The 9th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards Nominations List

Established in 1997, the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. is the first international venture launched by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. and for the past five years has been led by an independent Board of Trustees consisting of highly accomplished Latin music and entertainment industry professionals. This international, membership-based organization is comprised of Spanish- and Portuguese-language recording artists, musicians, songwriters, producers and other creative and technical recording professionals. Our organization is dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for Latin music and its makers. In addition to producing the Latin GRAMMY Awards to honor excellence in the recording arts and sciences, The Latin Recording Academy provides educational and outreach programs for the Latin music community.

Celebrate
The Latin GRAMMY Awards recognize artistic and/or technical achievement, not sales figures or chart positions, with the winners determined by the votes of their peers — the qualified voting members of The Latin Recording Academy. The chief goal of the Latin GRAMMY Awards is to recognize excellence and create a greater public awareness of the cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artists around the world. The Latin GRAMMY Awards are chosen through a four-stage process: entering, screening, first round voting/nominating and final voting.

The 9th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards will take place Nov. 13 at Toyota Center in Houston and will be broadcast live on the Univision Network. The Awards will feature 49 categories. The evening prior to the telecast, The Latin Recording Academy will honor Cuban-American superstar Gloria Estefan as the 2008 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year in recognition of her professional, musical and social accomplishments. Estefan is the first woman honored with the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year tribute.

Creating yet another signature event series, The Latin Recording Academy continues its sixth year of building up its successful Latin GRAMMY Street Parties brand, bringing the music and brand to the top U.S. Hispanic markets such as Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. To date, more than 600,000 people have enjoyed the Street Party experience. Additional recent outreach efforts have included educational sessions in the United States, Mexico City, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Through numerous trips and events abroad and in North America, The Latin Recording Academy continues to gain the support of the Latin music community. The Latin Recording Academy intends to provide educational and cultural programs, networking opportunities and to take a leadership role on advocacy issues of international significance. It is only through an active, involved and representative membership that The Latin Recording Academy can accomplish its goal of positively impacting the creative, educational and professional climate for Latin music and its makers.

Education And Outreach
Representing a vast international territory and still bound by the limited resources of a growing organization, The Latin Recording Academy has been creative in the way it gets involved in educational, cultural and membership efforts. Funds for this purpose are not just important, they are essential, and The Latin Recording Academy depends heavily on generous sponsors and forward thinking initiatives that allow the organization to positively touch lives in a number of countries.

Our members continue to be extremely generous with their time and ideas. With the help of Daddy Yankee (Puerto Rico), Leila Cobo and Kike Santander (Colombia), Raul Vazquez (Argentina), Tom Gomes (Brazil), Sebastian Krys (Argentina), Luis Cobos (Spain), José Blanco (Venezuela), Elvis Crespo, Elias de León, Jaime Torres y Arcángel (Puerto Rico), Marco Werman (United Kingdom) and Manolo Díaz (Spain) The Latin Recording Academy has been able to conduct Latin GRAMMY in the Schools events in San Juan, Mexico City, Miami, Boston and Spain. The Latin Recording Academy is also planning to participate in initiatives with highly-respected institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, the upcoming GRAMMY Museum, the Experience Music Project, and the University of Washington together with the McDonald's Museum.

The Latin Recording Academy educational and outreach programs accomplished to date have built great momentum and produced positive results. The resources The Latin Recording Academy can offer have continued to spread to cities and countries around the world. And just as inspiring, a culturally and academically rich dialogue has begun between creative professionals and technical professionals, between students and teachers, and between music makers and music aficionados.

Membership
Voting members are creative or technical professionals with credits on six tracks (or their equivalent) where the recording is in Spanish or Portuguese, or who have participated on a commercially released album where 51 percent or more of the album is in Spanish or Portuguese. Those qualifying for membership include vocalists, producers, songwriters, composers, engineers, instrumentalists, arrangers, art directors, album notes writers, narrators and music video artists, technicians and graphic designers.

Associate members are creative or technical professionals with less than the required credits for voting membership and other recording industry professionals such as writers, publishers, attorneys, label executives and artist managers who are directly involved, on a full-time professional basis, in the Latin music industry.

Affiliate members can be music students, music educators, music merchants, music therapists and others whose professional interests are closely aligned with the goals of The Latin Recording Academy.

The Latin Recording Academy is built on the foundation of its members, and continuing to bring members into the organization is an important task, one that often requires personal interaction. Past membership initiatives have engaged the support of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, El Nuevo Día in Puerto Rico, The Recording Academy's Texas Chapter (for an event in San Antonio), Univision in Miami, The Recording Academy's Florida Chapter (for an event in San Juan), the Audio Engineering Society in Mexico City, as well as events in Colombia, Panama, Spain, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

Through active participation, members from more than 20 countries ensure that the programs and activities of The Latin Recording Academy are current and relevant to the industry, while also guaranteeing the integrity of the Latin GRAMMY Awards process as a peer honor. It's a vast area to cover, but thanks to our great members, sponsors and supporters, The Latin Recording Academy has taken more than just baby steps in its first 11 years, and things will only get better with age.

For more detailed information, call The Latin Recording Academy's offices in Miami at 305.576.0036.