The 2023 Latin Grammys are a wrap. This year, there was no one big winner. Karol G, Shakira and Natalia Lafourcade tied with three major awards each. Venezuelan singer-songwriter Joaquina won best new artist. So you could say that women were the big winners of the night.
Karol won album of the year and best urban album for Mañana Será Bonito, and “TQG,” her collaboration with Shakira, won best urban/fusion performance. Meanwhile, Shakira won song of the year and best pop song along with Bizarrap for “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.” As for Lafourcade, she won best singer-songwriter album for De Todas Las Flores and best singer-songwriter song for the track of the same name. She also won record of the year for “De Todas Las Flores.”
See the complete list of winners here.
The show, co-hosted by Danna Paola, Sebastián Yatra, Roselyn Sánchez and Paz Vega, was held for the first time outside the United States in Seville, Spain, on Thursday (Nov. 16). The 24th annual awards show took place at the Conference and Exhibition Centre (FIBES) and aired on Univision, UniMás and Galavisión.
Many of the awards went as expected. Mexican hitmaker Edgar Barrera won the first-ever songwriter of the year award and producer of the year. Shakira and Bizarrap’s “BZRP Music Sessions #53” took song of the year. And Karol G won album of the year for her history-making Mañana Será Bonito. “I want to say that it is an honor to receive this in front of so many people that I admire in music,” Karol said in her speech, visibly emotional. “To have the album of the year is too cool. This album is super special, it changed my life. Thank you all very much.”
While the Latin Recording Academy got it right in many of the categories, there were a few snubs and surprises. See below:
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Snub: Camilo
A seven-time nominee, Camilo was, surprisingly, not one of the big winners of the night. Surprisingly because he is a Grammy darling and had formidable projects, including his album De Adentro Pa Afuera and his song “NASA” with Alejandro Sanz in top categories, he didn’t win. While he had a lesser shot at winning album of the year and song of the year, two extremely tough categories, it was almost a sure bet he’d at least win best pop vocal album. He didn’t. Instead, the award went to Julieta Venegas for Tu Historia.
Out of his seven nominations, Camilo won best long form music video for El Primer Tour De Mi Vida.
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Surprise: Bizarrap & Quevedo
Bizarrap and Quevedo’s “BZRP Music Sessions #52” winning best urban song (an award given to songwriters) was unexpected but a pleasant surprise. The less “urban” of all the other nominated songs, including “Coco Chanel” by Eladio Carrión and Bad Bunny and Karol G and Shakira’s “TQG,” Biza and Quevedo’s music session was undoubtedly a global smash hit when it was unleashed last year. “Impressive the recognition given to this project that I started in my room with a computer,” the Argentine producer said in his speech while accepting the award. “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.”
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Surprise: Julieta Venegas
Even Julieta Venegas expressed that she was surprised she had won the category for best pop vocal album. It was after all a tough one with all bets on Camilo to win for his critically and commercially acclaimed De Adentro Pa Afuera. As surprised as she was, Venegas was also being modest. Her winning album, Tu Historia, produced by Chilean artist Alex Anwandter, is a gorgeous and formidable best pop vocal album.
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Snub: Shakira & Bizarrap
Yes, Shakira and Bizarrap won song of the year for their now iconic collab “BZRP Music Sessions #53,” but they were passed over in the record of the year category — which actually made sense for the song to win. As Billboard‘s Leila Cobo put it in our predictions post: “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.”
The winning song was Natalia Lafourcade’s “De Todas Las Flores,” a gorgeous recording produced by Adan Jodorowsky, the French-Mexican producer and musician.
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Surprise: Tego Calderón
Safe to say that no one saw this one coming. In a category that included nominees Karol G, Feid, Maria Becerra and Ozuna, genre pioneer Tego Calderon took home best reggaeton performance thanks to his comeback single “La Receta.” Surprising? Yes. But also deserving.
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Surprise: Luis Fernando Borjas
Perhaps the outlier of the pack, Venezuelan artist Luis Fernando Borjas vas victorious in the best contemporary tropical album category — shared with nominees Make Bahía, Silvetre Dangond, Gusi and Ilegales. Formerly a member of group Guaco, he won with his debut album as a soloist, 5:10. “It was a challenge to reinvent myself and create a new path in my music after so many years of performing a different genre,” Borjas said while accepting the award.