The Latin Grammys will leave the US for the first time and travel to Spain

The Latin Grammy Awards, organized by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, will leave the United States for the first time. This year’s ceremony will take place in November in Spain, in the southern region of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno, the regional premier of Andalusia, and Manuel Abud, the executive director of the academy, announced on Wednesday. The event will be “historic” for Andalusia, said Moreno. While the exact city remains unknown, Moreno hinted that Seville, the capital of the region, would be the best option. He said that Seville meets all the necessary “requirements because of its link to the Latin world” and because the city is “used to organizing big events.”

Prior to the announcement, both Moreno and Abud previously met with Eva Cebrián, the vice-president of the academy’s board of directors, and the Andalusian Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Arturo Bernal, to formalize the framework agreement between the two institutions.

Following the reveal, the mayor of Seville, Antonio Muñoz Martínez, immediately tweeted his willingness to host the Latin Grammy Awards, which celebrates the best musical productions in Spanish, Portuguese and Ibero-American languages. For years, the City Council of Seville has been talking to the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences about hosting the gala. According to Muñoz, the city of Seville “is ready to host major international events.”

The Andalusian capital is used to being the showcase for major national and international cultural and sporting events. In 2019, it became the second Spanish city to host the Goya Awards, Spain’s national annual film awards, after the country’s capital, Madrid, held the ceremony for over 30 years. The Goyas returned to Seville last year as well. In October 2019, the Conference and Exhibition Center of Seville (Fibes), the likely venue for this year’s Grammys, was the stage for the European Music Awards, organized by the MTV network. Last year, Christian Dior’s cruise collection in Seville’s renowned Plaza de España made the covers of fashion magazines.

For the past few months, the government of Seville and the Latin Academy have been discussing the possibility of hosting the ceremony in the Andalusian capital. In fact, representatives from the academy visited Fibes and attended last year’s Goya Awards, according to sources from the municipal government. What’s more, the Seville City Council and the regional government of Andalusia have also been working closely together. Once the agreement with the regional government has been signed, a specific one for Seville will have to be finalized, the same sources indicated.

The sponsorship agreement signed for three years contemplates, in principle, that this year’s award ceremony will be held in Andalusia, but not the following years, as pointed out Abud. “The gala will be this year, the rest is likely to return to the US,” he said. The sponsorship will include, however, a series of concerts and events related to Andalusian cultural heritage, which will be organized in collaboration with the Grammy Foundation, said Abud who did not want to go into details because “everything is being planned and will be unveiled gradually.” According to sources close to the Board, there will be a total of 15 events, in addition to the awards ceremony and the activities that take place that week, including at least two concerts a year and other initiatives with schoolchildren and musical training scholarships, which will take place in different Andalusian cities.

These same sources estimated that the Latin Grammy week alone will bring €300 million ($318 million) in revenue to Andalusia. The Andalusian government will contribute €18 million ($19 million) in total between 2023 and 2025 and expects to obtain a return of €500 million ($530 million). The Andalusian government pointed out that the whole negotiation process with the Academy has been carried out in person and in a discreet manner by the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sports, Arturo Bernal.

In the last edition of the Latin Grammy Awards, which took place last November, Uruguayan musician Jorge Drexler took home the most awards (seven), followed by Bad Bunny (five), and Spain’s Rosalía (four), who won the best album category for Motomami.

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