A Round-Up of Latin Grammy Awards 2023: Snubs and Surprises | Daily Music Roll

A Round-Up of Latin Grammy Awards 2023: Snubs and Surprises

Author : Jennifer Stone

The 2023 Latin Grammy Awards are a wrap! This year brought in so many surprises for fans and listeners of Latin Music, but not without a few horrible snubs!

Image Source : twitter.com

The 24th Annual Latin Grammy Awards was held at the Conference and Exhibition Centre (FIBES) in Sevilla on Nov. 16, 2023. Well, this award ceremony has a reputation to maintain too, so this year as well, it wasn’t without any controversies.

Starting from moving this year’s event to Spain to rappers calling for a full-time boycott, this event seemed to have evoked some strong emotions and opinions in everyone. The winner list did not have a single major win this year, instead, Shakira, Karol G, and Natalia Lafourcade tied with three big wins each.

Joaquina, the Venezuelan singer-songwriter won the award for Best New Artist. Shakira won best pop song along with Bizarrap for “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53”, and song of the year. Karol G won the awards for Best Urban Album and Album of the Year for Mañana Será Bonito.

Both Shakira and Karol G won the award for best urban/fusion performance for their collaboration “TQG”. Lafourcade did not step away, she won in the category of best singer-songwriter album for ‘De Todas Las Flores’, the record of the year, and best singer-songwriter song for the track of the same name. So it can be concluded that it was a pretty big night for women in Latin music.

“Bienvenidos an España, bienvenidos a Sevilla!”- said the actor and presenter Antonio Banderas in his opening speech where he welcomed the audience to Spain. The 24th annual awards show was co-hosted by Danna Paola, Sebastián Yatra, Roselyn Sánchez, and Paz Vega, and was hosted in Seville, Spain, on Thursday, November 16, outside the United States for the first time. The event was aired on UniMás, Univision, and Galavisión. Several of the evening’s awards and recognitions were expected; such as the first-ever Songwriter of the Year award and Producer of the Year win by Mexican hitmaker Edgar Barrera.

Another expected win was Karol G for her history-making ‘Mañana Será Bonito’. “To have the album of the year is too cool. This album is super special, it changed my life. Thank you all very much,” a visibly emotional Karol G said in her speech. However, there were definitely some surprises and snubs at the event, just like every year. So let’s see who brought in surprises and who were absolutely snubbed from this year’s Latin Grammys.

Snub: Camilo

Camilo

Probably the most disturbing snub of the evening, Camillo. He was a seven-time nominee at this year’s annual Grammys yet, not one single major category was won by the talented musician. Even though he had a lesser shot at winning the award for album of the year and song of the year, two of the big guns, it was almost certain that he would win at least in the category of best pop vocal album. Well, he did not. Out of his seven major nominations, Camillo only won in the category of best long-form music video for El Primer Tour De Mi Vida.

Surprise: Julieta Venegas

Right after Camillo’s snub, this was definitely a surprise, even Julieta Venegas herself expressed that on stage. The artist won in the category for best pop vocal album which was certainly a tough one as all of the bets were on Camillo’s “De Adentro Pa Afuera”. However, Venegas was being modest as her winning album ‘Tu Historia,’ produced by Alex Anwandter is surely up there with the wins.

Snub: Shakira & Bizarrap

Yes, Bizarrap and Shakira went home with a major award, song of the Year for their iconic collab “BZRP Music Sessions #53,” yet fans feel like it was snubbed from the category of Record of the Year category.

Leila Cobo of Billboard on the magazine’s prediction post stated, “The way Bizarrap produced this track is really masterful — what he did here, just like quoting her old songs and making the references that are both lyrical and musical, is so clever. He was able to read her. There’s a lot to discover in that song, and I think from a production standpoint, it was brilliantly done.” Apparently, this is the way a lot of listeners and fans on social media also feel. So definitely it was a snub that deserved a win for the category.

Surprise: Bizarrap & Quevedo

Once a snub, might be a surprise the next time and that is exactly what happened to Bizarrap at this year’s 24th Annual Grammy Awards. The collaboration of Bizarrap and Quevedo, “BZRP Music Sessions #52” won in the category of best urban song. This award is given to the songwriters which is why this win was unexpected but definitely brought in a pleasant surprise. This was also the least “urban” song in the nomination list which also had Karol G and Shakira’s “TQG”, Eladio Carrión and Bad Bunny’s “Coco Chanel”, etc. “Impressive the recognition given to this project that I started in my room with a computer,” the Argentinian producer said in his winning speech. “I want to dedicate it to all the boys and girls who are starting out, so that they can see that with very little you can achieve a lot,” he continued.

Surprise: Luis Fernando Borjas

Venezuelan artist Luis Fernando Borjas was definitely another pleasant surprise of the evening. He won in the category of best contemporary tropical album where he shared a nomination with Silvestre Dangond, Make Bahía, Ilegales, and Gusi. This win was also with his debut album ‘5:10’, after being in a former group named Guaco. While accepting this award, Borjas said “It was a challenge to reinvent myself and create a new path in my music after so many years of performing a different genre,” in his speech.

Surprise: Tego Calderón

Has anyone, even if in their wildest imagination, seen this coming? In a prestigious category of best reggaeton performance, this win was unexpected and surprising, but definitely deserving. Where the nominations included big names like Karol G, Ozuna, Maria Becerra, and Feid, Tego Calderón’s comeback single “La Receta”, took home the award for being the best performance in the reggaeton category.

Memorable moments:

Shakira, who took home three awards in the evening, gave a memorable performance on the stage.

Her first act of “Acróstico” included her sons and later when she returned to the stage, she performed a medley of her hits, including the viral “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53”. While accepting her awards of the evening, “I want to dedicate this award to my sons … because I promised them that I would be happy,” she said in her winning speech.

Legendary singer and artist Laura Pausini was honored by The Latin Recording Academy at the event. She was presented with the Person of the Year award by Karol G.

“I’m the most Latina Italian in the entire damn world,” the multilingual Italian artist joked while receiving the award. She won her first Grammy award in 2006 for Best Latin pop album, and in 2021, she won a Golden Globe. In her long and successful career, she was also nominated for an Academy Award.

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