As a young Latina, Latin music is a very important part in my life, as I imagine it is for many of you. And with the Billboard Latin Music Awards coming up this week, I figured I would show some appreciation.
One of the most anticipated categories, Artist of the Year, has a bunch of my favorite stars en espanol competing against each other. It’s a nail-biter but no matter who wins, I win because I love them all.
Marc Anthony is embedded in my DNA through my parents. I’ve had a cru
sh on Prince Royce since the 6th grade. Enrique Iglesias is, well, musical royalty (and his crown is a ball cap). And my new fave, Romeo Santos, is on a roll.
While each of these artists deserves recognition for his work, one truly stood out to me for how much he’s done in the last year: Enrique Iglesias.
Let’s count he ways he’s earned this honor:
- He released his chart topping album “Sex and Love,” which included several singles including “I’m A Freak” featuring Pitbull, “Loco” with Romeo Santos, and the most popular song of his this year; “Bailando” featuring Descemer Bueno and Gente de Zona.
- His single “Bailando” went crazy on the charts in all the languages it was released in, becoming Iglesias’ 25th no. 1 single on the Hot Latin Songs chart and 20th No. 1 single on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. “Bailando” was also the 10th best-selling song of 2014 with sales of eight million copies world wide. The song spent a record 39 weeks as No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, becoming the longest running song to hold that position in the history of the chart. And… didn’t this song win a Latin Grammy award last year?
- His tour with Pitbull, which started in September, also was ranked No. 1 by billboard.com in March’s “Hot Tours” and no wonder — which racked up $13.5 million in ticket sales.
- Iglesias took home six awards at the Premios Los Nuestro, including pop male artist of the year and pop song and video of the year for “Bailando”.
- He also recently released the single “El Perdon” with Nicky Jam. “El Perdon” is No. 66 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Latin charts on iTunes, currently. It’s also No. 1 on both the Hot Latin Songs and Latin Airplay charts.
Winning Artist of the Year would be the whipped cream on the cafe con leche for Mr. Henry Churches and he deserves it.
Of course all of the other nominees, are hardworking and talented artists who deserve our love and praise, too. It doesn’t matter who wins when you have these kind of finalists in the running. It’s a win,-win-win-win for everybody.
Make sure you tune in at 8 pm Thursday, April 3oth, as the Billboard Latin Music Awards air live on Telemundo.
