No Latin Grammy For Awards Show

In a year when Juanes has an album in the running, it was pretty surprising that Mexico's Cafe Tacvba received 6 Latin Grammy nominations while the Colombian superstar received only 5. But Juanes will be heading south with all 5 of his nominations turned gold while Cafe Tacuba has to be satisfied with 2 wins for singles from their Sino album. Other than that, the awards were pretty evenly spread out with a couple of wins for Julieta Venegas and newcomer Kany Garcia. I'd say next year might be different except Shakira has an album coming out.

Hosted by Patricia Manterola and Cristian de la Fuente (apparently recovered from his ruptured tendon while on Dancing With The Stars), the 3 hour show was kicked-off with a joint performance by Juanes and John Legend. Banda favorites Jenni & Lupillo Rivera tried their hand at singing ranchera and were so off-key that it was tough not to have even more respect for someone like Vicente Fernandez, who sings it so flawlessly.

Next up were 'Merengue Queen' Olga Tanon joined by Jenni Rivera and Lifetime Achievement Award winner Vikki Carr (who looks great!). Olga Tanon was so angry that the merengue category was axed from this year's awards that it was surprising she agreed to perform, although - looking at the lack of merengue albums that were released this year - who can blame the academy? (Merengue music was grouped into the 'Best Contemporary Tropical Album' category). Tanon is quoted as blaming the popularity of reggaeton for upstaging merengue, but reggaeton has problems of its own and is represented in only a handful of urban music categories.

Other acts that had some pizzazz included Flex & Belinda performing his winning "Te Quiero" to a 50s malt shop theme and my favorite act, 'Person of the Year' Gloria Estefan performing a suite of her popular hits with Carlos Santana, Jose Feliciano and her back-up band, Miami Sound Machine.

But all-in-all, this show was no extravaganza. In fact, most of the time, it was downright boring. Even some of the performers looked bored. Is it the economic climate or a lackluster year in Latin music?

Watching the cameras pan the audience, I was struck by a front-of-the-bus, back-of-the-bus dichotomy. The front of Houston's Toyota Center was packed with nominees, their families and dignitaries. The back of the auditorium held the paying public. When Gloria Estefan sang "Get on your feet", the public rocked out. The dignitaries stood waiting to be told it was OK to sit down.

Maybe the academy should charge them next year.

* Photo courtesy Raul Higuera