Dangerous Bunny, Ca7riel & Paco, Edgar Barrera lead Latin Grammy nominations : NPR

The Latin Grammy nominations, introduced Wednesday morning, function one title as the highest contender for golden gramophones this yr: Dangerous Bunny.

The Puerto Rican celebrity born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio is up for 12 awards, together with album of the yr, file of the yr and music of the yr (he is competing in opposition to himself with a number of nominations within the latter two classes). Via his rise in recent times as one of the crucial iconoclastic, untranslatable figures in pop — his reign colours far exterior the traces of Latin music — with among the largest songs and albums launched within the final decade, Dangerous Bunny has by no means received a Latin Grammy in one of many three main classes.

As he has been yearly since 2017, he’s nominated within the city classes, together with finest reggaeton efficiency and finest city music album. The nods from the Recording Academy coincide with the closing weekend of his historic residency in San Juan, a 31-concert embodiment of his genre-bending album and love letter to Puerto Rico, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, which got here out in January.

Dangerous Bunny’s nominations additionally increase past the city classes he has dominated previously. DTMF‘s solemn, güiro-driven thesis, “LO QUE LE PASO A HAWAii,”— a condemnation of Puerto Rico’s colonial standing and gentrification — is nominated for finest roots music. It isn’t the primary time Dangerous Bunny’s title seems in a stunning down-ballot class; alongside the Texas-based Grupo Frontera, he received finest regional music for the cumbia-pop “Un x100to” in 2023. However this yr’s recognitions spotlight that the Latin Recording Academy could lastly be able to embrace what they’ve shied away from previously: Dangerous Bunny’s sharp, typically joyous, principally gut-wrenching political commentary.

To be clear, the 31-year-old doesn’t lack reward or awards from the Academy. Together with this yr, he is racked up 52 nominations and a dozen wins. However the Latin Grammys generally tend to tapar el sol con un dedo, the literal translation of which is “to cowl the solar with one finger,” however actually means to attempt to throw small gestures in direction of one thing that requires a a lot bigger reckoning.

Throughout native devices, idioms and sonic textures, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is a reclamation of Puerto Rico’s historical past and cultural heritage. It attracts hyperlinks between the exodus of younger individuals leaving the island, the inflow of rich buyers trying to capitalize on its seashores and the private heartbreak of a world pop star watching all of it unfold. Dangerous Bunny’s album is an oath of resistance, a promise to struggle for a Puerto Rico that also belongs to its individuals — and it is struck a chord not simply with boricuas, however with a complete Latin American diaspora greedy for a house and tradition they’ll nonetheless declare as their very own. Dangerous Bunny’s refusal to untangle perreo or plena from the lived realities of Puerto Rican and Latino communities might make DTMF the challenge that lastly wins him a Latin Grammy in one of many foremost normal classes.

The Argentine duo CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso — one other instance of modern, idiosyncratic creative expression rising from a politically-wrought nation — weren’t far behind Dangerous Bunny, racking up ten nominations for his or her album Papota. (Greater than half of the album was recorded throughout their exuberant efficiency at NPR’s Tiny Desk final yr, and one NPR engineer is listed among the many nominees for his contributions to the album.) CA7RIEL & Paco adopted their El Tiny cease with sold-out worldwide exhibits, competition performances and new songs featured on Papota that remember their friendship amidst the unending calls for of the music business. The duo is up for album of the yr, file of the yr and music of the yr (they’ve two nominations in every of the latter two classes), in addition to a variety of various and pop awards. (The nominations span 60 awards in all, unfold throughout genres that embody conventional, jazz, various and youngsters’s music, amongst many others.)

It would not be the Latin Grammys with out a nod of the cowboy hat to Edgar Barrera, the hitmaker who had probably the most nominations of any artist in every of the final two years. He scored 10 nominations this yr, together with for producer of the yr and songwriter of the yr in addition to for his work on Karol G‘s tropimerengue “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” and Shakira‘s scorching lady hit, “Soltera.” Barrera can also be well-represented inside the most effective regional class, the place he obtained three separate nods for his work with Grupo Frontera, Fuerza Regida, Carin León and Maluma.

One other artist will compete in opposition to herself in a single class: Amongst sorceress-songstress Natalia Lafourcade‘s nominations are two for finest roots music alongside collaborator El David Aguilar. Most of Lafourcade’s nominations — together with album of the yr, file of the yr and music of the yr — stem from her jazz-folk album Cancionera, although she additionally obtained a finest conventional pop album nod for 2024’s Natalia Lafourcade Dwell at Carnegie Corridor.

21-year-old Venezuelan singer Joaquina is up for 4 awards, together with album of the yr. Paying homage to Shakira and Lafourcade’s punk-laden angle within the early 2000s, with colourful braids and heavy winged eyeliner, Joaquina turned the youngest individual to win finest new artist on the Latin Grammys in 2023. This yr, her album al romper la burbuja delivered on her coming-of-age pop-rock promise and in addition earned her nominations for finest up to date pop vocal album and finest singer-songwriter music.

The Latin Grammys will happen in Las Vegas on Nov. 13, throughout a time of heightened tensions and anxieties for Latin American communities within the U.S. Some artists have already confronted difficulties acquiring visas to enter and carry out within the nation; there are considerations for a way followers is likely to be impacted, too. Dangerous Bunny just lately advised i-D he’s not bringing his world tour to the mainland U.S. out of concern that Immigration and Customs Enforcement might goal his live shows. It is potential the upcoming Latin Grammys will tackle a extra specific political tone than years previous, to match the method of its most-nominated artist.