Bad Bunny was expected to dominate the Latin Grammy 2025 just as he overwhelmingly leads Latin music. He won the most important award of the night, Best Album of the year for DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, but a triumph that was presumed to be overwhelming fell short: he lost in the other two main categories, Best Song and Record, and returned to San José, Puerto Rico with only five out of the 12 awards he was nominated for. Tonight, glory was shared among more artists, including Alejandro Sanz who expressed surprise upon winning the Best Record award: "Benito, I have stolen it from you, forgive me," said the Madrid-born artist on the stage of the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where the gala took place.
"I want to dedicate this award to all the children and young people of Latin America, especially those from Puerto Rico," said Bad Bunny when receiving the biggest award of the night, Best Album. "Never stop dreaming and being yourselves. Never forget where you come from while not forgetting where you are going. There are many ways to make a homeland and defend our land. We chose music," affirmed the Puerto Rican prodigy, whose album is a tribute to his country and the roots of his music, fused with reggaeton.
How is it possible that Bad Bunny, who breaks world records for streams and ticket sales and is one of the biggest musical stars of our time and the emblem of Latin music in the world, did not sweep in his most successful year? In an absurd way, the Puerto Rican had two finalist songs in the categories of Best Song and Best Record (Baile inolvidable and DTmF), and that caused his votes to be split, facilitating the victories of Karol G and Alejandro Sanz, respectively.
In addition to Best Album, Bad Bunny also won the awards for Best Urban Performance, Best Urban Music Album, Best Urban Song, and Best Reggaeton Performance.
Until now, Bad Bunny had won 12 awards out of 40 nominations, all in urban music, rap, and reggaeton categories, but never in any of the main categories, where he would year after year end up as a loser: Un verano sin ti, El último tour del mundo, YHLQMDLG, and Oasis had been nominated for Best Album.
His victory in 2025 closes a wound with the Latin Grammy opened in 2019, when upon receiving the award for Best Urban Music Album for his album X 100PRE, Bad Bunny made a passionate defense of reggaeton, which was continuously disregarded at the awards: "To all the people who belong to the Academy, with all due respect: reggaeton is part of Latin culture and is representing, just like many other musical genres worldwide."
The Latin Grammy ended the stigma towards urban music in 2023 with the triumph of Karol G and, with today's recognition of Bad Bunny and Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso, they confirm their transition from outdated awards to ones more current and representative of the reality of Latin music.
Because if the Argentinians Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso have been one of the great revelations of Latin music this year, these awards have also confirmed it. They have won five: Best Pop Song, Best Alternative Music Album, Best Alternative Song, Best Short Music Video, and Best Long Music Video.
In a disappointing day for Spanish artists, Alejandro Sanz has pocketed two new awards and has expanded his legend in the annual showcase of Latin music.
In addition to the Best Record award, the veteran singer has also won the award for Best Contemporary Pop Album for ¿Y ahora qué?, a category in which Aitana was also a competitor. Alejandro Sanz now has 24 gramophones in his showcase and is one of the most awarded artists in the history of the awards.
On the other hand, Aitana has won her first Latin Grammy for the design of her album Cuarto azul.