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< Alt.Latino talks all the surprise nominations for the 2024 Latin Grammys

September 25, 20243:00 AM ET

Alt.Latino talks all the surprise nominations for the 2024 Latin Grammys

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Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF DUSTY HENDRIX ET AL.'S "DOS MANOS")

ANAMARIA SAYRE, HOST:

So Felix, the Latin Grammy nominations have just arrived.

FELIX CONTRERAS, HOST:

I know. I printed them out, and I'm going through them as we speak.

(SOUNDBITE OF PAPER RUSTLING)

CONTRERAS: Can you hear it?

SAYRE: You have them printed?

CONTRERAS: Yes, of course. I need everything on paper.

SAYRE: Oh, rats.

CONTRERAS: You know that (laughter).

SAYRE: No, I wish I had them printed. That would be so nice.

CONTRERAS: All right, carry on. Let's go. I'm ready.

SAYRE: Why weren't you ready five minutes ago?

CONTRERAS: I'm ready now. Look. There are 58 categories that we got to get through today. So let's go. Let's hit it. From NPR Music, this is ALT.LATINO. I'm Felix Contreras.

SAYRE: And I'm Anamaria Sayre. Let the chisme begin.

CONTRERAS: (Laughter) OK.

SAYRE: And the chisme is Latin Grammys (laughter). So the thing about the Latin Grammys, Felix, is every year when I see this list come out, based on how aligned we are, I'm either like, the Academy has no idea what it's talking about - this is so stupid - or I'm like, they really have a point here. So this year, I felt pretty validated. So I'm going to get in here and say I like the Academy this year.

CONTRERAS: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

CONTRERAS: Good to know.

SAYRE: And I might as well get in here and introduce who's sitting in the studio with me because she gave me some validating snaps, and I like that. So we have the amazing culture reporter, Isabella Gomez Sarmiento.

CONTRERAS: Yay.

SAYRE: Thank you for joining us.

CONTRERAS: Yay.

ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: Holis.

SARMIENTO: Holis.

CONTRERAS: Hi, Isa.

SAYRE: She's, like, sitting here in real time doing some serious digital reporting work. And...

SARMIENTO: I'm scrolling through the nominations. I should've printed them out like Felix.

SAYRE: Not all of us can be so wise.

CONTRERAS: It's...

SAYRE: In 40 more years, Isa...

CONTRERAS: (Laughter).

SAYRE: ...We'll get there.

CONTRERAS: Dang.

SAYRE: We'll get there.

CONTRERAS: OK.

SAYRE: OK, that was not a roast.

CONTRERAS: Yes.

SAYRE: That was a compliment.

CONTRERAS: OK, all right. Let's just keep going.

SAYRE: I'm complimenting your wisdom.

CONTRERAS: It's going to take us 40 years to get through all 58 categories.

SAYRE: Felix, starting with...

CONTRERAS: OK.

SAYRE: ...The children's music.

CONTRERAS: Yeah.

SAYRE: Let's go.

CONTRERAS: Yeah. Truth be told, we're not going to get through all 58 'cause there were some themes and some highlights that we noticed this year, and there are some things that we want to talk about specifically. But I'll let you start it off because on our text conversation last night, while you were on the train and I was on the plane, coming and going from different places, you had an interesting observation about Mexican regional.

SAYRE: So I was just saying to Isa that this was amazing for me because this allowed me to revisit some of my most beautiful, favorite regional albums. I've kind of been off my regional kick, and I don't know why I ever was off because there's nothing as good. And this was really the year that they actually acknowledged regional as a legitimate popular music, right? Like, we saw nominations across major categories - like record of the year, song of the year album of the year - and we had not seen that in previous years. I mean, I think that was one of our big complaints last year.

SARMIENTO: Yeah, I was going to say, it really does feel like - I mean, they - so they added the new category this year for best contemporary Mexican music album. And it really does seem like they're kind of making amends for what people called - people, I don't know who - but some people called it the great Peso Pluma snub of 2023...

CONTRERAS: (Laughter).

SARMIENTO: ...Some people.

SAYRE: But I will say what I found really interesting you said - 'cause we saw Carin León mentioned in the album of the year, which is awesome. I mean, that was a really incredible record.

SARMIENTO: He's all over the place. He has a bunch of nominations.

SAYRE: He's on a trajectory that is incredible and is so talented and so well deserved. But we also saw in song of the year "Según Quien" - the super-popular Edgar Barrera-Maluma song - "Entre Paréntesis" which was my actual favorite track off of that Shakira album. It was her regional moment that I thought actually worked quite well. But the one thing that I found really interesting is if you go scroll down - or, Felix, sorry, flip your pages...

(SOUNDBITE OF PAPER RUSTLING)

SAYRE: ...(Laughter) To the actually regional section, where we have best norteño album - we have best contemporary Mexican music album - and you see Grupo Frontera spread across those two categories. They actually got two different album nominations there.

SARMIENTO: Yeah, they're kind of the middle line between the old guard of the genre, the more traditional guard of the genre, and then also this, like, pop explosion that we've seen this year. It's really cool to see Grupo Frontera somehow manages to have, like, a foot in both worlds and have a lot of relevance in both worlds, have a lot of respect, I think, from both of those very distinct audiences.

SAYRE: Well, and more interestingly, to me, actually is the way that the Academy is currently trying to sort out what is regional Mexican music kind of in real time, because you haven't a band like this. They're so fresh. They're so young. They're so new. And they are changing so rapidly that within one year, they could actually create two albums that would be included across two different subcategories in this genre. And it's almost like they had to make a choice here that would never quite fit because even within each of these independent albums, what was so amazing to me is that they played across these really different styles.

I want to play something from "El Comienzo," which was their debut album, and it's the one that they got nominated in the norteño category for. We know "Un X100to" came off of that one, but I want to play a different song called "Cansado De Sufrir."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CANSADO DE SUFRIR")

GRUPO FRONTERA: (Singing) Otra noche sin ti, bebé. Otra noche que me toca controlar mi mente loca que pregunta si vas a volver. Prometí ya no enamorarme, no volver a equivocarme, pero me equivoqué otra vez. Me pusiste a ver Los Ángeles y luego me echaste a perder. Y luego me echaste a perder. Ya estoy cansado de sufrir. Y ahora a ti te toca.

SAYRE: So something really interesting to me about this track is it definitely sits really nicely in that norteño category. But what's striking to me is you kind of start with almost like a pop guitar sound, which is very classic Edgar Barrera. It keeps it very contemporary, very fresh. But where it sits, like Isa was saying, in this norteño category that's typically a little bit more old-school, it does stand out. But then I want to play a little bit of the literal next track on the album called "Las Flores."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LAS FLORES")

YAHRITZA Y SU ESENCIA: (Singing) No debí bailar contigo ni darte ese beso que te di. Me estaba pegando el alcohol, esas cosas que te dije no las sentí.

GRUPO FRONTERA: (Singing) No pierdas tu tiempo conmigo, no quiero enamorarme yo de ti. Hace tiempo no me enamoro y me quiero quedar un rato así. Nunca debí darte las flores ni acariciar.

SAYRE: So all of a sudden, we're kind of going like Selena, Tejano, cumbia. They would never think to throw this album into the Tejano category because this band, even though they're from Texas, is not billed as a Tejano band. And yet, there's sprinklings of that all over this record.

CONTRERAS: And they're in a category - in the norteño album, they're in a category with, like you said, veterans. Like, the one that stands out to me is Intocable. They've been doing this for a very long time.

SAYRE: Of course, and also Texas and fusion, definitely. So there's, like, this incompleteness to the category. And then you fast-forward ahead, Felix, to album No. 2 that they dropped within this year of eligibility, and that was just all across the board. I think they didn't even know what to do with that record because it did so much. I mean, we talked about it a lot. We had that amazing "Desquite" track with - that they did with Nicki Nicole. I want to play a little bit of a song called "Ya Pedo Quién Sabe," and it's off of the album "Jugando A Que No Pasa Nada" in that new category, best contemporary Mexican music album.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YA PEDO QUIÉN SABE")

GRUPO FRONTERA: (Singing) Obvio, les digo que no, que no repito ese error. Pero ya pedo, quién sabe. En una de esas, tal vez te llame. Y es que, con unos tequilas encima, te extraño aquí encima, y eso tú lo sabes.

SAYRE: I brought this song in because I - as much as I said I'm liking the Academy this year, I wanted to poke a little bit of a hole in there because, to me, this track feels like it could have fit back in that older category. I do understand why they slotted them here because you have some tracks that are leaning more corrido tumbado - again, I mentioned the Nicki Nicole "Desquite" track, which is just all across the board - something really interesting. We talked about it on our Edgar Barrera episode. But there's really - I mean, they're sitting next to artists like Peso Pluma, Natanael Cano, DannyLux, Carin León again in this category, which Carin is doing what he's doing. He was a lot more straight-ahead traditional regional and now is, like, collabing with Leon Bridges and doing all the things he's doing. So I think the Latin Grammys just can't keep up with these artists.

CONTRERAS: No shade to the academy, because it's...

SAYRE: A little shade.

CONTRERAS: Well, no, seriously, because that's what I always say when people ask me about, you know, what I think about the music that we play. These younger artists are just so innovative and so genrebusting and so creative. Like, how could you possibly keep up? You're going to create a new category every year because somebody did something different? I think it's a testament to the creativity of the musicians out there, and, you know, an organization, an institution like the Academy is doing the best that they can to keep up. 'Cause I know I do. And even in the genres that I really care a lot about, people are genrebusting all the time.

SAYRE: Well, Felix, I'm curious, though. Like, what's the requirement? How much of a movement, how much, you know, energy around a certain style of music? How many people? Like does it - is it cultural influence? Is it - you know, because also, when we're talking about smaller artists, they're not necessarily going to be 1 million gajillion bazillion (ph) people listening or getting behind that music, but it doesn't mean that it's not impactful, what they're doing with innovation. So where's the line there?

CONTRERAS: I don't have an answer, and I'm glad I'm not having to make those decisions, to be honest with you. No, because, like, the Grupo Frontera track you played a while back, if you take out the accordion and sing it in English, to me, that sounded like "I'd Rather Go Blind" by Etta James. You know, it's got the same kind of R&B, arpeggio guitar. And so they're going over into that, but singing and you throwing in an accordion, it's true to where they grew up and the music that they listened to. So I think it's maybe even more reflective of a bilingual, bicultural life that a lot of the younger artists are living and experiencing and expressing themselves in.

SARMIENTO: Yeah. And I mean, I think to add to that, too, though, we're still not seeing, I think, enough integration for some of that innovation in the general categories, right? Like, I think the Academy still has very strict definitions of what's pop or what's sort of in those main big four. I think it's easier for them sometimes to put people in boxes. Like, I was looking today. Bad Bunny, once again, most of his nominations - and again, like "Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana" was a pretty straightforward trap album, more so than his last album.

But his nominations are once again concentrated in the urban categories and the urban field. He's never won in a general category for a Latin Grammy, which is kind of crazy, considering the sort of revolution of Latin music as pop that he's been leading. The Academy still hasn't recognized that. So I think it's like they keep creating these boxes to put people in. But at a certain point, we're sort of losing sight of how those boxes don't really mean anything anymore because everyone's listening to everything.

CONTRERAS: I do a couple of things when the nominations come out. The first thing I do is go through the major categories and through the whole thing - I go through all of them, and I look for the smaller artists that we've played on ALT.LATINO over the years and see if any of them have moved up to these larger categories, getting larger recognition for what it is that they do. And I'm going to point out two things this year. Cimafunk is nominated in record of the year with Monsieur Periné, both bands that we've played on ALT.LATINO and both have done Tiny Desk concerts for their track "Catalina." I was very, very pleased and surprised to see them nominated in such a major category, 'cause they've been working very hard winning fans in the old-fashioned way, one by one, all over the world.

And then also another favorite, Daymé Arocena with Vicente Garcia in the song of the year for the track "A Fuego Lento" from her album "Alkemi" - another ALT.LATINO fave, a Felix fave that I've watched grow and develop and just really make a place for herself. Her album "Alkemi" was produced by Eduardo Cabra. She was super super excited about that when I saw her - what? - two summers ago, and she told me she was going to work on this project. So I just want to note that I love to see these smaller artists kind of grow into themselves and grow into the industry.

SARMIENTO: I just wanted to say, I was also very excited to see Daymé Arocena on here, because that album, in particular, was sort of her big attempt into, like, Latin pop and into no longer being pigeonholed as being a Latin jazz artist.

CONTRERAS: Yeah.

SARMIENTO: And I was very glad to see her get some of those flowers because it's a fantastic record that, like, moves across so many sounds she's never really dabbled in before.

SAYRE: The Cimafunk example is an example to me again of the academy kind of not quite catching up in the moment. Like, I too was really excited to see that he got that nod, Monsieur Periné got that nod. I mean, they're incredible. I went to their concert a couple of months ago, and I think it was maybe one of the best live performances I've seen, like - I don't know - ever.

And he's incredibly talented and totally deserving, and what he does is so innovative and interesting. But I remember when this came out, we were talking about the record. We both really liked it, but we were also feeling like it was a lot of a continuation of what we were really excited to see him do with his previous record, which was "El Alimento." So, in many ways, like, I would have loved to see that album get its flowers because it was kind of the first moment for him to be doing what he was doing in that specific way. And this felt like another version of that.

And so I don't know. It felt like a very delayed nomination to me. Again, very excited to see that he was recognized in general, but almost like a few years late.

CONTRERAS: So are you saying that the academy needs to listen to ALT.LATINO more often? Is that what you're saying?

SAYRE: Oh, you know what, Felix? I think that's exactly what I'm saying.

CONTRERAS: (Laughter) Listen, we have to choose one or the other. Let's hear the Daymé Arocena track. This is "A Fuego Lento" from her album, "Alkemi," with Vicente Garcia.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A FUEGO LENTO (FEAT. VICENTE GARCÍA)")

DAYMÉ AROCENA: (Singing) Me seduce imaginar el vapor de tu humedad, que me excita sin tocar, que atravesando el umbral. Vuele. Vuele.

CONTRERAS: We're talking about the Latin Grammy nominations. We'll be right back after this break.

You are listening to ALT.LATINO. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm talking with Anamaria Sayre and Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, and we are talking about the Latin Grammy nominations that just came out. OK, what do you want to talk about next?

SAYRE: This is all you, Felix.

SARMIENTO: (Whispering) Jazz.

CONTRERAS: OK, then let's talk about jazz. I want to go to category 38, which is what I do every year, to the best Latin jazz category. But this year - I don't know if it was this year or when they changed this, but I just noticed it - it's best Latin jazz/jazz album. And it does reflect how musicians from Latin America - the Spanish-speaking world and the Portuguese-speaking world - are playing straight-ahead jazz or reinterpreting the music in ways that doesn't have to be, like, Afro Cuban clave-based or Brazilian samba, bossa nova thing. You know, it's a way to acknowledge that the innovation in improvised music is, again, impossible to categorize, just like we were talking about with the Mexican regional.

SAYRE: That's a super interesting distinction to me, Felix. So that is literally - Latin jazz would be, you know, incorporating all those sounds that you just named, and then a Latin Grammy in the jazz category would just be Spanish-language jazz.

CONTRERAS: Not necessarily Spanish-language jazz because, for example, Miguel Zenón and Luis Perdomo are nominated for "El Arte Del Bolero, Vol. 2." There's no language. There's no singing. So it's strictly a musical interpretation of bolero without the trappings of either an Afro Cuban bass or any other kind of rhythm instruments in there. And the one that we played earlier this year from Hamilton de Holanda and Gonzalo Rubalcaba - Hamilton de Holanda is from Brazil and plays mandolin. And Gonzalo Rubalcaba is a very, very legendary African pianist - jazz pianist. And their album, "Collab," is on here as well. So it's the academy recognizing the same kind of innovation that we were talking about in the Mexican regional category before.

SAYRE: See, but that's where it gets a little tricky for me because then I think we're back to some of those questions we had earlier this year around country and Latin - Latino, whatever. When you don't have a language - right? - because we talk about this all the time in the Latin Grammys, Latin Academy, Spanish - 51% Spanish, right?

SARMIENTO: Or Portuguese.

SAYRE: Or Portuguese - thank you - is their distinguishing classification. So when you take the language out of it altogether, what is the qualification here, then - that they're Latino, and they're making jazz?

SARMIENTO: The academy, we're looking at you.

CONTRERAS: Yes. I think it's a broad interpretation 'cause I know Chick Corea has been nominated in the past, and he is from - I believe it's Italian background. Of course, he's a legendary, legendary jazz pianist, known more for his jazz than his ethnic background. And he's been nominated in this category before. So, you know, it's interesting because I was just involved in a online kind of discussion - heated discussion about the term Latin jazz and whether or not...

SAYRE: Fight me.

CONTRERAS: Yeah, fight me - whether or not that is even an applicable term. And the point I made on my post was that what we talk about on the show all the time - anyway, like, Latin music - it doesn't even have any meaning anymore because it's so diverse. It's not just Afro Cuban-based music anymore. It's all of these different musicians - again, younger musicians doing a lot of different things.

And to drive that point home, let me play a track, OK? We're going to play a track from the Hamilton de Holanda and Gonzalo Rubalcaba album called "Collab." And this is a track called "Saudade, Saudade."

(SOUNDBITE OF HAMILTON DE HOLANDA AND GONZALO RUBALCABA'S "SAUDADE, SAUDADE")

CONTRERAS: OK, I've had my moment for the jazz category - category 38. All right, what else have we got going on?

SARMIENTO: Well, we've discussed at length the limitations of labeling music on language. But on that point, I will say I was very happy to see Kali Uchis get nominated for four awards this year. She's spoken publicly about how her former label did not want her to make Spanish-language music earlier on in her career, and she released her second Spanish-language album, "Orquídeas," this year. She got four nominations, including for record of the year, best pop vocal album and best pop song. She's also in the reggaeton category, so I think it just really shows that she committed to making music in Spanish, and it paid off.

SAYRE: I thought her inclusion in that category was actually really interesting. I think of all of the tracks of the year - I mean, again, like, we just talked about with Bad Bunny, right? - like, this is an incredibly important, arguably almost, like, unofficial major category because of the lack of the representation in the actual major categories. I think myself and probably a lot of people often look to this category as, like, a legitimate pulse check on the state of Latin music. "Labios Mordidos" is the track. She did it with Karol G. Let's hear a little bit of it and then we can talk about it.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LABIOS MORDIDOS")

KALI UCHIS: (Rapping) Es que una vez que yo le prendo, nunca paro. Ten cuidao, que yo no hablo, yo disparo. Si es que aún no sabes, te lo dejo claro, que jugar conmigo siempre sale caro. Reguetón suave, labios mordidos, diamantes que le bajan por el ombligo. A más de uno ya está perdido. Una muñequita de una peli 'e Tarantino. Dale bien suave, estás advertido, que es bien probable te envicies conmigo. Y si tú quieres de lo prohibido, yo te doy duro, mami, yo te castigo.

SAYRE: But of all of the tracks that were released this year in the urban category, which is a million, I don't know that it made the most sense to me as a representation of what's happening in that area of the world. I think "Igual Que Un Ángel" with Peso Pluma, which was nominated in the record of the year category, is one that I heard everywhere, is a lot more representative, I think, of the shifts that are happening. Obviously, not in specifically urban song. It's very different in that sense. But - I don't know - Kali Uchis' in this category. Unique to see her there but maybe not overall. Another just, like, interesting Academy choice for me.

SARMIENTO: I like seeing her there because I think there was a song - she had a song on her 2018 album "Isolation" - "Nuestro Planeta" with Reykon. That was like, ooh, is Kali Uchis going to make reggaeton? And it's been years, and then she did. I also think it's very much the academy giving Karol her flowers, which we will talk about.

SAYRE: (Laughter).

SARMIENTO: But Karol G was - there was a...

SAYRE: ...Very flowered.

SARMIENTO: Robustly awarded in the nominations this year - and this is one of those categories where her name pops up yet again.

SAYRE: Well, and her name just kept popping up, Isa.

SARMIENTO: "Bichota Season."

SAYRE: This is one of the most confusing things for me. She already got nominations - a victory, I think.

SARMIENTO: She won album of the year last year...

SAYRE: Yeah.

SARMIENTO: ...For "Mañana Será Bonito," and then she released a follow-up version of that album, which is also nominated for album of the year. I was surprised to see that from that album "Mi Ex Tenía Razón" was the song that was sort of all over the nominations list, which is her Edgar Barrera collaboration. It is sort of like her regional-tinged track. I think that song also very much blew up because Karol G has had a very public breakup and a very public new relationship with two reggaetoneros who I will not be naming. But the sort of gossip publicity around that - those relationships - really culminates in this song, where she's talking about her ex-boyfriend and her new boyfriend.

But again, it was kind of like the "Un X100to" nods last year, where the academy picked the poppiest regional song and placed it across the pop categories as a way to recognize regional without actually necessarily nodding to the artist innovating in the genre - just sort of a pop artist crossing over into it.

SAYRE: OK, so I want to keep talking about this song, but let's hear a little bit of "Mi Ex Tenía Razón."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MI EX TENÍA RAZÓN")

KAROL G: (Singing) Contigo los días de playa me dan más calor. Por ti me olvidé del pasado y no guardo rencor. Bebé, en la cama me curaste to' lo que me dolía. Me pusiste a latir donde ya no me latía. A ti sí te creo cuando me dices "mi amor." Mi ex tenía razón. Dijo que no iba a encontrar uno como él.

SAYRE: That song specifically and then the album in general was released at a very important moment in this kind of explosion of regional that we're talking about, where we took it from, oh, wow, these artists in regional are kind of making these bigger tracks, and they're being seen, and they're being listened to, and now Karol G's going to do it. Maluma's going to do it. Bad Bunny's going to do it. It was right - kind of fit nicely within that moment. And so I think everyone was really excited to hear the song. It was kind of - people were calling it, like, her Selena moment because she literally did a Texas cumbia track. And it's a nice track. It's a good song.

SARMIENTO: It's a fun song. It's a fun song.

SAYRE: Absolutely a fun song. But was it the most innovative, amazing Texas cumbia, regional, etc., etc., etc. song to come out of this last year? I think you make an incredible point, Isa, where it's - the academy latches on to certain artists - (imitating coughing) Camilo, Jorge Drexler...

(LAUGHTER)

CONTRERAS: Oh, my God.

SAYRE: ...Where they see them doing something different. And they want to reward them for a phenomenon - a stylistic phenomenon that is happening in the Latin music world at large, but they want to give it to an artist that they're like, they're reliably good.

SARMIENTO: Yeah. Yeah, and I do think in a way not everyone is thinking about regional, or not everyone is talking about regional and the way it's changing the way that we are having that conversation. So in a way, I'm like, maybe "Mi Ex Tenía Razón" is the, you know, most Texas cumbia exposure a lot of Latin music listeners who aren't invested in the genre have had. And for that reason, it does sort of make sense. But again, it wasn't my favorite song off "Bichota Season," and I was kind of surprised that that was the one that really took off for the Academy's nominations.

SAYRE: Speaking of recognition in actual places where it was rightly deserved, I was really excited by the new artist category this year.

SARMIENTO: Me too.

SAYRE: I mean, it's extremely rare. It's like a very classic both Grammys and Latin Grammys thing. I reminded you - I reenraged you last night, Isa...

(LAUGHTER)

SAYRE: ...Because I brought up the fact that Anitta won best new artist at the Grammys, which was insanity.

SARMIENTO: New to who?

SAYRE: All to say, this year, there were actually some names that I've been really excited about on this list, and they're legitimately small. They're legitimately just breaking. They legitimately haven't had their moment to shine yet.

SARMIENTO: I agree. It was very refreshing. I was going into best new artist thinking we were going to see big newcomers like Young Miko or you know, like, a name that is relatively new on the scene but that is everywhere, and most people know their music, and they're basically pop artists by now. It was really cool to look at this category and see 10 names that - I can't name more than one or two songs by most of these artists. And I'm actually excited to dig in and sort of familiarize myself with who these nominated artists are.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JULIETA")

LATIN MAFIA: (Singing) Con solo una copa de vino...

SAYRE: OK, so I'm going to name a few that really stood out to me. Latin Mafia has been my own personal on-repeat-all-the-time band. I'm actually obsessed with them. They're a band out of Mexico. They do all these kind of fun - they had a big song blow up - "Patadas De Ahogado," the Humbe remix. That was huge. I want to play a little bit of their track "Julieta."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JULIETA")

LATIN MAFIA: (Singing) Tú sabes bailar. Se te facilita como el caminar. Tú sabes bailar. Yeah. Y ese ritmo que lo hace lento poco a poco se va a violento. Vamos, vamos, vamos al cielo. Yo no tengo miedo y lo siento. Ya no pongas pretextos. Te vi y tú también me estás viendo. Dime dónde termina el cuento. Si voy por ti o vienes corriendo.

SAYRE: I really love these guys. They've been doing, to me, what is kind of, like, on the front end of innovation in this kind of space in Mexico. The other artist I really wanted to shout-out - I am so in love with this boy (laughter). So I was at my friend's house in Mexico back in October last year. And he was like, I've been mixing for this new kid. He's literally a kid. He was on "The Voice... Mexico" (ph).

His name is Kevin Aguilar. You have to listen to his song, "Bonita." I then listened to the song in the studio, fell in love, looked all over for it, realized it had not come out yet. It has now come out, along with a whole EP, a bunch of other singles. And, oh, my goodness. This boy's voice is so beautiful. I was so excited to see that he actually made it into this category - shocked and excited. So let's hear a little bit of this song, "Bonita."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BONITA")

KEVIN AGUILAR: (Singing) Tengo tu cel, pero no me atrevo a llamar no sé por qué. Otra vez con ganas y otra vez me congelé. Como le hago pa' llamar tu atención, yo no sé. Ay, yo no sé. Tú ya eres para mí. Te juro, ya nos vi. Vamos patinando, agarrados de la mano. Parece lo viví, en el cora lo sentí. Deja vu que quiero repetir siempre a tu lado. Bonita.

CONTRERAS: OK, I just looked him up. He's 13 years old, man.

SAYRE: No, he's literally a boy.

SARMIENTO: He's a child.

SAYRE: He's a baby.

CONTRERAS: (Laughter) Oh, my God. That is so cool.

SAYRE: But that voice...

CONTRERAS: Right?

SAYRE: Is that not gorgeous?

CONTRERAS: Yeah.

SARMIENTO: Yeah, that's not what I was expecting at all when I saw that he was 13. I thought it was going to be much more, like, early Bieber.

SAYRE: No. Like, really, when my friend told me - he's like, yeah, I'm mixing for this kid who just won "The Voice Kids" (ph) I was like...

SARMIENTO: (Laughter).

SAYRE: ...OK, this is really bizarre. And he played me this song, and I was like, oh, my God. Where can I find this (laughter)? Like, I want to cry to this song. And that's when you know. It's a test of a good song.

SARMIENTO: That's how you know.

SAYRE: OK, I won't keep going on this category because I could actually name something from almost every single one of these artists that I'm really excited about. So one other nod I think we should all mention...

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CARMEN")

NICOLLE HORBATH: (Singing) Vivió la vida siempre de primera y un poco de prisa.

SAYRE: ...Nicolle Horbath.

CONTRERAS: Yay.

SAYRE: We love her now.

CONTRERAS: Yay. Yes.

SAYRE: We're big fans.

CONTRERAS: Yes.

SARMIENTO: She just played Tiny Desk with Juanes.

SAYRE: I know, and she was the star. I'm so excited because that Tiny Desk just came out. And people - so many people in the comments are already like, this background vocalist - she's so cute 'cause she was the light of my life that day.

CONTRERAS: Very, very happy to see her get that nod, man. And you're right. This is the first year that I really was interested in digging into a lot of these names. I have no idea who they are. But that doesn't mean - that's not saying a lot if Felix doesn't know who some of the artists are (laughter). You know, they could be the...

SAYRE: Try to get me to name a single person in the Latin jazz category, Felix.

CONTRERAS: They could be big stars, man, and I still don't know their names. But I do know Nicolle Horbath. Let's hear the track "Carmen."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CARMEN")

HORBATH: (Singing) Bailando to's tus pasos favoritos y jugando con to's tus maquillajes, mientras sonaba tu bolero favorito, tú cantabas el "Quizás quizás quizás," que después te recordaría todo lo que tú guardabas en tu agendita, como que te hice abuela por primera vez, en ese octubre del 96. Y me preguntaba.

CONTRERAS: Congrats to her. Congrats to all the best new artist nominees. OK, Ana, you had a great idea on text last night, and I'm excited...

SAYRE: Thank you.

CONTRERAS: ...To get to this part.

SARMIENTO: She gave us homework.

CONTRERAS: I know. She did.

SAYRE: I was like, is this going to be annoying? I literally felt like the teacher when they're like, by the way, guys, you have to come with these things prepared tomorrow. And I was like, but I kind of want to know.

SARMIENTO: No, I love it. It was a good assignment.

CONTRERAS: So you asked us to go through all - what is it? - 58 categories.

(SOUNDBITE OF PAPER RUSTLING)

CONTRERAS: Hold on. Let me go through it right now.

SAYRE: (Vocalizing).

CONTRERAS: Go through all 58 categories...

SARMIENTO: Fifty-eight. Fifty-eight.

SAYRE: See - we went through 58 categories so that other people don't have to listen to us going through 58 categories.

CONTRERAS: ...And find someone that we didn't know and play some of their music. So Ana, since it was your assignment, you go first.

SAYRE: Mine's kind of a - I cheated a little bit. I'm not going to lie. It's - we're off to a great start. I picked a name from the best alternative music album category that I kind of recognized. I saw her name, and I was like, I feel like I've heard something from her but maybe not. Her name is Nicole Horts - turns out I had heard a song from her that is called "Nadie," which is off of her record that is nominated, which - the record is called "Nica."

I then went and spent time listening. I think I've listened to this album, like, four times through at this point since last night. I'm obsessed. This album is so good, guys. It's really good. Like, everyone really has to go listen to it. It's kind of giving a little bit of, like, a cross between Nathy Peluso and Nicki Nicole - like, this very cool kind of rapera sound that she has but also has salsa moments and some quieter moments. Anyways, I was dying trying to pick just one track to play, but I did it. This track is called a word that I cannot say. It's spelled B-I-T-C-H three.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BITCH3")

NICOLE HORTS: (Singing) Ey. Pa' ser reina no requiero rey. Doy jaquemate. Soy mi propio sensei. Ey, ey. Mira no soy tu baby y mucho más que solo sexy. Nah, nah, wei. Me compro sola el Cartier. Nah, nah, wei. El mundo me voy a comer. Nah, nah, wei. Dime cuando vas a entender, no quiero diamonds quiero equal pay. Si por ser jefa y siempre ser sincera.

SARMIENTO: So my discovery artist is down in category 42, which is best Portuguese-language rock or alternative album. I have to admit I was caught by this artist's name. Their name is Ana Frango Elétrico, which does translate to Ana electric chicken. But their album - I'm going to do my best Portuguese - "Me Chama De Gato Que Eu Sou Sua."

SAYRE: Wow, that sounded really impressive to me.

SARMIENTO: Obrigada.

CONTRERAS: (Laughter).

SARMIENTO: You know, it's an album that is really sort of, like - it moves across sort of, like, a bossa pop sound. There's a little bit of rock. There's a little bit of jazz and lounge. At some points, the vocals almost remind me of, like, Francoise Hardy. Like, there's, like, this really interesting, layered chorus in some of the tracks. But the one song that I picked out from this album by Ana Frango Elétrico is called "Dela."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DELA")

ANA FRANGO ELÉTRICO: (Singing) Quem eu era? Eu era algo em torno dela, dela. Das voltas dela. Quem eu era? Seu olhar circulava o globo ocular. Pálpebras e dedos dela.

CONTRERAS: Isa, when you sent that in the car this morning, I pulled over safely and found it on Spotify and played...

SAYRE: That is such a lie, Felix.

CONTRERAS: (Laughter) Well, I did it at a stop light, OK?

SAYRE: I know you way too...

CONTRERAS: Listen.

SAYRE: ...Well (laughter).

CONTRERAS: Listen. I did it at a stop light, not while I was driving. But I did find it on Spotify and put it on...

SAYRE: The details are changing.

CONTRERAS: I did. And this one hit me, man. I really like this one a lot and for all those reasons...

SAYRE: It's super nice.

CONTRERAS: ...Right? - all the things you said. Like, there's a lot of different things happening. That's something we probably should spend more time with. Field 13 is Portuguese-language music. There are eight categories - everything from folkloric to contemporary, all that kind of stuff. And it's a whole area to explore, so good call, Isa - nice one.

SARMIENTO: Obrigada.

CONTRERAS: (Laughter) OK. The other thing I do when I get these nominations is I go downballot, what I call downballot - all the smaller categories - the folk, the Latin jazz, the Christian, the children's album. I like to see who's getting nominated 'cause, for a lot of times, those musicians - a Latin Grammy nomination really helps them. And I've mentioned this before. These small, independent artists - it helps them. They can charge a little bit more for their performances. You know, they get seen a little bit more, so I'm always excited to see who gets exposed. And I know I should let our colleague Tom Huizenga handle this one. But I went to the classical field because Juan Pablo Contreras stood out, and I'm all about Team Contreras, right? So...

(LAUGHTER)

SAYRE: That's as good a reason any, Felix. I love it.

CONTRERAS: He's nominated in the best classical contemporary composition category. So Juan Pablo Contreras, the Orquesta Latino Mexicana and Angelica Olivo are nominated for a track called "La Minerva - III. Himno A La Mujer." Check this out a little bit.

(SOUNDBITE OF JUAN PABLO CONTRERAS' "LA MINERVA - III. HIMNO A LA MUJER")

CONTRERAS: You know, I checked him out. When I did get to the office, I just ran through some of his stuff on Spotify. You know, he reminds me of - and I'm not just saying this, but he really, reminds me of this composer, Carlos Chávez, who was very, very instrumental in, like, the 1930s, 1940s of establishing Mexican classical music as - putting it on the world stage.

And Juan Pablo Contreras - he did a thing with mariachi. He did a thing with lucha libre. Like, he's using these cultural touchstones and interpreting them through the orchestra. And there are a lot of musicians who do that all over Latin America, but, you know, Team Contreras - I got to stand up for that one, so, you know. But anyway, good luck to all of the composers and everybody 'cause contemporary classical music is a category that gets overlooked often in both Latin Grammy and Grammys. So that was my discovery.

SARMIENTO: Team Contreras.

CONTRERAS: There you go. OK. We didn't get to all 58 categories. Hang on.

(SOUNDBITE OF PAPER RUSTLING)

CONTRERAS: Yeah, we didn't get to all of them. We got pretty close.

SAYRE: I think we pretty much covered the entire thing.

CONTRERAS: Isabela Gomez Sarmiento, thank you so much for joining us. It's always a pleasure to have you here.

SARMIENTO: Thank you, guys.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

CONTRERAS: OK. The Latin Grammys will be awarded on November 14 of this year in Miami. I think a certain someone named Anamaria Sayre may be there.

SAYRE: Oh, I'm so excited. It's always a great time.

CONTRERAS: OK, try to control your excitement for now. OK. We're going to take another break, and when we get back, we've got another Songs That Move You segment.

OK, we're back. And for this week's Songs That Move You segment, I talked to Xochitl Jaime-Aguirre about one specific song from Linda Ronstadt's groundbreaking album "Canciones De Mi Padre."

(SOUNDBITE OF LINDA RONSTADT SONG, "LA CALANDRIA")

XOCHITL JAIME-AGUIRRE: My name is Xochitl Jaime-Aguirre (ph), and the song that moves me is "La Calandria" by Linda Ronstadt.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA CALANDRIA")

LINDA RONSTADT: (Singing) Yo soy como la calandria, que para formar su nido siempre busca rama fuerte para no verlo caído.

SAYRE: OK, Felix, I'm really excited for this one. But before you tell us her story, I think everyone has to know a little bit about this album. "Canciones De Mi Padre" was huge. It remains the biggest-selling Spanish-language album in the U.S. of all time. It won a Grammy Award after it was released in 1987. It was so culturally significant that the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

CONTRERAS: And on one quiet August morning in Ciudad Obregon in Sonora, Mexico, one song in particular made an old man cry.

JAIME-AGUIRRE: This song evokes a very clear memory for me of being in the living room of mi abuelita and mi abuelito's house in my hometown of Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, just laying down on the floor and coloring one of those old-school, felted coloring pages where it was, like, the black velvet, and you colored in the grooves with different colors.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA CALANDRIA")

RONSTADT: (Singing) Cuando anda de enamorado.

JAIME-AGUIRRE: Linda Ronstadt was the constant in our house, especially that album, "Canciones De Mi Padre." But that specific song, "La Calandria" - there is a line that says, ¿mi prieta linda qué voy a hacer si tú me quitas este querer?

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA CALANDRIA")

RONSTADT: (Singing) ¿Mi prieta linda qué voy a hacer si tú me quitas este querer?

SAYRE: Oh, I love that line. My beautiful prieta, what am I going to do if you take this love away from me?

CONTRERAS: And, you know, Ana, she didn't know at the time that her family was leaving Mexico for good.

JAIME-AGUIRRE: So in the moment, I'm sure that I was kind of like, well, that's weird, 'cause he kept putting the song on and that line in particular. And he wasn't, like, sobbing, but we always - we call it the Don Chema - like, lifting his glasses up, putting his fingers to his - like, the bridge of his nose and just wicking the tears away so that no one could see he was crying. But we all saw it, you know? And I just - I have that moment very clear in my head.

And it wasn't until many years later that I realized why it was so important and why it stood out to me. I don't know if my mind and my body just kind of kept that memory for me to unpack and see the importance later on, when I could actually understand it and I could actually feel the love that my grandpa had for me - that he was so heartbroken that we were going to be leaving Mexico.

CONTRERAS: You know, what was going on there, Ana, is that her abuelito, or Don Chema, was facing the very real emotional reality that his oldest son was about to move his family - Xochitl, her brother and her mom - all the way to the U.S. And, you know, Xochitl was the first grandchild, so she had a very, very special bond with Don Chema.

JAIME-AGUIRRE: I have memories from just sitting on the porch, those blue enamel cups that people take camping - like, I remember drinking coffee from those with him. Like, he'd let me have sips, listening to the news before the city really got moving, going for walks, the cheese that he would make, biking around town, fixing things for people. So many of my memories in my childhood are tied to him because we were incredibly close.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA CALANDRIA")

RONSTADT: (Singing) Ay, ay, ay, ay. Las nubes van por el cielo. Los pescados por el agua.

JAIME-AGUIRRE: I don't know my life without Linda Ronstadt's voice in it, without that album in it. And I think there was just such a sense of pride of this woman, who was an unbelievable musician, singing these songs that were specific Sonoran, like, folk songs.

SAYRE: Obviously, Felix, Linda's record was super popular. But there was something really significant, I think, for Latino families at this time who didn't have a lot of really big pop artists to latch onto or to see themselves in. And I think everyone kind of tried to find that connection with Linda. I mean, my dad's family - part of them are from Sonora, and he had a Tucson connection to her so was always kind of mapping experiences on to that album.

JAIME-AGUIRRE: I didn't know Linda Ronstadt as, like, the '70s, you know, The Stone Poneys and the trio. Like, all of that - I came to that later in my life. So I feel like I got a reverse version of what a lot of people know about Linda Ronstadt - right? - 'cause I grew up with "Canciones De Mi Padre." That was the Linda Ronstadt that I knew.

CONTRERAS: Linda Ronstadt's grandparents were part of that northern migration from Sonora because, even as she made a name for herself in the 1970s folk rock scene in Southern California, very few people - and myself included - knew that Mexican music was part of her story. So with the release of "Canciones De Mi Padre" and its sequel, "Mas Canciones," her Mexican heritage came into full view for all of us to appreciate. And for people with roots in Sonora, these albums are really deeply personal.

JAIME-AGUIRRE: And so for my family, for people in Sonora, that was such a sense of pride.

SAYRE: The pride is so important here, Felix, because Linda was obviously taking a risk. I mean, I remember when we talked to her in our interview, I was so not surprised to hear that even with her star power at the time, she was told that making a mariachi album was going to be career suicide.

CONTRERAS: And, you know, for many of us, when she did dig in her heels, it felt like she was standing up for all of us.

JAIME-AGUIRRE: That, to me, is where I'm so thankful for her and the pride that she had, honestly, at a time where there was a lot more of our culture having to assimilate, right? Like, there - that - we know this, like, past generations, like - I think newer generations are really digging more into their roots, but in that time, there was a lot of, like, assimilate. And I feel that with her, at that time, she fought for that record. And I think that there is something - I mean, I don't know the woman. Just from what I feel, I think that there's a part of her where sometimes she's not necessarily a contrarian, but, like, you're not going to tell her what to do. And you're also not going to tell her what not to do.

So when at that time, everybody's assimilating, and she decides to go for this record that, like, maybe didn't necessarily make sense in, you know, the trajectory of her career, she was like, no, this is what I need to do, and she dug in her heels. She dug into her roots. She brought together, you know, all these mariachis and literally changed the culture, the sound of mariachi, what people knew of her, what people thought about her. It was absolutely a game-changer.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA CALANDRIA")

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Vocalizing, laughter).

CONTRERAS: You know, in 2013, she announced that she was battling a form of Parkinson's disease that put an end to her singing career. And, you know, for Xochitl, that is another deep bond between the singer and her family.

JAIME-AGUIRRE: The tie for me for Linda Ronstadt and my grandpa. Mi abuelito, when he passed, it was from Parkinson's. And I know that Linda has Parkinson's, and I think about - even that tie, to me, Linda Ronstadt and mi abuelito, Chema, are one and the same for me. And, you know, seeing everything that she's been going through and that disease, like, I'm just also thankful to her for bringing so much awareness to it. And that's just something that I think is important. It was just something I think about a lot.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA CALANDRIA")

RONSTADT: (Singing) De qué les sirve a los hombres presumir de valentones si cuando.

SAYRE: There's this beautiful humanizing, Felix, I think, that happens when we get so intimate with an artist and their struggles and their pain and their sadness. And the fact that Xochitl was able to take this to what I would imagine would be one of the most emotional moments in her life - leaving her grandpa like this as she's crossing the border into the unknown - and to have someone like Linda be the representative and the voice for that. I mean, there's nothing really like it.

CONTRERAS: It's one of the joys of listening to music in any genre, in any tradition - when an artist becomes almost like a family member because the music has such significance, just like it does for Xochitl Jaime-Aguirre in her story this week.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA CALANDRIA")

RONSTADT: (Singing) ¿Qué voy a hacer si tú me quitas este querer?

CONTRERAS: You have been listening to ALT.LATINO from NPR Music. Our audio producer for this episode is Taylor Haney with production support from NPR Music executive producer Suraya Mohamed.

SAYRE: The woman who keeps us on track is Grace Chung.

CONTRERAS: We have editorial support from Hazel Cills, and our jefe-in-chief is Keith Jenkins. I'm Felix Contreras.

SAYRE: And I'm Anamaria Sayre.

CONTRERAS: Thank you for listening.

(SOUNDBITE OF DUSTY HENDRIX ET AL.'S "DOS MANOS")

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