The Latin GRAMMY Awards will take place on Nov. 14 in Las Vegas.
Today is a good day for a slew of Latinx artists. The nominees for the 20th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards were announced Tuesday morning and it had a few surprises in store.
Sebastian Yatra, who has catapulted to stardom in the past year, is up for Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Album. Following the news of his nominations, the 24-year-old singer spoke with ET exclusively.
“I can’t believe this,” he told ET’s Denny Directo during a Skype interview. “I’m mega excited [with] three nominations. I’m thankful for my whole team, my label Universal. I’m happy for all the other nominees and the people who have worked so hard this year, and it’s an amazing awards show. Latin music right now is at its best.”
The "Runaway" singer says the nominations came as a surprise since his album Fantasia features mostly ballads, a genre that's not as popular with urban singers.
“It’s an especially important moment because I did this album, Fantasia, which is [full of] ballads,” he explained. “Ballads had really been left in the past in Spanish music, and now with this album and different artists, we're trying to bring new versions of these songs back, especially to the youth and kids that maybe hadn’t heard these types of songs.”
Yatra went on to reveal that there’s one category in particular that he hopes to win.
“Any of them would be insane, but I think winning Album of the Year would be the greatest category of them all. But, just the fact that I’m in it is already something crazy. I’m going to be crossing my fingers and praying a lot before the awards show.”
Puerto Rican singer Pedro Capo received two nominations including Song of the Year.
“This amazing song has touched the world,” Capo told ET about his hot single, “Calma.” “Happy to be nominated, two nominations, we got the original version and we got the second one with Farruko. Looking forward to Nov. 14. The awards show will be on my birthday, so I’m going to be happy. It's going to be a good one.”
Capo shared he has yet to reach out to Alicia Keys to perform the remix of “Calma” on the Latin GRAMMY stage. “No, I haven’t yet. I’m still kinda grasping the reality of the moment,” he shared. “I mean...that would be spectacular. I would love to perform with her at the GRAMMYs or somewhere else, wherever, but let’s see what happens.”
Anitta's album KISSES got nominated for Best Urban Album. She told ET that her "bold album" was a challenging project that allowed her to "release 10 music videos in three different languages, showing different versions of me."
"I believed from the beginning in this project," she continued. "I had to face some resistance, but this nomination shows that I was on the right track. I'm very happy."
Sech, a fan favorite thanks to his mega hit, “Otro Trago,” told ET in a statement that he's over the moon.
“For me, it’s all a dream. Ever since I was a little boy, I would always watch the GRAMMYs," his statement read. "Being nominated has always been one of my biggest goals. It’s a dream come true."
Earlier this month, Sech opened up to ET about his album Sueños.
"It’s like my baby, my first album," he said. "I do it with all the love in the world. It's an album that I hope inspires a lot of people because they all know where I come from. It wasn't easy for me. And, I want people to see that sí se puede."
Mexican singer-songwriter, Ximena Sariñana told ET that she's feeling grateful with her two Latin GRAMMY nominations. She's up for Record of the Year and Album of the Year.
"[I'm] over the moon with these nominations that I share with so many amazing artists," she said. "So much work goes into each album that we feel honored to be recognized by our peers."
The Latin GRAMMYs will take place on Nov. 14 and air live on Univision from the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.
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