For the first time in its 24-year history, the Latin Grammys, the leading award show recognizing Latin American and Latine artists, will be held at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre in Seville, Spain — and a lot of Latine music fans, critics, and industry professionals have concerns about the European relocation, citing Spain’s colonial past in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the appropriative tendencies some Spanish artists have toward Latin American music.
During a press conference in May announcing the move, Manud Abud, CEO of the Latin Recording Academy, said the decision is supposed to open doors for Latin American artists who would not have access to the Spanish music market otherwise. “It is a gateway for artists to bring their music to Spain and to Europe. This is for those who never before had the opportunity,” he said.
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However, critics believe the relocation will actually decenter Latine artists and, instead, extol Spanish musicians who have created careers for themselves in Latin American genres. For Isabelia Herrera, a music critic and contributing editor at Pitchfork, the decision to host the Latin Grammys in Spain speaks to a growing trend that centers Spanish artists within the category of “Latin music,” which is already an imprecise, colonial, and limiting catch-all term.
“While music from Spain has always been in conversation with music from Latin America, largely because of the European country’s colonial history with the region, in recent years, Spanish artists have been some of the greatest beneficiaries of the renewed commercial and critical interest in music of the Latin American diaspora,” Herrera points out, citing Spanish artists Rosalía and Bad Gyal.
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"While music from Spain has always been in conversation with music from Latin America, largely because of the European country’s colonial history with the region, in recent years, Spanish artists have been some of the greatest beneficiaries of the renewed commercial and critical interest in music of the Latin American diaspora."
Isabelia Herrera
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At the 2022 Latin Grammys, for instance, Rosalía won Best Latin Album of the Year, what many considered to be a snub to Bad Bunny — whose Un Verano Sin Ti album broke streaming records and was Billboard’s best-performing album of the year — and other Latin American and Latine artists in the category like Marc Anthony, Bomba Estéreo, Jorge Drexler, Elsa y Elmar, Fonseca, Sebastián Yatra, and Christina Aguilera.
The problem with this is that Spanish artists typically have more institutional access and resources to pursue careers in music, since the infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean is far smaller than in Spain and throughout Europe. “Spanish artists are profiting off of this renewed cultural interest when many of the styles that are now commercially popular, such as reggaetón, were born from the African diaspora across Latin America and the Caribbean,” Herrera adds. “Even when the representatives of this music are Latine, many of them are white or lighter-skinned.”
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For this reason, music journalist Marjua Estevez says that Black Latine artists and musicians have never had a problem “bringing their music” to Europe, as was implied by Abud, but rather that the real issue is who has historically gotten the credit for defining Black Latine music and culture.
“For years, I have worked in an industry whose gatekeepers refused to even call their artists Black under the guise of oneness, when Latin America is anything but,” Estevez tells Somos. “I have had to quit jobs in the name of what is right and wrong in this current pop culture landscape, only for the same folks who were insulted by being asked about the Black artists they profit from to suddenly wave the ‘Afro-Latino’ flag a couple years later, like [this culture and identity] can be bought and sold — because clearly it can.”
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"Whitewashing already occurs within Latin American music’s countries of origin; it is not necessary for it to be exported in order to be whitewashed."
Katelina “La Gata” Eccleston
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Moving the Latin Grammys to Spain, Estevez adds, is just the latest example of the wider Latin music industry’s attempts to whiten predominantly Black Latin American music genres.
Katelina “La Gata” Eccleston, a music historian, creator of Reggaeton Con La Gata, and the host of the Perreo 101 podcast, agrees. Neon, the new Netflix series Eccleston was a consultant on, tells a fictionalized story of the very real reality of the whitewashing and co-optation of Black Latin American genres like reggaetón. “Whitewashing already occurs within Latin American music’s countries of origin; it is not necessary for it to be exported in order to be whitewashed,” Eccleston tells Somos. “I think until the culture shows up for artists in ways more substantial than simply calling things out and getting over it, this will continue to happen.”
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For Eccleston, the new location of the awards isn’t just an extension of already-existing issues in a music industry, like the centering of whiteness and colonial preferences, but also, and largely, about profits. “A mainstream white institution hosting an event in a European hub where sales are known to be excellent makes complete sense; the point is business, not culture,” she adds.
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"If expanding horizons allows for artists in today’s fickle economy to make more income in the European market, why not?”
KATELINA “LA GATA” ECCLESTON
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The relocation is part of a three-year sponsorship deal with Andalucía’s regional government, which has allocated more than $20 million to the ceremony and its satellite concerts. Meanwhile, the Andalucían government anticipates yielding more than $530 million from the three-year agreement, which would boost Seville’s economy and Spain’s ambition to become a music tourism destination.
While critical, Eccleston also recognizes how the new location could widen financial opportunities for Latin American and Latine artists. “The truth of the matter is that nobody can remain on top if they do not dominate various regions. It’s the reason why many artists make it in Spain so well that they actually never go back to the Caribbean,” she says. “Money talks, and if expanding horizons allows for artists in today’s fickle economy to make more income in the European market, why not?”
In a recent interview with the Guardian, emerging Puerto Rican artist Gale, who is nominated for best new artist and will perform at this year’s event, said her European debut could open “a door to attract audiences.” Meanwhile, Colombian pop star Sebastián Yatra, who is co-hosting the ceremony, said he hopes the relocation marks the beginning of the Latin Grammys being hosted in different countries, including those in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Presently, the award show, which usually broadcasts from Las Vegas, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, or Houston, has never been held in Latin American or Caribbean countries, despite claiming to celebrate this region's culture and music. Herrera, the music critic, would like to see the Latin Grammys hosted in countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, with direct engagement with the local music industries and its traditions, spotlighting the movements and history that created these cultures and sounds in the first place.
“I would love to see the awards hosted in locations that represent the breadth of this diaspora’s musical roots,” Herrera says. “What if one year the Grammys hosted the ceremony in Mexico and did a tribute to corridos, a huge commercial force in this space? What if they hosted the awards in Rio de Janeiro and brought attention to the history of Black resistance within dozens of Brazilian genres, like funk carioca?”
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"I would love to see the awards hosted in locations that represent the breadth of this diaspora’s musical roots."
ISABELIA HERRERA
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One thing is for certain: The Latin music business — whether in Latin America, the United States, or Spain — has a long way to go when confronting its colonial roots, decentering of whiteness, and appropriation of Black and Indigenous cultures, sounds, and talents for profit.
“No matter where the Latin Grammys are hosted, there is still a lot of work to be done across the industry at large,” Herrera adds. “The ‘Latin music’ business urgently needs to address the ways that misogyny, homophobia, and anti-Blackness have foreclosed many artists’ careers in music, and the way that these forces continue to determine who is considered most ‘marketable’ within this space. I wish that more of the conversation focused on addressing these issues instead of debating categories and identity labels that are already rooted in colonial perspectives.”
The 24th Annual Latin Grammy Awards telecast will air on Univision, UniMás, and Galavisión in the U.S. at 8 p.m. ET.