Five Latin Music Figures Receive Lifetime Achievement Awards in Las Vegas
Five artists received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Latin Recording Academy on Monday, Nov. 9, at a Special Awards ceremony in Las Vegas. The honourees are Alaska, Francisco Céspedes, Lila Downs, Daniela Mercury and Chichí Peralta. Billboard reported the event, which came ahead of the main Latin Grammy gala later this week.
The Lifetime Achievement Awards honour creative work of outstanding artistic value to Latin music. The academy, the US-based body that runs the Latin Grammys, also presented its Trustees Award to Omar Alfanno. That award recognises significant contributions to the genre that do not have to come through performing, so it can go to people whose influence sits behind the scenes.
Latin Recording Academy CEO Manuel Abud opened the afternoon. Milly Quezada hosted, and Erika Ender took part as a presenter.
Speaking on stage, Alaska described herself as a hard-to-classify artist with one foot in the mainstream and one in the underground. She noted that she was born in Mexico, even though she is Spanish. Lila Downs recalled a six-year-old girl singing in the mountains of Oaxaca, and she thanked Oaxaca for her roots and Mexico for her identity, her strength and the stories she has to sing.
Daniela Mercury said her music stands against discrimination and for joy, LGBT rights, freedom and democracy, and that it opposes authoritarianism. Chichí Peralta said that making art means trying, failing and starting again. She argued that the human ability to feel, imagine and turn experience into art cannot be replaced by technology, a subject that has become a live question across the music business as AI tools spread.
Francisco Céspedes said he hoped listeners would share romantic or intimate moments while playing his songs. Alfanno, for his part, told the room that songwriters are the fuel of the industry. He urged writers to make songs that last, not only songs that chart.
The Latin Grammy Awards gala is set for Thursday, Nov. 12, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The academy has scheduled a live broadcast on Univision at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), the US east-coast clock that governs most of the country's broadcast schedule.
The Special Awards are handed out before the main show, so the honourees will be recognised again in a larger room in a few days. For the people who work on the tours, studios and stages that surround these artists, the week ends with the main telecast.
