Latin Grammy Award

Latin Grammy Award
Awarded for Outstanding achievements in the Latin music industry, primarily for works recorded in either Spanish or Portuguese
Country United States
Presented by Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences
First awarded September 13, 2000
Official website Website

A Latin Grammy Award is an award by The Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works produced anywhere around the world that were recorded in either Spanish or Portuguese and is awarded in the United States.[1] However, both awards have similar nominating and voting processes, in which the selections are decided by peers within the music industry.

The first annual Latin Grammys ceremony was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on September 13, 2000. Broadcast by CBS, that first ceremony became the first primarily Spanish language primetime program carried on an English-language American television network. The 15th Annual Latin Grammy Awards were held on November 20, 2014 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.[2]

Currently the awards are broadcast in the United States by the television network Univision.[3] In 2013, 9.8 million people watched the Latin Grammy Awards on Univision, making the channel a top-three network for the night in the U.S.[4]

History

The Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences was formed by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in 1997. It was founded by Michael Greene and Producers & Songwriters Rudy Pérez & Mauricio Abaroa. Rudy Perez was the Grammy Florida chapter"s first President of the Board. The following year, the Latin Grammys were introduced with over 39 categories included limited to Spanish and Portuguese-speaking recordings. The concept of the Latin Grammy Awards began in 1989.[5] According to organizers, the Latin Grammy Awards was established due to Latin music universe too being large to fit on the regular Grammy Awards.[6] In 2000, it was announced that the 1st Annual Latin Grammy Awards would take place at the Staples Center on September 13, 2000. On July 7, 2000, the nominations were announced in Miami, Florida, USA. The first telecast took place at the Staples Center and was broadcast. The following year's show was canceled due to the September 11, 2001 attacks, which was the same day the show was to take place.[7] In 2002, the academy elected its first independent Board of Trustees. In 2005, the broadcast was moved from CBS to Univision where the whole telecast was in Spanish.[8] Voting members live in various regions in the US and outside of the US in regions including Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.[9] To be eligible a recording must have been recorded in Spanish or Portuguese. Products recorded in languages and dialects such as Catalan, Nahuatl, Quechua, Galician, Valencian, Mayan, may be accepted by majority vote of the committees of the Latin Recording Academy.[10] The eligibility period is July 1 to June 30 for a respective awards ceremony. Recordings are first entered and then reviewed to determine the awards they are eligible for. Following that, nominating ballots are mailed to voting members of the academy. The votes are tabulated and the five recordings in each category with the most votes become the nominees. Final voting ballots are sent out to voting members and the winners are determined. Winners are later announced at the Latin Grammy Awards. The current President & CEO of the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences is Gabriel Abaroa,[11] who is related to Mauricio, one of the founders.

Altogether there are three events: the Life Achievement when renowned artists are honored for lifetime achievement; Person of the Year, when one artist is honored at a gala dinner, and Grammy itself, an award that brings together artists from all over Latin America and Spain and that today is broadcast live to 80 countries, including Brazil, by channel Univision (TNT in Brazil).[12]

Awards

Award categories

Alike from the Grammy Award there is a general field consisting of four genre-less award categories:

The rest of the fields are genre-specific.[13] Special non-competitive awards are also given out for more long-lasting contributions to the music industry.

The first telecast had 40 awards presented however the following year 38 awards were presented. The most recent telecast in 2010 had a total of 46 awards presented.

Awards by artists' country of origin

Country 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Total
 Mexico 11 12 8 9 10 9 13 6 8 12 11 8 14 5 136
 Brazil 13 10 8 8 9 9 9 9 11 11 9 10 9 11 135
 Colombia 2 3 4 5 1 4 6 6 7 9 2 11 5 8 73
 Spain 2 7 7 5 9 5 3 4 2 3 4 4 2 57
 Puerto Rico 1 3 2 2 2 4 6 6 6 9 1 11 2 55
 Argentina 3 2 2 2 2 3 7 3 4 5 9 6 - 47
 United States 1 2 1 4 4 4 1 6 6 2 3 5 3 42
 Cuba 4 3 5 3 4 2 4 1 2 2 2 4 4 40
 Dominican Republic 3 1 - - 1 2 2 6 - - 3 - 3 21
 Venezuela 1 1 - - - - - 3 1 1 4 2 2 15
 Guatemala - 1 - - - - 4 - - - - - 5 10
 Panama - - - 1 - - - 1 2 1 1 1 - 7
 Peru - - 1 - - 1 - - - - - 2 1 5
 Uruguay - - - - 1 - - 1 - - - - 2 4
 Italy - - - - - 1 - 1 - 1 - - - 3
 Nicaragua - - - - - - - - - 2 - - 1 3
 Canada - - - - - - - - - - 2 - - 2
 Chile - - 1 - 1 - - - - - - - - 2
 France - - - - 1 - - 1 - - - - - 2
 Ecuador - - - - - - - - - 1 - - - 1

Sources: [14]

Criticism

As with its Grammy Awards counterpart, the Latin Grammy Awards has also received criticism from various recording artists and music journalists.

Upon the announcement of the Latin Grammy Awards in 1999, several musical journalists raised concerns about the awards being using used as a marketing tool by the mainstream media. Manny S. Gonzalez of the Vista En L.A felt that the award would just be used to advertise artists being promoted by Emilio Estefan. The lack of categories for non Spanish and Portuguese-speaking categories has been criticized,[15] namely by Haitian artists who consider compas a similar genre to Dominican merengue music but are ineligible because they performed in French Creole, Jamaican artists, and Celtic musicians from the Basque region of Spain.[6] In 2001, Cuban exiles living in Miami protested at the Latin Grammy Awards for allowing musicians living in Cuba to perform at the stage. This resulted in the Latin Grammys being moved to Los Angeles for the second annual awards (which would eventually be canceled due to the aforementioned September 11 attacks).[16]

Venezuelan singer-songwriter Franco de Vita called the Latin Grammys "fake and a lie" and stated that if he were to win the award, he would not accept it.[17] He later received a Latin Grammy for his album En Primera Fila. American musician Willie Colón observed the relationship between the Latin Grammys and major Latin record labels.[18] Mexican singer-songwriter Aleks Syntek noted that Mexican artists in general were apathetic towards the awards.[19]

Ceremony locations

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Latin Recording Academy FAQ". Retrieved 2011-01-22. Q: Which product can participate in the Latin GRAMMY? A: Any product that has been released in the eligibility period and which is recorded in Spanish or Portuguese.
  2. ↑ 15th Annual Latin Grammy Awards® To Be Broadcast Live On Univision From LasVegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena Thursday, Nov. 20
  3. ↑ "Latin Grammys on Univision for another six years: Latin Recording Academy extends deal with network". June 26, 2012. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  4. ↑ "The Latin Grammy Awards Celebrates Obama’s Immigration Plan". November 21, 2014. p. Time. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  5. ↑ Pareles, Jon (September 16, 2000). "Critic's Notebook; Latin Faces Light Up TV Courtesy of The Grammys". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa (2000-09-12). "One Little Word, Yet It Means So Much". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company). Retrieved 2013-12-25.
  7. ↑ O'Toole, Caitlin (2001-09-11). "Emmys, Latin Grammys Canceled". People. Retrieved 2011-07-25.
  8. ↑ http://corporate.univision.com/corp/en/pr/MIAMI_31102005-0.html
  9. ↑ Garza, Augustin (2002-05-18). "Latin Grammys Struggle With Loss of Momentum". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company). Retrieved 2014-09-24.
  10. ↑ "FAQ". Latin Grammy Awards. Latin Recording Academy. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  11. ↑ The Latin Recording Academy® Promotes Gabriel Abaroa Jr. to President/CEO
  12. ↑ Grammy Latino 2013 - You Must go!
  13. ↑ Have You Listened to Hispanic Christian Music Lately? Andree Farias CCM Magazine 12 Jul 2005 – “Now the Latin GRAMMYs have a category for Hispanic Christian music, and so do the Latin Billboard awards.” Unlike the GRAMMYs (which ..."
  14. ↑ Fulghum, Sherrill (2010-11-11). "2010 Latin Grammy Award Winners". allvoices.com. Retrieved 2011-07-25.
  15. ↑ Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa (1999-06-25). "New Latin Grammys Introduced". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company). Retrieved 2013-12-25.
  16. ↑ Vanhorn, Teri (2001-08-20). "Latin Grammys Relocated To Avoid Miami Protests". MTV. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
  17. ↑ "Franco De Vita Dice Que Los Premios Latin Grammy Son Falsos". La Grande 107.5 (in Spanish). 2010-10-07. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
  18. ↑ Música “Latina” y los Premios Grammy: una visión critica (un texto deWillie Colon) (*). Introducción y traducción del inglés de Alejandro Cardona. Suplemento 33 (in Spanish)
  19. ↑ Aleks Syntek critica al GRAMMY (in Spanish) Univision.com Accessed on 2014-08-30

Further reading

External links