They call him the “King of Reggaeton” for a reason. Daddy Yankee, the 2026 Latin Grammy Awards' person of the year and first Latin urbano artist to receive the honor, ripped through his biggest hits an hour into Thursday's award show, treating the stage like a stadium floor.
It was one for the history books: There were outfit changes, set changes and his native Puerto Rico always at the forefront as he ran through “Ella Me Levantó,” “Con Calma,” “BOTZ,”
“Despacito,” “Lo Que Pasó, Pasó,” “Sonríele,” “Rompe,” “Pokito” and, of course, “Gasolina” — joined by Bizarrap, Bad Gyal, Feid, Jay Wheeler, French Montana, LL Cool J and Diljit Dosanjh.
When it came time for Daddy Yankee to receive his honor, it was delivered to him by Janet Jackson “with admiration and respect,” as she said in her speech. When he accepted the award, he concluded by saying “Puerto Rico, recuerda. ... Puerto Rico no es pequeño. Pequeño el mapa." In English: "Puerto Rico, remember. ... Puerto Rico is not small. The map is small."
The bar had been raised from the jump. Rosalía opened the 27th annual Latin Grammy Awards, live from Sin City, with an emotive medley of her “Lux” tracks “La Rumba Del Perdón," “La Perla” and “Dios Es Un Stalker," joined by angelic dancers ornamented with halos atop a stage meant to look like heavenly clouds.
It was a reminder of the expansiveness of her album: an offbeat, full-hearted embrace of her classical training through huge orchestral movements, inspired by the lives of female saints. Clearly, competition for the remainder of the night will be stiff.
Her “La Perla” won song of the year, and during her speech, she thanked Mexico and invited her collaborators on the song, the American urban sierreño trio Yahritza Y Su Esencia, to join her on stage.
The first award of the night was given out shortly thereafter: Pablo Alboran and Backstreet Boys' Howie D presented Juanes with best pop/rock album for “Juanesteban.”
The award show is taking place live from Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena. It's being aired live on Univision, UniMás, Galavisión and ViX and hosted by actor, producer and musician Roselyn Sánchez.
Performances were at a high level: Karol G was joined by a full orchestra and 12 Mariachis for her música mexicana ballad “Ese Hombre es Malo.” Mon Laferte broke hearts with her soulful “Femme Fatale.” Silvana Estrada’s “Dime” bridged culture and heritage with her signature Venezuelan cuatro, a four-stringed instrument similar in structure to a ukulele.
Kany García stunned with her acoustic, aflamencado single “La Niña Que Fui.” The Uruguayan-born Jorge Drexler’s rendition of “Las Palabras” felt like theater. And Argentine rapper Milo J performed “Solifican12” and “Gil,” joined by the Latin American folk icon Gustavo Santaolalla.
Carín León brought the house down with “Desde Que Te Tengo,” as did Juanes and Vivir Quintana with “Humano.” Elena Rose was joined by sword-wielding dancers for “Alma."
Brazilian superstar Anitta did a medley of her “Equilibrium” hits — “Desgraça,” “Choka Choka” and “Meia Noite” among them — an eclectic mix of Brazilian funk, samba, bossa nova, semba, reggae, electronic pop performed in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
Soon after, she was back on stage accepting the trophy for Portuguese language contemporary pop album. She used her speech to shine a light on the Black culture of her native Brazil.
There was a touching tribute to the late ranchera icon, Mexican singer-songwriter José Alfredo Jiménez, produced by Edgar Barrera: The Warning covered “Te Solté la Rienda,” Reik did “La Media Vuelta,” Sofía Reyes and Yami Safdie dueted “Si Nos Dejan” and Camila Fernández brought it home with a big belting “El Rey.” Not soon afterward, she headed back to the stage to perform a full-throated “Serpiente De Cascabel.”
It was the first of two tributes: The second was for Willie Colón, the social activist and Grammy-nominated architect of urban salsa music, who died in February of this year. His son, Miguel Colón, as well as Nathy Peluso and Luis Figueroa and others performed.
Awards were handed out quickly, too. Karol G took home the trophy for urban music album for “Tropicoqueta.” Xavi won contemporary Mexican album for “Dosis,” his first Latin Grammy. Fonseca was presented the trophy for contemporary tropical album shortly thereafter for his album, “Antes Que El Tiempo Se Vaya.”
Best new artist went to Colombian singer Aria Vega, who gave her acceptance speech through tears. This year, the Latin Recording Academy made changes to the category so that only artists with fewer than three albums or 25 singles released were eligible to win.
Most of the evening’s awards were handed out during a pre-televised Premiere Ceremony. That included Bobby Pulido winning the Latin Grammy for best Tejano album for his release “Bobby Pulido & Friends: Una Tuya y Una Mía (Vol. 2/En Vivo)." Just days earlier, Pulido made history in the U.S. midterm elections by securing a seat in the House of Representatives for the Democrats by flipping a Texas district seat.
“I want to tell you that I’m retiring from music, and I’m leaving with so much gratitude,” he said in his acceptance speech.
