Even in a pandemic, the 21st yearly Latin Grammys didn’t stint on spectacle. On Thursday night, the most persistently about-the-top American songs awards clearly show stayed that way, with luxuriant style, bustling dance routines, a complete salsa massive band, arena-scale smoke and lights and typically authentic-time performances that arrived at for emotional peaks.
Indeed, there were some distant and low-fi acceptance speeches, and the musical quantities from far-flung places — Madrid, Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, Rio de Janeiro, Puerto Rico — weren’t automatically stay. There was no obvious viewers for the occasion, broadcast by Univision, but at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, in which most of the show took put, enthusiastic onlookers supplied some applause. The Miami phase was large sufficient for social distancing among the the musicians in the household band, nevertheless dancers and musical collaborators didn’t often apply it.
But contrary to at the Nation Tunes Affiliation Awards, which had been held past week in Nashville, there was no pretense that the pandemic did not exist. Early in the demonstrate, Raquel Sofía executed her tune “Amor en Cuarentena” (“Love in Quarantine”), a nominee for best pop track. Later on, Pitbull (with a dance troupe) rapped his coronavirus-era really hard-rock motivational track, “I Feel That We Will Acquire (World Anthem),” backed by a band of firefighters, police officers and medical workers, generating sure to listing their names. Musicians who gathered awards in Miami were being glimpsed in masks prior to their speeches.
But the three-hour show also had lots of other priorities: like tracks and lust tunes, kinetic rhythms and fervent voices as very well as pan-Latin solidarity. Latin audio is surging in popularity throughout the world, as the snappy conquer and blunt lyrics of reggaeton thrive across streaming expert services. Whilst key awards largely bypassed reggaeton performers — “Contigo” by the ballad singer Alejandro Sanz was named report of the year, and Natalia Lafourcade’s traditionalist “Un Canto Por México, Vol. 1” gained for album — the Latin Grammys gave youthful hitmakers splashy productions.
Karol G sang “Tusa,” about a lady on the rebound, in a simulation of its video with pink almost everywhere and a band of woman musicians. J Balvin recast “Rojo,” from his album “Colores” (which won very best city new music album), as a music about conquering concern. He sang it under a huge pair of praying fingers, in a white accommodate with a bleeding coronary heart on his chest a gospel choir joined him and the video clip backdrop confirmed terms like “Justice,” “Change” and finally “Hope.” Bad Bunny’s phase, from Puerto Rico, was a audio-movie production he belted the lascivious “Bichiyal” from a relocating auto.
The lineup encompassed stylistic and regional discrepancies but also crystal clear continuities. Compared with the forced, uncomfortable collaborations of the Grammy Awards show, the Latin Grammys expose how quite a few musicians are truly steeped in the tunes of their elders. The clearly show began with a tribute to Héctor Lavoe, the celebrated but troubled salsa singer who died in 1993. Victor Manuelle, Jesús Navarro, Ricardo Montaner, Ivy Queen and Rauw Alejandro shared Lavoe’s strike “El Cantante” (“The Singer”), about a performer’s private struggles Alejandro sang about “new blood” and Manuelle gestured to the other singers as he added a line about how tracks can cross generations.
The Mexican singer and songwriter Lupita Infante brought sultry elegance to “Amorcito Corazón,” a music by her grandfather Pedro Infante, backed by the glittering El Mariachi Sol de México de José Hernández. The Argentine songwriter Nathy Peluso, nominated as greatest new artist, shared a section with the exuberant 57-yr-aged Argentine rocker Fito Páez her keep track of “Buenos Aires,” nominated for very best different song, is near to neo-soul, but her effectiveness added a bandoneon, the accordion at the heart of classic Argentine tango.
Los Tigres del Norte, the Mexican-American team started in 1968, pointedly sang about immigration, doing “Tres Veces Mojados” (“Three Periods Wet”) about migrants from El Salvador. Residente, whose “Rene” was named tune of the calendar year, applied his acceptance speech to urge musicians to place art right before enterprise.
Meanwhile, romance dominated the night’s music. Husky-voiced singers — Ricky Martin, José Luis Perales, Marc Anthony — proclaimed adore and drive in passionate crescendos. From Mexico, Alejandro Fernández and Christian Nodal sang mariachi heartache songs. And younger hitmakers — Camilo, Kany García, Sebastian Yatra, Pedro Capó — sang and rapped by way of flirtations.
In close proximity to the close of the exhibit, the Puerto Rican urbano singer and rapper Anuel AA opened his section with the brooding “Estrés Postraumático,” which prices “El Cantante,” ahead of praising a lover’s expertise in “El Handbook,” flanked by dancers and topped with confetti. Faster or afterwards at the Latin Grammys, earnestness makes way for celebration.