The Latin Grammys debuted with all the honors in Seville, a city that seems much more beautiful than Las Vegas and that hosted the awards in a lavish gala in which a constellation of stars took the opportunity to be seen, not in vain is it an event which is broadcast to 180 countries around the world with an estimated television audience of one hundred million people.
As expected, flamenco had an important role on a day that coincided with the celebration of International Flamenco Day, which is commemorated on November 16 because on that date thirteen years ago, UNESCO recognized flamenco art as Intangible Cultural Heritage of The humanity. Although a disservice was done to the quintessential Spanish musical genre by naming the Camino de Niña Pastori as the best flamenco music album, a fusion album, with nods to salsa, which even includes a song with a title in Catalan, Good morning, it has nothing to do with Els Pets. And even more so if we take into account that among the candidates for the award was a true Pure Blood – the title of his latest album – such as the singer Israel Fernández. It is clear that the Grammy Awards are very sensitive to anything that smacks of the mainstream, something that is logical when you aspire to reach such a massive audience.
Other flamenco moments could be tasted with the version of Corazón partío offered by Alejandro Sanz surrounded by a large group of dancers. But for a flamenco moment there is none like the one brought about by the great Rosalía when she made the classic Se nos roto el amor by Manuel Alejandro, made famous by Rocío Jurado, her own. Rosalía – who last year won the Latin Grammy for best album for Motomami and this year came away empty-handed despite being nominated for Desphá – as expected, took the song into her own territory, transforming it into a paragon of contained depth, accompanied by original arrangements that in the first part of the song turned a section of guitarists into emulators of cellists, strumming the strings of their instruments with a bow to give orchestral consistency to a song of heartbreak, or the end of love, which She makes it very credible considering her high-profile breakup with Rauw Alejandro. Dressed in an elegant black dress with a long skirt and with her hair flying in the wind, she made us think of Ava Gardner and other celluloid divas and at the end of the song, to curl the curl of her originality, she inserted a last verse of his harvest. The lyrics end with “our love broke from using it so much” to which she added “or from not using it” in what seems like a dig at her ex, who had the main moment of her covering Laura Pausini.
Rosalía's performance reminded us of her time at the same venue in 2019, when at the Goya Awards gala she gave a very emotional and original version of Me quedo tú by Los Chunguitos that left Pedro Almodovar and everyone stunned by her ability. to transform and inject great emotion into a rumba classic, for which it was congratulated by its own authors.
The feminine power of the Latin Grammys had its greatest lights in the Colombians Shakira and Karol G who monopolized awards and performances. No less relevant, although the spotlight did not stop so much on them, were the awards received by the Mexicans Natalia Lafourcade, for her bucolic and mystical album De todos las flores, and Julieta Venegas for the reflective Tu historia, an album in which she combines the sounds of his indispensable accordion with other less comfortable ones.
Going beyond the main categories of the awards, the award for best reggaeton performance went to a famous figure of the genre, Puerto Rican Tego Calderón. The rock album was for the Mexicans Molotov and the Latin jazz album for Chucho Valdés and Paquito D'Rivera. Cuban Omara Portuondo, the queen of bolero and filin, won the award for best traditional tropical album for Vida. The Colombian Carlos Vives, a regular, has won the award for best cumbia / vallenato album for his tribute to the legendary Rafael Escalona.
Traditional Mexican music has awards in categories such as Tejana, Norteña, Ranchera or Mariachi. In Portuguese language there are also several categories; among them the best Brazilian popular music album won by João Donato - who died last July - which has been imposed on Djavan and Tim Bernardes. And among the most curious categories of the 56 awards stands out that of best Christian album, in Spanish and Portuguese.
