HEAT Latin Music Awards Head to Mexico for the First Time in 2026
The HEAT Latin Music Awards will land in Mexico for the first time in 2026, with the ceremony set for Nov. 5 at the Puerto Vallarta International Convention Center in Jalisco. Billboard announced the date and location exclusively on Aug. 13.
The 2026 edition is officially named HEAT Latin Music Awards al Estilo Jalisco, produced in collaboration with the government of Jalisco and the municipality of Puerto Vallarta. The gala will close out HEAT Week, a six-day run of events from Oct. 31 to Nov. 5 — dates that overlap with Día de los Muertos, Mexico's Day of the Dead, celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2.
Six cohosts have been announced: Karime Pindter, Caroline Aquino, La Segura, Ignacio Baladán, Yohana Vargas and Dímelo King. The ceremony will livestream on LosHeat.tv.
One detail ties the trophy directly to its host country. The signature HEAT globe award — the prize handed to winners each year — is being recreated by local Mexican artisans for the 2026 edition, rather than produced to a previous template.
Premios Heat was founded more than a decade ago by Diana Montes, a Colombian music executive and Billboard Latin Power Player who serves as the awards' general director. Previous editions have travelled across Latin America: the show was previously held on the beach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and last year took place in Medellín, Colombia. Lorena Martínez, general director of the Jalisco State Entertainment Agency, is the local-side partner for the 2026 move.
The announcement adds a second major Latin music awards ceremony to the autumn 2026 calendar. The 2026 Billboard Latin Music Awards are set for Oct. 22 at the James L. Knight Center in Miami, broadcasting live on Telemundo and streaming on Peacock, as confirmed by Billboard and Telemundo on July 21. That puts two separate Latin music awards galas two weeks apart, in two countries, under different production teams and voting systems.
For fans, the Puerto Vallarta setting and Día de los Muertos overlap give the 2026 HEAT ceremony a built-in cultural backdrop that previous beach and city editions did not share. The artisan-made trophy is a small but concrete signal of how closely the Jalisco government is involved — not just hosting the event but shaping its visual identity for this edition.
