The Grammys and the Latin Grammys have a lot in common. The four highest-profile awards are the same at both shows – album, record and song of the year plus best new artist.
Both shows also present several of the same honorary awards – lifetime achievement awards (for artists), trustees awards (for people whose primary contributions are behind-the-scenes), hall of fame awards and person of the year.
And occassionally the nominees overlap. Bad Bunny could be headed for his second album of the year “double” – with nominations in that category at both the Grammys and the Latin Grammys with his latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos. He’s already gotten the nod from the Latin Grammys and he has a good chance of landing in that category when the Grammy nominations are announced on Nov. 7. Bunny’s 2022 album, Un Verano Sin Ti, was nominated in that category at both shows.
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But there are differences too, which we’ll explore in this piece. Most obviously, the Grammys are more than 40 years older. The Grammys were first presented in May 1959; the Latin Grammys in September 2000.
Some of the differences are so basic – the number of nominees in each of the Big Four categories, for example, or whether songwriter and producer of the year should be bumped up to the General Field or not – that it’s easy to think the two academies should “get on the same page” and decide together on best practices.
But the awards chiefs at the two academies don’t see it that way. “The Recording Academy and The Latin Recording Academy are separate organizations with different eligibility periods, different categories, and separate voting bodies,” Luis Dousdebes, chief awards, membership & preservation officer for the Latin Recording Academy, and Ruby Marchand, chief awards & global industry officer for the Recording Academy, said in a joint statement to Billboard. “Many of our guidelines are the same but the interpretation of these guidelines can differ. For this reason, drawing a direct comparison between how the two Academies administer and interpret these guidelines doesn’t reflect the spirit in which the two Academies complement each other, rather than mirror each other, since they serve different communities.”
Here are nine ways the two shows differ.
