Familiar Faces Lead the Pack

Welcome again to the wonderful world of the Latin Grammys, where “pop” means either romantic or soft, mariachi is the same as Tex-Mex, rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t exist and, year after year, the voters seem to have lost all sense of the reality of today’s Latin music.

As usual, the nominees for best Latin pop performance are mostly a bunch of huge-selling romantic singers with nothing new to offer. Enrique Iglesias (surprise!) and Luis Miguel (even with a weak record) apparently have the right formula; Vikki Carr and Jose Feliciano are sentimental favorites (though a win by either would be an upset). Watch out, though, for prolific Marco Antonio Solis, a genuine songwriting talent, despite his dreadful past with Los Bukis.

Along with Latin jazz (where Terence Blanchard & Ivan Lins, Paquito D’Rivera and Ray Barreto lead a pack of great albums), best tropical Latin performance is the strongest category, though that is more a result of the music’s innate richness than of the voters’ standards. But to the voters’ credit, this year nobody forgot Albita (who deserves to win) and apparently people listened to Ruben Blades’ fine “La rosa de los vientos,” even if the Panamanian can’t match the power of his past.

Unanswered questions remain: Whose idea was it to create a category that includes Vicente Fernandez rancheras alongside La Mafia’s corny tejano-cumbia-romantic-pop fusion? To arbitrarily lump together such important musical cultures as Texas’ and Mexico’s is a slap in the face of each--and as absurd as ignoring the exciting world of Latin rock. Why can’t Latinos have their own Alanis Morissettes?