories—though it’s also going to always focus on the Latin genres that crossover in the US outside the Latin market.
Agree with the sentiment but in the end only a couple of acts will get highlighted and they’ll just keep giving everything to Taylor Swift anyway.
I think it’s nice to have your own things sometimes and have spaces that are hospitable to you sometimes. The White Grammys can keep their space and format.
Why on eaaaaaaarth is this your takeaway instead of “the Grammys are hot trash, completely out of touch with modern music.” I feel that would have segued nicely into discussing the Latin Grammys, with its huge array of extremely popular and successful musicians that are ignored by the mainstream Grammys every year. Because it’s not like it’s JUST “Latin” artists that are ignored. When have the Grammys ever really been culturally relevant? They still don’t fundamentally get hip-hop, ffs.