Rubén Blades, Camilo, ‘Patria y Vida’ share Latin Grammys glory

By David Villafranca

Las Vegas, US, Nov 18 (EFE).- Rubén Blades, Camilo and the anti-Cuban-government song “Patria y Vida” shared the glory at the 22nd Annual Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas on Thursday.

The gongs were widely distributed and mostly to men, since the Latin Recording Academy also gave prominence to C. Tangana with his album “El Madrileño,” as well as Juan Luis Guerra and urban star Bad Bunny.

Panama’s Blades was on Wednesday named Person of the Year 2021, and on Thursday capped off the honor, winning Album of the Year for “Salswing!” and Best Salsa Album with “Salsa Plus!”

“Winning an award at the expense of someone else losing has never pleased me,” Blades said, adding that he was accepting the award on behalf of all the nominees.

Colombian Camilo, who as a rising figure in the Latin scene topped the nominations with 10, scored four golden gramophones, including Best Pop Vocal Album (“Mis Manos”) and Best Pop Song (“Vida de Rico”).

“I want to dedicate this award to Indigo so that when she is born she will feel proud of her father,” Camilo said in reference to the baby he is expecting with his wife Evaluna Montaner.

One of the surprises of the evening was the Record of the Year gong that went to “Talvez” by Caetano Veloso and his son Tom.

The Latin Grammy for Song of the Year went to “Patria y Vida,” which brought criticism of the Cuban government to the evening.

Yotuel, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno, Maykel Osorbo, El Funky, Yadam González and Beatriz Luengo are the writers of the political anthem, which also won the award for Best Urban Song.

“This song is dedicated to all the political prisoners in Cuba,” El Funky said in one of the highlights of the night.

Dressed head to toe in white, the artists ended the song by shouting: “Long live free Cuba!”

C. Tangana’s traditional album “El Madrileño” won three awards, although technically only two of them went to the Spanish singer – Best Alternative Song (“Nominao”) and Best Pop-Rock Song (“Hong Kong”).

His producer Alizzz also appeared as a winner in those two categories, as well as in Best Engineered Album for “El Madrileño.”

Juan Luis Guerra, Jorge Drexler, Bad Bunny, Vicentico and Anavitória were other artists who won twice at the gala, which also proclaimed the young Colombian Juliana Velásquez as Best New Artist. EFE

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