It makes perfect sense that Marc Anthony, Juan Gabriel, Olga Tanon and Cristian are performing at this year’s Billboard Latin Music Awards, but Celine Dion?
Yet the French Canadian chanteuse is joining the Latin crooners at this year’s event – recall that she does sing a song in Spanish on her latest LP, A New Day Has Come – and more acts are expected to be announced in the coming weeks. The ceremony takes place May 9 in Miami Beach, Florida.
The awards show, now in its 13th year, will follow the Billboard Latin Music Conference, which takes place from May 7 to 9, and the show will air on the Telemundo network on May 12.
Lupillo Rivera, who issued two successful studio albums in one year, leads the pack with six nominations – two each in the categories Regional Mexican Album of the Year/Male and the Regional Mexican Album of the Year/New Artist for his albums Despreciado and Sufriendo a Solas.
Juan Gabriel received four nominations. His single “Abrazame Muy Fuerte” tops the list for receiving most airplay, and he’s a finalist in the Songwriter of the Year category. Finalists with three nods each are Marco Antonio Solis, Gilberto Santa Rosa and Jaci Velasquez.
The Billboard Latin Music Awards honor the best-selling albums, songs and performers in the Latin music genre based on sales and radio airplay data taken from the Billboard weekly charts. This year’s event will cover albums released between February 17, 2001 and February 9, 2002.
