Latin Grammys 2021 Live Updates: Christina Aguilera Performs

Nov. 18, 2021, 10:07 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

The Rubén Blades tribute before Christina Aguilera seemed to fill the room with respect that was not feigned — and was of course well-deserved. Adding the samba interlude to a salsa classic, “Paula C.” — as he does on the “Salswing!” album — was fun.

Nov. 18, 2021, 10:02 p.m. ET

J Balvin onstage in October. When Latin Grammy nominations were announced this year, he tweeted to complain about the lack of representation for reggaeton.Credit...Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated Press

A few hours after the Latin Grammy nominations were announced in September, in a series of now-deleted tweets, the Colombian pop star J Balvin announced that reggaeton artists should boycott the awards. “The Grammys don’t value us, but they need us,” he wrote in Spanish. “Those who have power in the genre, NONE SHOULD GO! Which is to say everyone because we are a movement.”

It’s a critique that dates back years, but one that has reignited as reggaeton continues to surge as a cultural force across the globe. Critics argue that the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences profits off reggaeton performances during the televised ceremony, but that the genre’s artists aren’t always nominated. (A similar conversation has flared at the English-language Grammys, as the show has struggled to wrestle with hip-hop’s cultural influence.) In 2005, The Times’s Kelefa Sanneh observed that reggaeton was curiously missing from the list of nominees for best album, despite being the year’s biggest commercial success story in Spanish-language music.

Fast forward to 2019. Popular reggaeton artists, like Daddy Yankee, Nicky Jam and Balvin, participated in a social media campaign against the Latin Grammys. When no reggaeton artists received nominations for any of the 10 major categories, several performers posted an image of a crossed-out gramophone on social media with the statement, “Sin reggaeton, no hay Latin Grammy,” or, “Without reggaeton, there is no Latin Grammy.”

In April 2020, in what appeared to be a response to the backlash, the academy announced that best reggaeton performance would be added as a separate category. (Previously, the genre was nominated under the blanket categories of “urban music.”) The disagreement around the genre’s place in the awards flared once again when Balvin tweeted out his call for a boycott this year.

But this time, it landed differently. The most fervent criticism came from the Puerto Rican rapper Residente, who has more than two dozen Latin Grammys, and posted an Instagram video that eventually mushroomed into a bitter online battle. In the clip, Residente explained that several reggaeton and rap artists, including Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro and Myke Towers, were recognized across the awards this year. He said that boycotting the show would be especially disrespectful to the salsa legend Rubén Blades, who is receiving the person of the year honor.

But the real barbs arrived when Residente began to tear into Balvin’s music. “It’s as if a hot dog cart got offended because it can’t win a Michelin star,” he said in Spanish. Balvin simply responded by commenting, “I respect your opinion” on the post. Eventually, Residente deleted the video.

But the saga was far from over. Balvin shared an Instagram post promoting a new line of fake merch, featuring cartoons of hot dogs and food carts. Residente, whose music is known for being fearlessly political, uploaded a second Instagram video, this time lambasting Balvin’s music, career and character, and claiming that he had helped Balvin craft a message for social media during protests against corruption and income inequality in Colombia last year.

The spat seemed to end with Residente reposting his original video and silence from J Balvin. But the larger conversation surrounding their personal disagreement about reggaeton’s place at the Latin Grammys doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon.

Nov. 18, 2021, 10:00 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

The Latin Grammys is always the night of the big voices — which is great because so many of them just nail it. Mon Laferte and now Christina Aguilera.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:57 p.m. ET

Isabelia Herrera

Arts critic fellow

Christina reminding us that no one can compete with her vocal range, and to try to best her would be futile.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:51 p.m. ET

Christina Aguilera performed at the first Latin Grammys in 2000, and returned to its stage this year.Credit...David Richard/Associated Press

Christina Aguilera didn’t grow up speaking Spanish. She was born in New York City; her Ecuadorean father divorced her mother, of mixed European ancestry, when she was 6. But in 2000 Aguilera sang in Spanish on an album, “Mi Reflejo,” that translated songs from her debut album and added a few new ones, becoming a major hit across Latin America; she also performed that year on the first Latin Grammy Awards show and won best female pop vocal album in 2001. Last month, she released a new Spanish-language single, “Pa Mis Muchachas” (“For My Girls”), featuring Nathy Peluso and Nicki Nicole from Argentina and Becky G, who was born in California to Mexican American parents; they’re scheduled to join her to perform it. It’s a frisky guaracha in praise of strong, fearless, insubordinate women, and while it’s not eligible for an award until next year, why wait?

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:34 p.m. ET

Rubén Blades is the first Panamanian to be named the Latin Grammys person of the year.Credit...Chase Hall for The New York Times

Rubén Blades, 73, was long overdue as a choice for the Latin Grammys’ person of the year. He happens to be the first Panamanian on a list that includes Shakira, Carlos Santana, Gloria Estefan, Juanes, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Plácido Domingo. From the 1970s on, Blades has brought literary innovation and musical fusions to salsa, and he has infused songs with sociopolitical ambition. He also earned a masters in international law at Harvard Law School and has had an extensive career as a movie and television actor. He has armloads of Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards. And he’s still drawing connections, lately between swing-era jazz and its not-always-acknowledged Afro-Caribbean sources. Blades is performing tonight with Roberto Delgado & Orquesta, the big band from Panama that backed him on his 2021 album “Salswing!,” still making history dance.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:29 p.m. ET

Isabelia Herrera

Arts critic fellow

This rock en español rendition of “No Tengo Dinero” feels so fresh yet true to the spirit of the original. And it’s always a treat to see Juanes bring out his metal roots; people forget how much his time in Ekhymosis shaped him.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:29 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

Juanes and the Café Tacvba members are going all Beatlemania. It’s not just the suits and the black-and-white; that set with the arrows is based on the Ed Sullivan show that had 1960s teens screaming.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:29 p.m. ET

Isabelia Herrera

Arts critic fellow

Vanessa, and Bad Bunny's lavender latex gloves are *chef’s kiss*. More purple tones please.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:24 p.m. ET

Café Tacvba, a beloved Mexican rock group, is teaming with Juanes, a beloved Colombian pop singer.Credit...Frank Hoensch/Redferns

It has been more than five years since the death of Juan Gabriel, an artist known as Juanga who was effectively the musical heart of Mexico. His legacy is ineffable; his music has been a vehicle that generations have used to make sense of love, mourning, heartbreak and anguish, providing the soundtrack to quinceañeras, weddings, queer nightclubs.

Tonight, the Colombian pop star Juanes is joining forces with Rubén Albarrán and Meme del Real of the Mexican rock band Café Tacvba to perform one of Juanga’s most beloved hits, “No Tengo Dinero.” It was Gabriel’s first single, a song that set the tone for an artist who would become a folk hero over the next five decades.

The Colombian star Juanes, whose pop-rock balladry kicked off his career in the early ’00s, was once the lead singer of a thrash metal band, so he will likely blend well with members of a universally beloved Mexican rock group. Café Tacvba’s career-defining album “Re” redrew the boundaries of rock en español when it landed in 1994, colliding metal and ska with Mexican folk styles like huapango, norteño and banda. The Times’s Jon Pareles called it “the equivalent of the Beatles’ White Album for the Rock en Español movement.”

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:23 p.m. ET

Vanessa Friedman

Chief fashion critic

Bad Bunny wins for best urban music album, and he is wearing ... a full fuchsia suit. Just sayin’.

Credit...Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

Bad Bunny

Wins best urban music album for “El Último Tour Del Mundo.”

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:23 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

Zoe Gotusso, the new artist nominee just shown, performed live at the Latin Grammy “premiere” where most of the awards were given: a delicate Spanish-language bossa nova. I hope that gets posted by the academy.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:20 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

When I interviewed Sebastián Aracena, Mon Laferte’s guitarist and one of her producers, he said he had to put microphones at various distances from her in the studio because just one couldn’t handle her dynamic range. All the extremes were in those two songs — and you wouldn’t want to be the men on the receiving end of those lyrics, either.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:15 p.m. ET

Isabelia Herrera

Arts critic fellow

Whoever decided to pair Gloria Trevi and Mon Laferte together made an impeccable choice. We live for these theatrics!

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:15 p.m. ET

Vanessa Friedman

Chief fashion critic

Jon, you were right: Mon Laferte has gone in a very different fashion direction for her performance — much more elaborate and decorative in gold and black than her red carpet look — though her baby belly is still front and center.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:14 p.m. ET

The Latin music industry has a race problem. For decades, the whitest and lightest-skinned artists have dominated the business, echoing the deep-rooted colorism that permeates TV, film and other entertainment industries. (See: the movie adaptation of “In the Heights” this past summer.) The Latin Grammys are not exempt; there are only seven Black Latino artists scheduled to take the stage at the televised awards ceremony Thursday night out of a total 46 announced acts.

Over the last couple of years, discussions about the lack of Black Latino representation in Spanish-language pop music have concentrated around reggaeton, an Afro-diasporic style with roots in Puerto Rico, New York and Panama. Its earliest performers were largely Black Latinos, but as the genre has been brought under the umbrella of pop, its architects have largely been left behind.

In 2019, after a group of artists announced a boycott of the Latin Grammys because reggaeton was largely left out of the nominations, critics online pointed out that the protest should also recognize that reggaeton wouldn’t exist without the Black Latinos who pioneered it.

As one of the largest platforms for Spanish-language music in the United States, the Latin Grammys showcase dozens of genres rooted in Black Latin American traditions, but often the artists chosen to perform are white or lighter skinned, raising questions about whether the academy is doing enough to reflect the reality of the music it promotes. Not unlike the organization behind the English-language Grammys, the Latin academy is an institution that’s often criticized for being slow to respond to conversations about race, gender and identity.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:12 p.m. ET

Vanessa Friedman

Chief fashion critic

Camilo appears to have put his shoes back on for his best pop vocal album win (he was barefoot for his performance), which I think is another win for everyone watching.

Credit...Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:10 p.m. ET

Isabelia Herrera

Arts critic fellow

It’s a real treat to have Anthony Santos perform tonight, even just as a guest of Ozuna’s. El Mayimbe is a forefather of bachata, a Black Dominican genre born in the countryside, once maligned and discriminated against by the elite as a lower-class party music. New bachata artists like Romeo Santos have performed on the Latin Grammys stage plenty of times before, but to have an originator present feels like someone is finally getting his flowers.

Credit...Kevin Winter/Getty Images For The Latin Recording Academy

Camilo

Wins best pop vocal album for “Mis Manos.”

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:06 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

I would say flamenco plus Auto-Tune is less than the sum of its parts. I was hoping for more from C. Tangana’s giant guest list than just singing and clapping along.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:03 p.m. ET

Ozuna was up for two awards at this 2021 Latin Grammys.Credit...Rich Fury/Getty Images for Global Citizen

Ozuna, the prolific Puerto Rican singer and songwriter who is up for two awards, presents himself as a lover who can also be a fighter. “Caramelo,” nominated as best reggaeton performance, savors an attractive woman’s sweetness and heat; it’s from his 2020 album “ENOC,” which is nominated as best urban album. “ENOC” starts with “Enemigos Ocultos” (“Hidden Enemies”), a posse track full of gun-toting threats, but for most of the album, Ozuna offers sweaty pleasures: dancing, come-ons, secret trysts, bedroom reunions. And while he has thrived singing reggaeton and Latin trap songs, since “ENOC” Ozuna has been pushing his music into different genres. Earlier this month, he released a Dominican-style bachata, “Señor Juez” (“Mr. Judge”), a duet with a major bachata innovator, Anthony Santos. He’s looking ahead.

Nov. 18, 2021, 9:02 p.m. ET

Isabelia Herrera

Arts critic fellow

Looks like C. Tangana is recreating the set from his NPR Tiny Desk performance of “Ingobernable,” which went viral earlier this year.

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:58 p.m. ET

C. Tangana is surrounding himself with leading flamenco guitarists and singers for his Latin Grammys performance.Credit...Xavi Torrent/Redferns, via Getty Images

C. Tangana — born Antón Álvarez Alfaro — broke the genre confines of urbano music on his 2021 album “El Madrileño.” Reaching back to music from past generations and joined by a transcontinental assortment of collaborators, the album insisted that music from Spain shouldn’t be isolated or elitist. His Latin Grammys segment surrounds him again. To reclaim Spanish tradition, he has leading flamenco guitarists and singers: Antonio Carmona, Diego del Morao, Israel Fernández, La Húngara. And from the Americas he has the Uruguayan songwriter Jorge Drexler, the Mexican songwriter Natalia Lafourcade and the Mexican American songwriter Omar Apollo, whose duet with Tangana, the lovelorn ballad “Te Olvidaste” (“You Forgot”), is nominated for record of the year. His segment promises to cover a lot of stylistic ground.

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:56 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

Of all the songs Myke Towers could have chosen, “Pin Pin” is a surprise. On one hand, it was a chance to put a live salsa band onstage to play the hook sampled from Tommy Olivencia’s “Periquito Pin Pin.” On the other hand, it’s a song about drug dealing for survival — “perico” is slang for cocaine — which is pretty edgy for early evening viewing.

Los Dos Carnales and Palomo

In a tie, “Al Estilo Rancherón" and “Volando Alto" win.

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:37 p.m. ET

Vanessa Friedman

Chief fashion critic

Is it too early to call fuchsia as the color of the night?

Credit...Kevin Winter/Getty Images For The Latin Recording Academy

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:34 p.m. ET

Myke Towers performing at Vibra Urbana Music Fest in 2020.Credit...Johnny Louis/Getty Images

For those who have been following his rise, the rapper Myke Towers’s ascendence in the Latin music industry might seem unlikely. Towers grew out of a new generation of Puerto Rican trap that has been percolating on the island since the mid-2010s. But as the years passed, he demonstrated his ambitions beyond the confines of his local scene, becoming a go-to creative partner for plenty of anodyne pop stars looking for some edge, like Becky G and Sebastián Yatra. While his features have foregrounded his love of melody and nostalgic hooks, he hasn’t lost sight of his hip-hop roots: Towers has a facility with both the honeyed sways of pop-reggaeton and a muscular capacity to rap.

He is nominated for three awards this year: best urban song and best reggaeton song for “La Curiosidad,” and best urban music album for “Lyke Mike.”

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:25 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

He is awfully wholesome to attempt to perrear, agreed. Oh, and memo to performers: You don’t get audience participation from a music-business crowd.

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:25 p.m. ET

Isabelia Herrera

Arts critic fellow

Camilo attempting to perrear is unjust.

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:21 p.m. ET

Vanessa Friedman

Chief fashion critic

There’s something kinda ... fishy about Camilo’s outfit.

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:21 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

That Grupo Firme segment was one time-lapse romance. Started with “Me Gustas,” a flirtation, followed by “Ya Supérame,” which is a pretty brutal kiss-off, especially with all that brass muscle.

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:21 p.m. ET

Camilo was an early winner at the Latin Grammys, with three awards at the preshow.Credit...Xavi Torrent/Redferns, via Getty Images

The long-mustachio’d Colombian singer and songwriter Camilo, whose last name is Echeverry, has 10 nominations at the Latin Grammys — so many that in two top categories, record and song of the year, he is nominated twice. That’s because he has collaborated widely, helping write a song for his father-in-law, Ricardo Montaner, and slipping into the regional Mexican category with “Tuyo y Mio” (“Yours and Mine”), a song he wrote and recorded with a leading norteño band, Los Dos Carnales.

It’s also because Camilo has a gift for succinct pop hooks and he’s thoroughly, charmingly wholesome, a counterweight to the braggadocio and bawdiness of some reggaeton and urbano. Camilo sings about grateful true love and modest expectations; “Vida de Rico” (“Rich Man’s Life”), nominated for record and song, offers kisses and beer rather than diamonds and champagne. Will his understatement be rewarded?

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:19 p.m. ET

Isabelia Herrera

Arts critic fellow

I’m loving the space that regional Mexican is getting at the show tonight. There are at least three banda/regional Mexican acts scheduled to perform. That feels special for an awards show that has historically featured Caribbean music in its performances.

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:19 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

The medley also embodied the Latin Grammys’ goal of presenting Latin music, which the academy defines broadly as music in Spanish, Portuguese and indigenous languages of Latin America, as a united front. For Estefan, who has worked with songwriters across the hemisphere, that means musical fusions. “Abriendo Puertas” is by the Colombian songwriter Kike Santander, while the other two songs brought in Brazilian rhythms and Brazilian performers including Giulia Be (up for best new artist), Anitta, and the titan of Brazilian music, Carlinhos Brown, who wrote “Magalenha.”

Credit...Kevin Winter/Getty Images For The Latin Recording Academy

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:12 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

That opening medley did a lot of heavy lifting very neatly. For starters, it brought back the durably likable — and once again award-winning this year (best contemporary tropical album) — Gloria Estefan, then surrounded her, Grammy-style, with guests. Her first song, “Abriendo Puertas” (“Opening Doors”), set the tone of purposeful hope — “We are opening doors and we are closing wounds” — that the show has taken as its theme.

Credit...Kevin Winter/Getty Images For The Latin Recording Academy

Best Traditional Pop Album

Juan Luis Guerra

Wins best traditional pop album for “Privé.”

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:03 p.m. ET

Isabelia Herrera

Arts critic fellow

Jon, this is especially a big moment for Boza, who, along with Sech, has been leading the pack for a new generation of Panamanian artists. So many musicians from the isthmus have been left behind in the retelling of reggaeton's history, so this feels especially momentous.

Credit...Arturo Holmes/Getty Images

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:01 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

Vanessa, exactly. And you never know what kind of flamboyant visual statement will go with something completely heartfelt.

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:01 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

I’m happy to see them giving the new artist nominees a chance to play whole songs, even if it is before prime time.

Nov. 18, 2021, 8:00 p.m. ET

Vanessa Friedman

Chief fashion critic

Jon, is that combination of style and substance part of what sets this awards show apart?

Nov. 18, 2021, 7:54 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

Vanessa, Yotuel’s flash comes with serious intentions. “Patria y Vida,” which already won best urban song and is up for song of the year, is a furious, direct protest about conditions in Cuba six decades after the revolution.

Nov. 18, 2021, 7:52 p.m. ET

Isabelia Herrera

Arts critic fellow

No sign of Bad Bunny yet … suffice it to say that I am on Benito watch, patiently waiting for the elaborate fit we deserve.

Nov. 18, 2021, 7:50 p.m. ET

Selena Gomez released her first Spanish-language EP, “Revelación,” in March.Credit...Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Since 2009, Selena Gomez has put out three albums with the band the Scene and three solo studio LPs. In March, she did something she hadn’t done before: released her first Spanish-language EP, “Revelación.”

In September, she was nominated for her first Grammy ever — the Latin Grammy for best short form music video for “De Una Vez” (“Once and for All”) which was released in January as her debut Spanish single. (She lost earlier tonight, to “Un Amor Eterno” by Marc Anthony.)

“I am incredibly proud of my Latin background,” Gomez said in a statement at the time. “It felt empowering to sing in Spanish again.”

The video, directed by Los Peréz and produced by Kim Dellara and Clark Jackson, has racked up over 84 million views on YouTube. It opens inside of Gomez’s heart as her literal heartbreak starts to heal, crystalline fragments stretching toward each other.

“It doesn’t hurt me like before,” Gomez sings in Spanish. “The injury from your love has healed.”

The seven-track “Revelación” also features Rauw Alejandro and Myke Towers (both also nominated for Latin Grammys this year). The EP peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart.

Nov. 18, 2021, 7:50 p.m. ET

Vanessa Friedman

Chief fashion critic

Wow, that is some bright blue fuzzy fur hat Nathy Peluso is wearing with her little black dress. It’s like a little pet. Or maybe it doubles as a pillow?

Nov. 18, 2021, 7:34 p.m. ET

Vanessa Friedman

Chief fashion critic

I think Yotuel and his cape win the Latin Grammy Avenger award.

Nov. 18, 2021, 7:31 p.m. ET

C. Tangana has two wins tonight, and will compete in several major categories that will be awarded on the main broadcast.Credit...Univision

It has already been a winning afternoon (in Las Vegas) for Camilo, from Colombia, and C. Tangana, from Spain. Each has so far dominated the multiple categories where they were nominated; they have yet to go head-to-head.

For Camilo, the wins include best pop song for “Vida de Rico,” which he called “an exploration of who I am at my roots” in his speech, and best urban fusion/performance for “Tattoo (Remix)” with Rauw Alejandro. His producer, Edgar Barrera, was named producer of the year.

Camilo also shared a songwriting award for best tropical song, “Dios Así Lo Quiso,” recorded by Juan Luis Guerra with Camilo’s father-in-law, Ricardo Montaner, who was also one of its songwriters — and who, after a four-decade career, finally got his first Latin Grammy with that song.

C. Tangana benefited from the genre-hopping lineup of his album “El Madrileño,” which qualified him to win best alternative song for “Nominao” and best pop/rock song for “Hong Kong.” More than two dozen engineers shared the best engineered album award for “El Madrileño.” In prime time, Camilo and C. Tangana will be competing for top awards.

Nov. 18, 2021, 7:30 p.m. ET

Vanessa Friedman

Chief fashion critic

Isabelia and Jon, also rare, especially on the red carpet: using your body unapologetically to assert femininity and make a political point at the same time. I wish more artists would follow her example and seize the moment when the world’s eyes are on their image to draw out a conversation.

Nov. 18, 2021, 7:30 p.m. ET

Jon Pareles

Chief pop music critic

And congratulations to Mon Laferte for winning the best singer-songwriter album award which, as she pointed out, very rarely is given to a woman.

Nov. 18, 2021, 7:12 p.m. ET

Camilo won three trophies at the early awards ceremony, including best pop song for “Vida De Rico.”Credit...Univision

The winners of all but nine Latin Grammys categories were announced at a preshow ceremony ahead of the televised event, and Camilo is off to an early lead among the most nominated artists, with three wins. (He’s still up for record of the year, album of the year, song of the year and best pop vocal album, which will be awarded during the main ceremony.) Edgar Barrera and Alizz also have three wins apiece, followed by four artists with two trophies each: Juan Luis Guerra, C. Tangana, Jorge Drexler and Vicentico. And “Patria Y Vida,” a track that became a protest anthem over the summer, won best urban song.

Nov. 18, 2021, 6:33 p.m. ET

Mon Laferte accepting the award for best singer-songwriter album at the 2021 Latin Grammy Awards.Credit...Univision

The Chilean songwriter Mon Laferte, whose album “Seis” won the Latin Grammy for best singer-songwriter album and who will perform during the show, has a voice for every passion. She can engage the personal and the political; she can coo a romantic ballad or spearhead a hard-rock attack. Her voice can tease, bite, whisper, croon, rasp or rise to a banshee wail. It can, and does, go straight to the heart.

In Latin America, Laferte, 38, has built a career that began with pop cover songs in 2003, moved into hard rock and has since spanned rockabilly, salsa, bolero, ranchera and psychedelia, just for starters. She often performs wearing vintage-style formal dresses with a flower in her hair, while her bare shoulders show off her tattoos.

“Every person is a universe,” Laferte said on a video call, speaking through a translator. “I love to do these different voices because it represents all of my personalities: when I’m fragile, when I’m stronger, when I’m fun, when I’m upset. And that is what I want to do. That is what art is. I want to transmit all of these feelings and have people feel as much as I do. And I want them to get goose bumps when they hear my songs.”

Laferte — her full name is Norma Monserrat Laferte Bustamante — was productive through the pandemic. This year, she has released two very different albums, she is touring North America and she is set to perform Thursday at the Latin Grammys.

She recorded “Seis” (“Six”) in 2020 as the quarantine was beginning in Mexico. Released in April, the album delves into vintage Mexican regional styles — norteño, banda, mariachi — backed largely with acoustic instruments. And on Oct. 29 Laferte released the very distinct “1940 Carmen,” named after the Airbnb in Los Angeles where she recorded it. The new album embraces Southern California folk-pop and includes her first songs in English.

Nov. 18, 2021, 6:09 p.m. ET

Karol G performing at the 2020 Latin Grammys.Credit...Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for The Latin Recording Academy

The Latin Grammys are far and away my favorite awards show. They’re packed with live music. They have the flashiest clothes, the most sinuous dance moves, the most vital rhythms. Nearly all of the performers are hands-on virtuosos, playing music that often flaunts echoes of tradition and has been well tested on the road. And the kind of era-crossing collaborations that can look so forced on the Grammys stage seem more natural at the Latin Grammys, reflecting an array of musical cultures that savor continuity between generations.

Like every music awards show, the Latin Grammys strain to keep up with, categorize and represent a constantly changing art form. They have been laggard, in particular, about the reggaeton and urbano styles that have been both disruptions and windfalls for Spanish-speaking acts. They also have to align with the imperatives of their frequent home, Las Vegas, and with their TV network, Univision.

But despite some well-earned contention behind the scenes — we’ll get to that — the Latin Grammys come across as the rare awards ceremony that’s still fun. They are less earnest and scattershot than the Grammys, less crass and desperate for virality than the MTV Video Music Awards, less sodden than the Brits, less winner-takes-all than the Emmys and way less pretentious than the Academy Awards. Whether or not they make the right choices — and what awards show does? — the Latin Grammys usually feel like a big-tent party.

Nov. 18, 2021, 5:37 p.m. ET

Behind the scenes at the 2020 Latin GRAMMY Awards in Miami last year.Credit...Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for The Latin Recording Academy

Last November at the Latin Grammys, the Puerto Rican singer Raquel Sofía performed “Amor en Cuarentena” (“Love in Quarantine”). “When fear creeps in tonight, tell me if this world is going to end,” she crooned in Spanish, strumming her guitar. “Tell me that tomorrow you will always be here.”

This year, much of the world has emerged from quarantine, but the Latin Grammys are maintaining the same production guidelines as 2020. That means the crew, staff, performers and presenters must wear a mask at all times during rehearsals, and team members must take a PCR nasal test the day before entering the venue. (Onstage talent can remove their masks just before going live or recording pretaped segments.)

“The safety of our attendees, staff and artists is of the utmost and top concern of the Latin Recording Academy and Univision Communications Inc.,” Manuel Abud, the chief executive of the Latin Recording Academy, said in a statement. “While some of the regulations have eased, the Latin Recording Academy and Univision will continue to exercise strict precautions to ensure the safety and well-being of all attendees.”

There is one major change, however: A live audience will be on site cheering for the nominees and performers. Proof of full vaccination or a negative Covid test will be required (along with a photo ID) to attend all events during the week of the Latin Grammys.

The red carpet will also return — with some limitations. Only nominees, performers and presenters will walk the carpet, and press covering the event will be reduced from about 90 to 30 media outlets.

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