Alejandro Sanz is this year’s Latin Grammys darling…

The 50-year-old Spanish singer/songwriter is the top-nominated artist for the 20th annual Latin Grammy Awards. 

Sanz, a 17-time Latin Grammy winner, is up for eight awards this year, including Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Album, for #ElDisco. 

Additionally, two of Sanz’s tracks — “No Tengo Nada” and “Mi Persona Favorita” (featuring Camila Cabello, a three-time nominee this year) — are competing against each other in the Song of the Year and Record of the Yearcategories.

Sanz’s compatriot Rosalía is nominated for five awards.

The 26-year-old Spanish singer’s groundbreaking flamenco set El Mal Querer will go head to head against Sanz, her advocate (Rosalía sang at Sanz’s Person of the Year tribute in 2017) in the Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Albumcategories. 

Rosalía also has three separate singles, only one of them from her album, competing in different categories: “Aute Couture,” is up for Record of the Year; “Con Altura” with J Balvin, and featuring El Guincho, is up for Best Urban Song; and “Pienso en tu Mirá” (from El Mal Querer) is up for Best Pop Song. El Mal Querer is up for Best Engineered Albumand Best Recording Package. El Guincho, Rosalía’s co producer, is also up for five awards.

This year’s nominations skewed more pop and alternative, with urban totally absent from the main categories (minus Rosalía’s genre-bending fare). It almost felt like a rebuke against a global trend that has seen Latin urban music in all its forms gather record-breaking views on YouTube, streams on Spotify and Apple and positions on the Billboardcharts.

Instead, artists like Bad Bunny (with two nominations), Ozuna and Daddy Yankee(with only one each), were found only in the urban categories. 

The most nods in the urban/reggaeton realm went to newcomer Sech, with three, including his multi-artist “Otro Trago,” which competes in the Best Urban Songcategory against Ozuna(“Baila Baila”), ChocQuibtown’s  “Pa Olvidarte”; Rosalía and J Balvin’s “Con Altura”; and De La Ghetto’s “Caliente” featuring J Balvin. 

Following Rosalía, veterans Juan Luis Guerra, Fonseca and Andrés Calamaro are up for four awards each, as is percussionist and bandleader Tony Succar. All have nominations in the main categories, with Fonseca, Calamaro and Succar all vying for Album of the Year. Meanwhile, Guerra’s “Kitipún,” a slow bachata with jazz undertones, is up for Song and Record of the Year. 

In video of the year, the representation came in the form of social commentary from Brazil (via Criolo’s “Boca du Lobo,” a harrowing look at Brazil’s societal crisis) and Spain (with rapper Nach’s “Los Zurdos Vienen Antes”). 

This year’s Best New Artist nominees include Argentine trap star Paulo Londra; Colombian rising star Greeicy; and Nella, a Venezuelan jazz singer from Berklee College of Music. 

Nominations to the Latin Grammys were selected from approximately 15,500 submissions across 50 categories, of recordings released during the eligibility period (June 1, 2018 through May 31, 2019).

The Latin Grammys will air live on November 14 from Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arenain Las Vegas on Univision. 

Here’s a partial list of nominees. (For a full list, visit http://Latingrammy.com.)

Record Of The Year:
“Parecen Viernes” — Marc Anthony
“Verdades Afiladas” — Andrés Calamaro
“Ahí Ahí” — Vicente García
“Kitipun” — Juan Luis Guerra 4.40
“Querer Mejor” — Juanes Featuring Alessia Cara
“La Plata” — Juanes Featuring Lalo Ebratt
“Aute Couture” — Rosalía
“Mi Persona Favorita” — Alejandro Sanz & Camila Cabello
“No Tengo Nada” — Alejandro Sanz
“Cobarde” — Ximena Sariñana

Song Of The Year:
“Calma” — Pedro Capó, Gabriel Edgar González Pérez & George Noriega, songwriters (Pedro Capó)
“Desconstrução” — Tiago Iorc, songwriter (Tiago Iorc)
“El País” — Rubén Blades, songwriter (Rubén Blades)
“Kitipun” — Juan Luis Guerra, songwriter (Juan Luis Guerra 4.40)
“Mi Persona Favorita” — Camila Cabello & Alejandro Sanz, songwriters (Alejandro Sanz & Camila Cabello)
“No Tengo Nada” — Alejandro Sanz, songwriter (Alejandro Sanz)
“Quédate” — Kany García & Tommy Torres, songwriters (Kany García & Tommy Torres)
“Querer Mejor” — Rafael Arcaute, Alessia Cara, Camilo Echeverry, Juanes, Mauricio Montaner, Ricardo Montaner & Tainy, songwriters (Juanes Featuring Alessia Cara)
“Un Año” — Mauricio Rengifo, Andrés Torres & Sebastián Yatra, songwriters (Sebastián Yatra Featuring Reik)
“Ven” — Fonseca, songwriter (Fonseca)

Best Pop Song:
“Bailar” — Leonel García, songwriter (Leonel García)
“Buena Para Nada” — Paula Arenas, Luigi Castillo & Santiago Castillo, songwriters (Paula Arenas)
“Mi Persona Favorita” — Camila Cabello & Alejandro Sanz, songwriters (Alejandro Sanz & Camila Cabello)
“Pienso En Tu Mirá” — Antón Álvarez Alfaro, El Guincho & Rosalía, songwriters (Rosalía)
“Ven” — Fonseca, songwriter (Fonseca)

Best Urban Fusion/Performance:
“Tenemos Que Hablar” — Bad Bunny
“Calma (Remix)” — Pedro Capó & Farruko
“Pa’ Olvidarte (Remix)” — ChocQuibtown, Zion & Lennox, Farruko Featuring Manuel Turizo
“Con Calma” — Daddy Yankee Featuring Snow
“Otro Trago” — Sech Featuring Darell

Best Urban Music Album:
Kisses— Anitta
X 100Pre — Bad Bunny
Mi Movimiento— De La Ghetto
19 — Feid
Sueños — Sech

Best Urban Song:
“Baila Baila Baila” — Ozuna & Vicente Saavedra, songwriters (Ozuna)
“Caliente” — J Balvin, René Cano, De La Ghetto & Alejandro Ramirez, songwriters (De La Ghetto Featuring J Balvin)
“Con Altura” — J Balvin, Mariachi Budda, Frank Dukes, El Guincho, Alejandro Ramirez & Rosalía, songwriters (Rosalía & J Balvin Featuring El Guincho)
“Otro Trago” — Kevyn Mauricio Cruz, Kevin Mauricio Jimenez Londoño, Bryan Lezcano Chaverra, Josh Mendez, Sech & Jorge Valdes, songwriters (Sech Featuring Darell)
“Pa’ Olvidarte” — René Cano, ChocQuibtown, Kevyn Cruz Moreno, Juan Diego Medina Vélez, Andrés David Restrepo, Mateo Tejada Giraldo, Andrés Uribe Marín, Juan Vargas & Doumbia Yohann, songwriters (ChocQuibTown)

Best Alternative Music Album:
Latinoamericana— Alex Anwandter
Discutible —Babasónicos
Bach — Bandalos Chinos
Prender Un Fuego— Marilina Bertoldi
Norma— Mon Laferte

Best Traditional Tropical Album:
Andrés Cepeda Big Band(En Vivo)— Andrés Cepeda
Vereda Tropical— Olga Cerpa y Mestisay
Lo Nuestro— Yelsy Heredia
A Journey Through CubanMusic— Aymée Nuviola
La Llave Del Son— Septeto Acarey

Best Singer-Songwriter Album:
Acústica— Albita
Contra El Viento— Kany García
Amor Presente— Leonel García
Algo Ritmos— Kevin Johansen
Intuición— Gian Marco

Best Ranchero/Mariachi Album:
Mi Persona Preferida— El Bebeto
Sigue La Dinastía… — Alex Fernández
Más Romántico Que Nunca— Vicente Fernández
Indestructible— Flor De Toloache
Ahora — Christian Nodal

Best Norteño Album:
Por Más —Bronco
Las Canciones De La Abuela— Buyuchek
Mitad Y Mitad— Calibre 50
Percepción — Intocable
Amo — La Maquinaria Norteña

Best Long Form Music Video:
“Anatomía De Un Éxodo” — Mastodonte
“Piazzolla, Los Años Del Tiburón” — Astor Piazzolla
“Hotel De Los Encuentros” — Draco Rosa
“Lo Que Fui Es Lo Que Soy” — Alejandro Sanz
“Déjame Quererte” — Carlos Vives