Gabriel Recognised At Latin Grammys

Noted Mexican singer and songwriter Juan Gabriel was honored on Wednesday night as the Latin Recording Academy’s Person of the Year, at an event that witnessed the presence of a number of renowned singers from all across the world. The much acclaimed singer was recognized for his immense contribution in the various facets of Mexican music. The event was held just a day prior to the Latin Grammy Award show which is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas.

When the singer walked the red carpet wearing a sophisticated black jacket and sunglasses as well a impressive jeweled tie pin, all the photographers rushed their way up to the red carpet to catch a glimpse of the celebrated artist. Over the years, Gabriel has been successful in creating a name for himself in the music industry and boasts of a fan following all across the world. The artist is also recognized for penning down around 1500 songs and at the same time selling around 100 million records in all these years. The singer-songwriter who is also fondly referred to as the “divo of Juarez” has an recording experience spanning 30 years. No wonder the artist deserved all the accolades and appreciation that he received on Wednesday’s event.

Gabriel, whose actual name is Alberto Aguilera Valadez was born in extremely poor conditions and had to face a lot of hardships in his early life as he had to spend his growing up years in an orphanage at Juarez, which is a border city. However, he first tasted success in the year 1971 as his song “No Tengo Dinero,” and “I Have No Money,” became chart toppers.

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Alejandro Sanz searches for paradise

Whenever Latin pop sensation Alejandro Sanz writes music, he sets off on a "long mental journey" to find inspiration. But when Alicia Keys surprised the singer at a party in New York by joining him in an impromptu jam session, Sanz knew then that he'd found his muse.

"I simply grabbed a guitar and we started to improvise, singing and playing. After that, we decided then that we needed to do something together," he said in an interview. "Working with her was such a marvelous thing. She's a great artist, a great woman, and it turned out to be something marvelous between us."

The end result is reflected in their new duet, "Looking For Paradise."

The 15-time Latin Grammy winner, who has performed on stage with Destiny's Child at the second annual Latin Grammy Awards and who collaborated with Colombian singer Shakira on her 2005 smash hit song "La Tortura," said he's found the same work ethic in Keys as he did with his other female counterparts.

Of Shakira and Keys, he said, "The two have things very much in common. For example, when it's time to work, they are perfectionists and they like to be at work until the very last detail is done. They are very much perfectionists and have a sensibility for music."

Despite rumors circulating for months that the 40-year-old raspy-voiced singer was working on a crossover English language studio album, "Looking for Paradise" is the only English track from his upcoming album, "Paraiso Express," due out on Nov. 10.

The music video for the lead song finds the Madrid-born singer and the R&B songstress searching for each other and later meeting up at a rooftop party in New York City — in a symbolic gesture of unity among two singers from different musical worlds.

"The song is so beautiful. It's touching. It's uplifting. It's worldwide. It really talks about the way we're all looking for something and how we can all find it," Keys says in a video posted on Sanz' Web site. "I just love this idea of bringing worlds together. I think that's what it's all about."

"Paraiso Express" is Sanz's eighth studio album in three years, and he linked up with producers Swizz Beatz and Tommy Torres, who has worked with Latin singers Ricardo Arjona and Ricky Martin. He said he hopes listeners will enjoy the journey and "find for themselves the 'Paraiso' within."

"I hope this album motivates listeners to look for their own paradise, that paradise that very often is inside us, although we insist in looking for it in the outside," he said.

On the Net:

 http://www.alejandrosanz.com

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Calle 13 Rule Latin Grammys

The big winner at the Latin Grammys in Las Vegas on Thursday night was the Puerto Rican hip-hop group Calle 13, who nabbed all five awards they were nominated for, including Album of the Year (Los de Atrás Vienen Conmigo) and Record of the Year ("No Hay Nadie Como Tú").

"This award, I have to dedicate to many people," Calle 13's René Pérez — a.k.a. Residente — said while accepting Record the Year, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The hip-hop duo — which also features Pérez's stepbrother Eduardo José Cabra Martínez, who raps under the name Visitante — secured additional wins for Best Urban Music Album, Best Short-Form Music Video and Best Alternative Song.

"To all the people who make music in this moment of independent music, to hell with record labels!" Residente said while accepting the alternative-song trophy, according to E! online. "This is the moment for those of us who make real music."

The duo also performed at the show, busting out a rendition of "La Perla," for which they'd won best short-form video, with salsa singer Ruben Blades.

Alicia Keys — whose presence at the Latin Grammys was the reason she wasn't able to perform "Empire State of Mind" with Jay-Z at MTV's European Music Awards in Berlin — took the stage with Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz for a rendition of his "Looking for Paradise."

Other highlights from the awards show included Eva Longoria Parker appearing as a presenter. Enrique Iglesias presented the 2009 Person of the Year award to Mexican singer Juan Gabriel. Alexander Acha, a Mexican singer/songwriter, took home Best New Artist.

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Latin Grammys has another spotlight

Calle 13, the Puerto Rican half-sibling, alt-hip-hop duo, is a group that hardly needs more accolades to make its presence known. If not at the pinnacle of their careers, the stepbrothers René Pérez Joglar, the lead singer known as Residente, and Eduardo José Cabra Martínez, a.k.a. Visitante, surely are entering into Andean altitudes.

Building on their huge Puerto Rican following, they've been playing to sell-out crowds in South America and the United States. Already a multiple Latin Grammy and one-time Grammy award winner, Calle 13 leads the pack of this year's Latin Grammy nominees with five.

Among the trophies the duo might haul home from tonight's ceremony at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas are those for album of the year ("Los De Atrás Vienen Conmigo"), record of the year ("No Hay Nadie Como Tú") and best short form music video, for "La Perla," with Ruben Blades, one of tonight's presenters. Calle 13 also is gaining traction with non-Latino listeners; among its recent U.S. gigs was a 2008 performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Yet, speaking by phone recently from Venezuela, where he was on tour, Residente said he was grateful that he and other Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking artists have their own separate event from the Grammy Awards. The Latin Grammys, with 49 categories, targets artists across a spectrum of styles, including reggaeton, cumbia, ranchera and religious music.

The Grammys, with only a handful of Latin categories, necessarily lumps many disparate artists into one thick cultural pozole.

"Music is music, but it's good we have a separate award," Residente said. "They [the Grammy Awards] try to incorporate everything, from Mana to Calle 13, and it's crazy."

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the Latin Grammy Awards has found a comfortable niche between registering shifting Latino musical tastes and sensibilities while catering to an awareness that more non-Latinos, both in the United States and elsewhere, are listening to Spanish- and Portuguese-language music.

The show's presenter, the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, no longer feels compelled to argue for its right to a spot in America's saturated entertainment-awards cosmos. And the awards themselves, now broadcast on the Spanish-language Univision Network, have become a lavish, commercially lucrative affair that reflects the growing importance of U.S. Latinos, who as of 2007 made up 15.5% of the nation's population, both as a political and consumer force.

But if the awards have grown to fill out their ambitious expectations, the academy remains a relatively lean operation, said its president, Gabriel Abaroa. Each year, he said, its core staff of 10 people relies heavily on a group of about 350 volunteers to listen to and classify all the recordings. The more money the organization saves on overhead costs, said Abaroa, the more it can focus on identifying and promoting new talent.

"Every single day that an office closes, the last person goes and turns out all the lights and shuts all the computers," Abaroa said. "All the staff that works for the Latin Recording Academy came from Third World countries, where crisis is an everyday word. You learn to be very conservative."

In some ways, the Latin music industry has had to rethink its future in the decade since the Latin Grammys and the academy were launched. Back then, the conventional wisdom was that "the crossover moment had arrived," as Ricky Martin and other artists scored a handful of monster English-language pop hits, Abaroa said. "Ricky delivered the perfect punch at the perfect time in the perfect world."

But that crossover phenomenon never fully arrived, and since then the academy has "become more rootsy, we have gone more to the roots," Abaroa maintained. This was possible in part, he believes, because "the American public is accepting much more that someone can sing in Spanish."

Despite the accelerating mainstreaming of Latino culture -- or, if you like, the Latinization of U.S. popular culture -- the Latin Academy seeks to maintain the legitimacy of Latin, non-English music as a distinct cultural entity. That goal is reflected in its stiff rules governing the proportion of Spanish- or Portuguese-language content that recordings must have in order to be nominated.

For any song category, at least 75% of the lyrics must be in Spanish or Portuguese. Album recordings in all categories must have at least 51% Spanish or Portuguese lyrical content. "You want to make sure the album is as pure as possible in the use of Spanish or Portuguese. It has to respect the poetry," Abaroa said.

Tomas Cookman, president and owner of North Hollywood-based Cookman International and Nacional Records, said that although Latino artists and listeners do care about the Latin Grammys, winning an award seldom does much for a record's sales.

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Kid Cudi to Appear on Shakira Album

Shakira is adding to her list of rap collaborators. After recruiting Lil Wayne for her Timbaland-produced single “Give It Up to Me,” she has tapped Kid Cudi for a track on the U.S. edition of her album.


The “Day ‘N’ Nite” rapper appears on the remix to The Neptunes production “Did It Again,” while Pitbull guests on the Spanish remix “Lo Hecho Está Hecho.” A video for the original song was recently released and can be viewed below.

Shakira’s third English album She Wolf lands stateside November 23. Kid Cudi can be seen opening for Lady Gaga’s “Monster Ball” tour beginning November 27 in Montreal, Canada.



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2009 Latin Grammy lineup

Pepe Aguilar, Oscar D'Leon, Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Wisin y Yandel, and 2009 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year Juan Gabriel, are the latest performers added to the stellar lineup for the 10th Annual Latin GRAMMY® Awards telecast, it was announced today by The Latin Recording Academy®. Confirmed to present awards are current Latin GRAMMY nominees Enrique Bunbury, Luis Enrique, German Montero, Omara Portuondo and Reik, as well as Kany Garcia, Enrique Iglesias, Victor Manuelle, Milly Quezada, and Johnny Ventura. The milestone telecast is set for Nov. 5 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, and will be broadcast live on the Univision Network from 8 – 11 p.m. ET/PT (7 p.m. Central). For updates and breaking news, please visit The Latin Recording Academy's social networks on Twitter and Facebook: www.twitter.com/latingrammys, www.facebook.com/latingrammys.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080819/LATU001LOGO)

Additionally, for the first time the 10th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards Pre-Telecast ceremony will be streamed live internationally on www.latingrammy.com beginning at 2 p.m. PT. Fashion entrepreneur and former Miss Universe Barbara Palacios will host the Pre-Telecast, during which winners in more than 35 of the 49 Latin GRAMMY categories will be announced prior to the evening's telecast — kicking off a full evening of celebrating excellence in recorded Latin music from around the world. The Pre-Telecast will take place from 2 – 3 p.m. PT at Mandalay Bay Events Center and the live stream will remain on LatinGRAMMY.com for 30 days following the event.

Latin GRAMMY and GRAMMY® winners Wisin y Yandel garnered a nomination for Best Urban Album (La Revolucion) and two in Best Urban Song ("Abusadora" with Marcos Masis "Tainy," and "Mujeres In The Club" with 50 Cent). Oscar D'Leon is nominated for Best Salsa Album (Tranquilamente…Tranquilo), Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles is up for Best Ranchero Album (Companeras), and Gilberto Santa Rosa has a nod for Record Of The Year ("Si No Vas A Cocinar" with Jose Lugo Orchestra). Los Tucanes de Tijuana vocalist Mario Quintero Lara is nominated for Best Regional Mexican Song ("Se Fue Mi Amor").

Previously announced performers include David Bisbal, Ruben Blades, Calle 13, Shaila Durcal, Luis Fonsi, Grupo Montez De Durango, Laura Pausini, Espinoza Paz, La Quinta Estacion and Luz Rios as well as 14-time Latin GRAMMY and two-time GRAMMY winner Alejandro Sanz. Previously announced presenters feature Alexander Acha, Beto Cuevas, Cucu Diamantes, Juan Luis Guerra, and Gian Marco. Actor/Comedian Eugenio Derbez and actress/singer Lucero will co-host the 10th anniversary celebration.

Once again, Univision.com is the official Spanish-language Web site for the 10th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards. Find exclusive coverage of this year's performers at www.latingrammy.univision.com, including video interviews and photos, an extensive archive of past shows, and dedicated forums for fans to share their excitement leading up to the live broadcast. For access to the latest Latin GRAMMY scoop and photos on-the-go, visit Univision.com on any Web-enabled mobile device.

Preceding the Awards show telecast, Univision will present exclusive "Noche de Estrellas" (Night Of The Stars) coverage of the celebrity arrivals direct from the Latin GRAMMY Awards green carpet starting at 7 p.m. ET/PT (6 p.m. Central). Presented by "Primer Impacto" co-anchor Barbara Bermudo and "Nuestra Belleza Latina" host Giselle Blondet, "Noche de Estrellas" will feature live interviews and commentary on the stars and their fashions, and provide viewers an intimate and up close look at Latin music's most glamorous gala event.

A limited number of tickets to the 10th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards are available to the public and may be purchased at the Mandalay Bay Events Center box office (877.632.7400; www.mandalaybay.com) or through Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com).

The Latin Recording Academy is an international, membership-based organization comprised of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking recording artists, musicians, songwriters, producers and other creative and technical recording professionals. The organization is dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for Latin music and its makers. In addition to producing the Latin GRAMMY Awards to honor excellence in the recorded arts and sciences, The Latin Recording Academy provides educational and outreach programs for the Latin music community. For more information about The Latin Recording Academy, please visit www.latingrammy.com. For breaking news and exclusive content, join the organization's social networks as a Twitter follower at www.twitter.com/latingrammys, and a Facebook fan at www.facebook.com/latingrammys. 

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Take talk of food racism

San Diego, California (CNN) -- This week, I was on a talk radio show when the host -- a white male conservative (what are the odds?) -- asked me if Americans are so sensitive that we now have to worry about "food racism."

When I first heard the phrase, I thought he was talking about the time that Hillary Clinton, during the Democratic primary, went looking for Latino votes in a Mexican restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada. Trying to explain to her mostly Mexican-American audience that Americans' concerns are intertwined, Clinton wound up showing everyone that her knowledge of Latino issues is a side order short of a combination plate when she said condescendingly:

"We treat these problems as if one is guacamole and one is chips, when ... they both go together."

Gulp! I remember thinking at the time: "Ay gracias, Señora Clinton. I have difficulty with challenging political issues, but now you're speaking my language. Come on, donkey!"

Instead, the radio host was talking about the latest tempest -- a taco in a teapot. One of the most recent skirmishes in the culture wars is about a Latino race car driver and a TV broadcaster who spun out and hit the wall after telling a lame joke that some are calling racist.

ESPN broadcaster Bob Griese has been suspended for one week for a stereotypical crack he made about NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya. During a recent ESPN broadcast, a graphic appeared listing the top drivers in a NASCAR competition. When fellow analyst Chris Spielman asked where was Montoya, Griese replied he was "out having a taco."

Griese has twice apologized on air for the remark, which -- according to ESPN -- he now realizes was "inappropriate." Montoya, who is Colombian, has taken the high road. Asked about the comment, the driver said: "Somebody mentioned it to me. I don't really care to tell you the truth. Yeah, I don't. I could say that I spent the last three hours eating tacos, but I was actually driving a car."

OK, this isn't the worst slight. Yes, it's true that one thing that bothers many Latinos is the ignorance. News flash: Not all 47 million Latinos in the United States can trace their origins to Mexico, and many people from Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, El Salvador and other Latin American countries flat-out resent being lumped together with Mexicans just because some non-Latinos don't care enough to do their homework and make the distinction.

But if you ranked a bunch of racist acts from 1 to 10, with 1 being the most harmless and 10 being the worst, Sheriff Joe Arpaio rounding up Mexicans in Arizona might be a nine. What you hear from cable demagogues could be an eight. The New Mexico innkeeper who fired workers for not anglicizing their names would be a seven. Griese's comments would be closer to a four.

So why suspend him? Two reasons: money and memory.

First, about money, ESPN is owned by The Walt Disney Co. and Latinos spend $800 billion a year. Eager for a piece, Mickey Mouse wants Latino consumers to know: "Se habla Español." So Griese had to be put in time out.

Next, about memory, the "taco" controversy brings to mind one of the most notorious racial flubs in the recent history of professional sports and one that was much uglier.

In April 1997, at the Masters Golf Tournament, after shooting a pitiful 78 that tied him for 34th in the final standings, professional golfer Fuzzy Zoeller assessed the game of the young man who came in first: 21-year-old Tiger Woods, who became the first African-American to win a major tournament.

Referring to the Masters' Champions Dinner where the menu is set by the previous year's winner, Zoeller said about Woods: "That little boy is driving well and he's putting well. He's doing everything it takes to win. So, you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not [to] serve fried chicken next year. Got it?" Zoeller smiled, snapped his fingers, and walked away. Then he turned his head and yelled over his shoulder, "or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve."

Woods, whose mother is Asian-American and whose father was African-American, calls himself: "Calibasian."

Zoeller obviously saw Woods in simpler terms. Insisting his comments were "not intended to be racially derogatory," the golfer later apologized "for the fact that they were misconstrued in that fashion."

Fried chicken and collard greens, huh? Now that's what I call food racism.

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Don Omar - New Movement in Reggaeton

Don Omar was one of the more prominent Latin artists to usher reggaeton into the mainstream U.S. market earlier this decade.

Generating heavy mainstream airplay and record sales with such crossover singles as “Dale Don Dale” and “Dile” (Otra Noche), Don Omar soon would draw audiences of all ethnicities and ages.

In 2005, thus far the height of reggaeton’s U.S. popularity, Dom Omar joined such reggaeton stars as Daddy Yankee, Tego Calderón, Voltio and Ivy Queen for a sold out show at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving Day.

But in recent years, as the music industry’s overall sales declined, the flame of reggaeton has cooled somewhat in the U.S., with radio station programmers and club deejays citing the lack of new Latin artists with crossover appeal as a cause.

Still, to Don Omar and other artists, who are as popular as ever in Latin America and Europe, reggaeton is just hitting its stride in the U.S. and abroad.

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Ellen, Kobe, And Eva Longoria 1st Guests

George Lopez is preparing to debut his new late-night "party," but really talk show, with some major guests. the first to hit "Lopez Tonight" are fellow talk show host and soon-to-be "American Idol" judge Ellen Degeneres, "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria Parker, and NBA superstar Kobe Bryant.

The trio of A-Listers head the first night of Lopez's new show, which premieres Monday, November 9th at 11pm ET/PT on TBS. The comedian's first late-night stint will air Monday through Thursday on TBS.

Also lined up for the show's first few weeks are Sandra Bullock, who executive produced "The George Lopez Show" and cameo'd in various episodes, Kathy Griffin, Ray Romano, Taylor Lautner, Charlie Sheen, Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, Kelly Osburne, Floyd Mayweather, Ted Danson, Larry David, and Arsenio Hall.

Lopez, who premiered his HBO stand-up special "Tall, Dark and Chicano" this year, of course always has a seat for his latino friends. Also scheduled to appear are in the show's first weeks are Jessica Alba, Andy Garcia, Oscar de la Hoya, Marc Anthony, and Eva Mendes.

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New Mexico Hotel Owner Accused of Racism

Larry Whitten, who purchased a floundering New Mexico hotel in July, is being cast as a racist by ex-employees and civil rights groups for forcing his Latino workers to make their names sound less Hispanic and preventing them from speaking Spanish in his presence.

 Now, those who feel disrespected by his actions are marching and picketing against the Southwestern adobe-style hotel in the northern New Mexico town of Taos. Joining the host of angry former employees and townsfolk are such activist groups as Los Brown Berets de Nuevo Mexico and the New Mexico chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a national civil rights organization.

"I do feel he's a racist, but he's a racist out of ignorance. He doesn't know that what he's doing is wrong," protester Juanito Burns Jr., who identifies himself as prime minister of Los Brown Berets de Nuevo Mexico, told The Associated Press.

 But Whitten, a 63-year-old native Virginian, who helped turn around flailing hotels in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and South Carolina, said, "It has nothing to do with racism. I'm not doing it for any reason other than for the satisfaction of my guests, because people calling from all over America don't know the Spanish accents or the Spanish culture or Spanish anything.

"Because of that, I asked the people in my presence to speak only English because I do not understand Spanish," Whitten says. "I've been working 24 years in Texas and we have a lot of Spanish people there. I've never had to ask anyone to speak only English in front of me because I've never had a reason to.”

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t racist, says fired hotel worker Martin Gutierrez, who says he felt disrespected when he was told to use the unaccented Martin as his name. He says he told Whitten that Spanish was spoken in New Mexico before English, AP reports. "He told me he didn't care what I thought because this was his business," Gutierrez says.

"I don't have to change my name and language or heritage. I'm professional the way I am."

Darren Cordova, the mayor or Taos, a liberal community of about 5,000 residents, says Whitten has done nothing illegal, but he believes he should have better familiarized himself with the town before moving there.

"Taos is so unique that you would not do anything in Taos that you would do elsewhere," he says.

Whitten agrees. "What kind of fool or idiot or poor businessman would I be to orchestrate this whole crazy thing that's costed me a lot of time, money and aggravation?" Whitten said.

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