The Latin GRAMMYs at 25: The Latin music universe keeps on expanding

When you land in Miami, you don’t arrive when the plane hits the tarmac. You haven’t arrived when you step through the air bridge or wait at baggage claim. You arrive when the automatic doors of the airport exit part ways and an intense blast of heat suddenly hits. “Now you’re in Miami!” exclaims our transfer driver Martin. The tropical greeting is an appropriate welcome this mid-November week, with many of the hottest music acts on the planet jetting in for the 25th annual Latin GRAMMY Awards (held at the Miami Heat basketball arena).

The Floridian city is buzzing with related festivities across the week, temporarily becoming the centre of the Latin music world, bursting at the seams with pre-parties, concerts, showcases and special events. On Monday, mere minutes after landing from a long haul, we find ourselves outside a discreet studio in Downtown Miami, whispering a secret password “ZORRO” to gain entrance to a launch party for Puerto Rican idol Rauw Alejandro’s ambitious new album ‘Cosa Nuestra’. The LP follows the heartbreak of splitting from former fiancée Rosalía, after his engagement to the Spanish pop star was called off last year, and deals with moving on, weaving a styles such as reggeaton, dancehall and salsa romántica into a stirring blend of sounds. At the event he’s personable and in high spirits, regaling us with memories of an impromptu party he sparked in Hyde Park last time he was in London which was shut down by police, in a story that tingles our penchant for an illegal rave.

Elsewhere in the build-up to the “Biggest Night in Latin Music”, you might find the recipient of the top award Person of the Year, Colombian singer Carlos Vives, donating instruments and educational experiences to local schools during the day, or Argentine-Spanish superstar Nathy Peluso leaning into the party stylings of her ‘Club Grasa’ EP with a performance at Wynwood’s Latin nightlife spot La Otra in the early hours. Other day-to-day occurrences range from Colombian band Bomba Estéreo lacing up to join a local soccer match to pop-up performances in museums to offshoot honours like the Leading Ladies ceremony, which salutes “professional and socially conscious women in the arts and Latin entertainment fields”.

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Given all that’s going down and the wealth of talent involved, it’s fair to say the decision to found The Latin Recording Academy as its own entity in 1997, due to rampant expansion of the Latin music world becoming too big to just be a GRAMMYs subcategory, was an obligatory one. The industry is a behemoth, valued at $1.4 billion in the US alone last year; it accounted for four out of 10 of the top streamed artists in the world on Spotify (Bad Bunny, Peso Pluma, Feid and Karol G), while many of its biggest stars such as Shakira, Anitta, J Balvin and Maluma have social media followings exceeding 100 million.

The Latin GRAMMYs arm has been running since 2000, annually celebrating artists who speak and make music in Spanish, Portuguese or other languages and dialects you might find among Ibero-American populations (defined in this case as Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the Latinx population in Canada and the United States). A dedicated occasion to toast to their musical excellence and achievements has, for the most part, been welcome.

“At Latin GRAMMYs you collect a lot of appreciation and blessings,” says Nathy Peluso, speaking in the lead up to the ceremony. “In the day to day, and workload and life, you're too busy, and moments like these allow you to celebrate with your team and your peers in a specific environment which is created for it.”

Argentine hip hop artist Trueno first made his name in music winning freestyle rap competitions, and now a certified superstar, he enjoys how awards maintain a competitive edge to his career. “The battles keep on going!” he declares. “The nerves are still there, and that's a beautiful thing to see, life goes on with more battles.” For compatriot cuarteto artist Luck Ra, being present marks the fulfilment of a childhood dream. “I always watch the Latin GRAMMYs on the TV and now I have the opportunity of being here, enjoying and seeing it in person. It's an honour to me,” he says, sporting an electric blue dye job for the occasion.

It’s not been without controversies. The initial exclusion of French Creole-speaking Haitians was contested and corrected, while on the other side of the coin, the inclusion of European artists has been a point of dissension in light of violent colonial histories and accusations of whitewashing previously sparking boycotts from major Latin American artists. “International growth is consistent with our mission,” Latin Recording Academy CEO Manuel Abud said in defence of a money-spinning deal for an edition held in Spain last year, the first outside of the US. While it retreated back Stateside this year, more international locations have been plotted “in the next couple of years”, as the industry flexes its global ambition.

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A gladly received area of expansion for 2024 is the introduction of an Electronic Music field with an award for Best Latin Electronic Music Performance, with the Academy noting “Latin electronic music is accelerating at an exhilarating pace, dominating the airwaves from the radios to the clubs.” It draws dance music giant and nominee Alok to the ceremony with a group of indigenous Brazilian artists in tow. Unfortunately, though, our previous questioning of Why do the Grammys get dance music so wrong? holds weight again, with the award given to a remix by Dutch DJ Tiësto (of a track by Bizarrap & Shakira). But the field’s existence creates potential for future recognition for producers from the region making some of the most exciting club music in the game right now, such as Colombia’s Verraco, Ecuador’s Nicola Cruz or Venezuela’s DJ Babatr, to name just a few.

Some of ceremony’s best performances came from veteran stars — including the fireworks-backed opening medley from Carlos Vives, Brazilian excellence from Anitta and Tiago Iorc paying tribute to Sérgio Mendes with a gorgeous take on ‘Mas Que Nada’, Marc Anthony and La India uniting their extraordinary vocals, and a Pitbull and Jon Bon Jovi collab bringing the house down — though an older guard of victors was a less inspiring theme of the night, given all the youth-inspired evolution that’s helping Latin music explode in popularity. Juan Luis Guerra and Jorge Drexler, both in their 60s, and Luis Fonsi, best known for 2017 sensation ‘Despacito’, won in major categories Record, Album, Song and Pop Vocal Album of the Year, beating the likes of Bad Bunny, Kali Uchis and Emilia, whose contemporary takes on styles such as Latin trap, reggaeton, neo soul and dance-pop has made them phenomenons.

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A more gratifying result comes via Nathy Peluso making a clean sweep of three wins from three nominations. She’s shown her appreciation for the electronic underground this year with her ‘Club Grasa’ EP featuring remixes from the likes of CRRDR, TAYHANA and Merca Bae. “I chose people who are making a difference, the vanguard of the club scene. Not necessarily famous people, but talented people with a special vision,” she tells us, amid anecdotes about clubbing in Berlin. “The underground is where the powerful things start. When you are on the top, it's a different environment around you. But when you are in the underground you are pushing with all your strength. I always try to keep that state of mind. I always want to feel connected and keep going and engaging, because that's how you stay relevant and connected to the scene.”

This year, Abud called the nominees “an international and diverse group of creators representing the richness and vastness of today’s Latin music”, revealing “our Awards Process is more robust than ever, with our membership evaluating over 23,000 entries.” There are nods for rising musicians whose art is culturally important and speaks for underrepresented communities to be found. “It's a good thing to support those hidden talents and give them visibility,” says 19-year-old Dominican rapper J Noa, who received her second nomination this year. Her rise to prominence has piqued interest in Dominican storytelling and dialect, with media platforms like Buzzfeed’s Pero Like tapping her to explain local slang to their audience. “I really want to represent our slang, because I want people to know our culture,” J Noa says. Having previously called rappers the “journalists of our communities”, she elaborates when we meet in Miami: “People in the neighbourhood don't have a voice outside of the neighbourhood, so it's important for us artists who have the visibility to let everyone know about both the good and the bad things that are happening.”

Trueno is another multi-nominee who’s been using his platform to represent his home of La Boca in Buenos Aires, including hosting his viral Tiny Desk performance in a tenement of the barrio wearing a Boca Juniors bucket hat. “It allowed me to put a window into my world and for a lot of people to see what's there and what went into my music. That was a very beautiful thing,” he says, days before winning his first Latin GRAMMY for Best Urban Fusion/Performance, which he validated with a rousing rendition of ‘Tranky Funky’ during the main ceremony. Having been exploited by unfair dealings of a former management team as a teenager, he’s also been vocal with warnings for young artists making their way in the Latin music industry. “It's very important for you to own your work and your music,” he says. “You have to watch out for these bad things that happen within this industry.”

Learning curves via shady characters aside, Trueno is positive about the direction of the industry. ”We're in a very good moment where each country is putting out very good artists doing very good things,” he asserts. A willingness to collaborate across borders, salute each other’s work and build together to get their dues in this rapidly growing industry is a common goal of artists we speak to. J Noa recently headed up out to a writing camp in Madrid and linked up with Spanish rapper Israel B on a new single, while Luck Ra’s collaboration with Colombian giant Maluma ‘Hola Perdida Remix’ was one of the biggest tracks of the year, and he has high hopes for the connections it formed. "We made that song with Maluma, one of my favourite artists in the world, then my producer became producer for him. It's an honour for me,” he says. “Maybe Maluma can help caurteto expand to other places and countries. I think it was a very important collaboration.”

Colombia has produced some of reggaeton’s biggest stars in recent years, such as J Balvin, Karol G and Feid. Its producers are also becoming more in-demand internationally, such as Medellín duo The Prodigiez, whose beat-making spans major Colombian artists like Maluma, Blessd and Ryan Castro to international stars such as Spaniard Saiko and American Nicky Jam. “We always try to be on the radar for important people so we can keep going with our work,” says member J. Cortés.“In Medellín people like to work 24/7,” adds his production partner Young Crunky.

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New York-born artist Paloma Mami was nominated as Best New Artist at The Latin GRAMMYs in 2021, three years on from becoming the first Chilean to sign to the Sony Music’s Latin division. “I'm so honoured to be able to be where I am representing my country. We're still growing as an industry over there, so it's really inspiring to see how it's gotten even bigger,” she says. She sings in a Spanglish style which reflects both her upbringing and heritage, and blends sounds such as dancehall, trap, soul and R&B. “I'm super inspired in doing things that haven't been done before,” she says. “I love mixing everything, hybrid, I feel like that's what I am, it's being true to myself in that way.”

“Spanglish is what I always communicate in,” she adds.“It definitely gave the opportunity for the more Anglo-American world to be able to hear something Latin and still understand it. I feel like it's so cool when you're listening to something and don't expect it to come into English, it's very natural, and it's a nice little surprise.”

World domination is clearly on the agenda for The Latin GRAMMYs, expanding its remit and inking its international deals; and for the artists it represents, with sights set on markets such as Japan and the UK, which has been slower to fall for the Latin music boom. Bad Bunny, for example, keeps breaking records for music and event ticket sales, but has never had a UK hit; nor has he played in the country since a 2018 gig at the modestly-sized Kentish Town Forum, on a European tour that spanned venues over five times bigger. But momentum appears to be slowly building. Trueno played the 325-cap Omera on a visit to London in 2022, and will headline the 800-cap Scala on his return in March, while in the same three-year span Nathy Peluso is stepping up from the Shepherd’s Bush Empire to a Roundhouse show this coming February. And the following it does have is die-hard. “I love the audiences in London and in England in general,” says Trueno, “they like to rock 'n' roll, just like the Argentine audiences, they like to break through everything.” Peluso, who sells out massive arenas in South America, is similarly buzzing to come back. “I'm so ready. I love to go to London, I love the city. The last time I was doing a show there was crazy, I’ll never forget it,” she recalls breathlessly. “There was an engagement in my show! They asked for my blessing. It was amazing. The people are crazy. I can’t wait!”

Whether Latin pop music will catch fire in the UK in the same way as in the besotted Americas remains to be seen, but if not, there’ll be the opportunity to see some of the world’s best musicians in unusually intimate settings. And regardless of how it performs commercially or at awards institutions, there’s no doubt that exceptional music from superstars and under-the-radar innovators alike will keep on flowing from the region.

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Editor & Digital Director, follow him on Twitter