The Latin Music Billboard Awards are just around the corner; they'll be broadcast live on Thursday, April 10th at 7 PM (6 PM central) on Telemundo. But for those of us who just can't get enough of our favorite Latin music stars, we can start the event early via the Yahoo!Telemundo Billboard site which goes live today. In the month before the awards, the site will feature a complete list of finalists, photo & video galleries, special reports and ongoing news.

Although the winners are determined by the commercial success of last year's releases, this year you'll be able to have some additional input - your initial input ocurred when you purchased the music! "Premio Tu Mundo" is a new award that will be determined as a result of online votes.

The voting is divided in 2 phases: the first (which starts today) is a selection of 25 finalists from a gallery of all the finalists. Then, on March 25th, you'll be able to select your favorites from the top 25.

So let your favorite artsts feel the love by voting for them to win the first ever "Premio Tu Mundo". I have to admit that it would be surprising if the winners are different from those that take home an actual Latin Music Billboard award. If you feel an artist is hot enough to warrant an online vote, wouldn't you have already purchased their song/album/video?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.