(Los Angeles) A year ago, the prince of reggaeton Bad Bunny opened the Grammy Awards ceremony, raising hopes of lasting recognition for Latin music. But on Sunday, these artists will still be shunned at the American music industry awards evening, completely out of step with their popularity.
Bad Bunny also managed in 2023 to place a record in Spanish for the first time, “Un verano sin ti”, among the nominees in the best albums category. But for the 66e ceremony, Sunday in Los Angeles, no Latin American artist was named in this kidney category, or in one of the three other most prestigious (best song, recording or revelation of the year).
Enough to shock observers, who note that the Mexican singer Peso Pluma, with meteoric success – 5e most listened to artist in the world on Spotify in 2023 – was left out of the revelations of the year.
“They are dismissing a whole new wave of talent that is changing the musical landscape,” the magazine wrote Rolling Stone,
Corridos and narcocorridos
PHOTO JORGE GUERRERO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Shakira
Shakira, who relaunched her career with the popular song Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53, on his separation from ex-soccer player Gerard Piqué? Forgotten.
Like the Puerto Rican rapper Eladio Carrion, or the Colombian Karol G, 9e most listened to artist on Spotify in 2023, but who does not appear in the general categories.
The head of the Recording Academy, which represents professionals in the American music industry and organizes the Grammys, Harvey Mason Jr, admitted this on the Billboard website: “I would have liked to have more Latin artists and creators” .
” We must […] making sure we represent the music in its reality,” he said.
For critics of the Grammys, the sidelining is blatant for the styles of regional Mexican music (banda, sierreno, norteno, mariachi), which have become very popular in the United States, and which have risen several times this year in THE top 10 of the American reference ranking, the magazine’s “Hot 100” Billboard.
This boom has allowed a new generation of artists to revisit traditional corridos, these ballads popularized more than a century ago during the Mexican Revolution, with influences from rap or reggaeton.
Peso Pluma has come under fire for embracing the historic subgenre of narcocorrido, songs telling stories about drugs, accused of glorifying drug trafficking and cartels.
But they appeal to a transnational fan base, young and digitally savvy, who flock to streaming platforms and social media.
“Erosion of English”
“What is happening now is a re-calibration, not only of regional Mexican music, but also of Mexican identity in the United States,” explains Juan Carlos Ramirez-Pimienta, professor at the University of Mexico. San Diego State, specialist in corridos and narco culture.
Many admirers of artists like Peso Pluma are young immigrants to the United States or first-generation Americans, plus many non-Hispanics who do not speak Spanish.
“It’s really linked to the erosion of English and American music as ‘world music’,” adds the academic.
Like pop, rock, hip-hop, country, and many other genres, Latin music has its own subcategory of awards, alongside the general, most prestigious category. Since 2000, a separate branch of the Recording Academy has also organized the Latin Grammys, dedicated entirely to Spanish- and Portuguese-language music.
For Ed Morales, professor at Columbia University in New York, this ceremony is both “a major commercial promotion opportunity”, but it can also “compartmentalize” Latin music and “reduce the need for representation at the traditional Grammys” .
The two researchers note that this marginalization resembles that which hip-hop artists have experienced for decades, and which has only recently been overcome. “It’s the same process of being deprived of representation,” says Juan Carlos Ramirez-Pimienta.
“Latin Americans should not remain perpetually marginal and foreign,” adds Ed Morales.