The Cuban cry for freedom has sounded loudly on the night of the Latin Grammys. Cuba has had a predominant presence at the industry awards ceremony in Las Vegas, where Homeland and Life it has followed the best tradition of Latin American protest song. The anthem of the protests in Cuba has won the award for the best urban song and song of the year, one of the most important categories. Yotuel, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno and El Funky met for the first time on this stage to sing a rap that became a viral phenomenon with millions of reproductions on digital platforms and on the soundtrack of the protests that the island has lived by democracy. The recording has been repudiated by the regime for its content and because it plays with one of the untouchable slogans of the revolution. C. Tangana won two awards with themes of The Madrilenian in a night that consolidated the legend of the great figures of the region such as Rubén Blades, winner of the album of the year; Caetano Veloso, who won the composers award for Talvez and the Dominican Juan Luis Guerra.
“My mother told me: ‘Have the courage to do what my generation did not do,” Yotuel said upon receiving the gramophone. The set was presented by Gloria Estefan, one of the most popular faces of Cuban Americans. “We dedicate it to all political prisoners,” El Funky, a rapper who was imprisoned in his country, had mentioned minutes before who arrived in the United States at the beginning of November. Maykel Osorbo, other of the authors of the theme, continues to be imprisoned on the island and his triumph makes him the first political prisoner to be awarded the statue of industry.
“This Grammy is one of the 12 million who are in Cuba, the prisoners, those who have no voice, who are not allowed to choose who directs them. For all of them who suffer a dictatorship. This is the first Grammy of the Cuban people ”, the rapper Gente de Zona has affirmed with emotion. All of them sang dressed in white and accompanied by dozens of candles on stage with choirs from an audience shouting “Long live Cuba libre!” “This has been an impressive phenomenon that has led us to Joe Biden [el presidente de Estados Unidos] welcome us for the impact of the song. It is music at the service of society ”, summarized the Spanish Beatriz Luengo, who is part of the voices that sing the song.
A man from Madrid has sneaked into the Latin American music festival. C. Tangana won a couple of awards. If a few years ago he stepped on these lands as a trap idol, now he is returning to be recognized by his peers for an album where he shows how he drank from various genres of the region for three years. He triumphed with two songs by The Madrilenian: Hong Kong, who sings with Andrés Calamaro, took the theme of pop / rock and Nominao, that he composed together with Jorge Drexler and Alizzz, the award for the best alternative song.
Drexler recounted that I nominate It was born just thanks to the Latin Grammys. In 2018 the two artists met in Las Vegas. That’s where the promise to collaborate was born. The opportunity came in the year of the pandemic. Both were nominated in 2020 for Side by side. They worked on various issues while they followed from a studio in Madrid, at four in the morning, the ceremony done in Zoom. Drexler left at five in the morning and Tangana finished the song four hours later. “It is a poetic parable that you have us with you today,” explained the Latin American. “I used to listen to Jorge when I was a child, my father used to put him on me and he is an example of what a singer-songwriter is. This award is the milk for me ”, added Antón Álvarez, C. Tangana, upon receiving the alternative song gramophone.
Tangana staged one of the best performances of the night. The singer took up the format of the successful concert he made in the pandemic for the American National Public Radio, a clip that has more than 20 million reproductions and that was born on a tour of Latin America where they met with Víctor Martínez around a table to sing in communion. “All this was at the heart of the project from the beginning,” said Pucho, as the author of The Madrilenian, who is already preparing a live album with that same essence. In Las Vegas a group took the stage to perform Ungovernable. Were Antonio Carmona, Nathy Peluso, Drexler, La húngara and the Mexicans Natalia Lafourcade and Omar Apollo, who clapped their hands accompanying the guitars of their musicians and the keyboard of Alizzz.
The sharp-tongued man, Bad Bunny, was speechless for one of the controversies that preceded the delivery. J Balvin and Residente had engaged in a debate about the weight that reggaetón has and should have in the industry. The bad rabbit won with The last tour of the world the Best Urban Music Album, a category that works as a mixed bag for the most modern expressions that are being produced in the region. The euphemism with which he is named in the category seems to agree with the Colombian musician, who did not attend the ceremony. But little was added to the discussion. “Climbing up here makes me horrible. I never know what to say ”, a nervous Bad Bunny said as he picked up the gramophone and thanked those who support him. Karol G, who won the reggaeton award for his worldwide success Bichota, did not go to Las Vegas to collect the award.
The Puerto Rican Rauw Alejandro, Rosalía’s partner, has won the award for best urban performance, for Tattoo, composed with Camilo. This Colombian artist was one of the great favorites. Tonight has won the Best Pop Album for My hands. “It is a celebration of the sounds of my country. Let’s celebrate who we are, ”said the 27-year-old musician. His father-in-law, Ricardo Montaner, the Argentine-Venezuelan star with a decades-long trajectory, has received his first Academy Award. He did it in the tropical genre with God wanted it that way, contained in a Christian-themed album, which he performs alongside another regional figure, the Dominican Juan Luis Guerra. The song is also composed by Camilo, who won four awards. Among them the best pop cut by Rich life.
Mon Laferte, the Chilean based in Mexico, has won the award for best singer-songwriter album for Six. She is the second woman to do so in 17 years, after Soraya, who took him home in the first installment, in 2004. The interpreter walked the red carpet in a suit that exposed her pregnant belly. On stage she made a tribute to the country that has welcomed her with My heart is going to burn together with the Overwhelming Band El Limón. Who has become one of the main voices of the feminist movement in Latin America sang The woman with Gloria Trevi, who made her first appearance at a Latin Grammys. Laferte wore a two-piece mariachi outfit that had embroidered wombs and vaginas.
