The 67th Grammy Awards, held on February 2nd of this year, was an event marked by contrasts: artistic celebrations, political speeches and moments of tension that reflect the complexities of the Latin experience in the United States. Among the main artists honored with gramophones on the night were names such as Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar and Shakira.

In addition to the award ceremony, the awards night was marked by memorable and controversial moments. One of them was the announcement of changes and modernizations in the Academy's voting system. Another highlight was the absence of Brazilian artist Milton Nascimento at the main ceremony. Despite being nominated in the category of “Best Jazz Vocal Album” together with singer Esperanza Spalding, Nascimento was not invited to sit at the main tables at the awards ceremony.

The progressive agenda announced by the Academy

Known as the “big four”, the categories of “Album of the Year”, “Song of the Year”, “Record of the Year” and “Best New Artist” are considered the main categories of the awards. Among the winners of this edition are Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar (both in the categories of Song and Record of the Year) and Chapell Roan, respectively.

It is clear how the more than 13,000 members of the Academy decided to recognize artists with origins in sociocultural minorities in the main categories. Beyoncé, a black woman, has always used her roots as a form of empowerment in her career; Kendrick Lamar, a black man, is one of the biggest names in the history of rap and hip-hop; and Chapell Roan, an openly lesbian woman and drag performer, represent the diversity that the Academy sought to highlight.

These four awards not only represent an unprecedented and exceptional moment in the awards show, but also reflect a structural change. During the broadcast of this year’s Grammy Awards, Academy CEO Harvey Jay Mason Jr. announced a new progressive agenda among Academy voters: “When I took this position in 2020, I wanted the organization to change and modernize so that we could be better and serve this dynamic and global music community. [...] We have completely remade our membership, adding more than 3,000 women as voting members. The Grammy electorate is now younger. Almost 40% are Black, Indigenous and other people of color and ethnicity. [...] It is a system rooted in fairness, integrity and the principle that everyone has a voice in our community”.  

As the final act of the night, Beyoncé was honored with the ceremony's biggest award, taking home the gramophone for “Album of the Year” for her project “Cowboy Carter.” The singer's victory in the award's main category demonstrates the rapid impact of the Academy's progressive agenda, announced just minutes earlier. Beyoncé became the first black woman this century to win in this category at the Grammys, breaking a 26-year gap. Until then, rapper Lauryn Hill's album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” (1999) made her the last black woman to win in the category.

The trilogy of albums that Beyoncé has put together since the beginning of the decade has not shied away from addressing political issues. The album “Lemonade”, released in 2016 — and including the track “Formation”, performed at the 2016 Super Bowl, in which Beyoncé presents slogans against police violence against blacks and Latinos in the United States —, as well as her penultimate album, “Renaissance”, which revives the ballroom culture, popularized by LGBT+, blacks and Latinos in the 1980s in the outskirts of the United States, did not receive awards in the main categories of the Grammy.

[...] “Renaissance is about freedom, beauty, joy, resilience and everything that you are. [...] It is very important for me to be here in Bahia. There is no one like you”. The singer spoke during a visit to Brazil, in December 2023, for the launch of the film “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” in the city of Salvador, capital of the state of Bahia.

The continuing debate on immigration

One of the most iconic moments of the night was the victory of Colombian singer Shakira, who took home the award for Best Latin Pop Album with her acclaimed album “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran.” However, the night was also marred by a xenophobic joke by host Trevor Noah, which sparked immediate outrage and backlash.

Shakira, one of the most influential Latin artists of all time, used her moment on stage to deliver an emotional and political speech. Upon receiving the award from Jennifer Lopez, she dedicated victory “to all my immigrant brothers and sisters” in the US, stating: “You are loved. You are worth it, and I will always fight with you.” The singer also paid tribute to “all the women who work so hard every day to support their families,” highlighting the resilience and strength of Latina women in a context of social and economic challenges. Her words symbolized an act of resistance amid a turbulent political landscape marked by restrictive immigration policies and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

However, the night was also marked by a moment of insensitivity. Host Trevor Noah, who took the Grammy stage for the fifth consecutive year, made a xenophobic joke when referring to Colombia, Shakira’s home country. He joked: “Shakira is the only great thing that came out of Colombia and it’s not considered a serious crime.” Furthermore, when explaining the Recording Academy’s voting process, Noah made an offensive reference to including “millions of illegal immigrants” as part of the jury. This attitude reinforces how the immigration issue, in addition to being discussed daily in the country, is present not only in the political and economic sphere, but also in the artistic and entertainment industry in the United States.  

In the time between this year's awards ceremony and the next one, in 2026, there is a doubt in the air whether this progressive front of the Academy will include and give more focus to Latin artists. In this year's edition, only the singer Shakira received much attention at the ceremony as a Latin artist, with a performance and a gramophone. In addition, the conservative agenda of Donald Trump's government should impact the dynamics of the awards in the next editions. The clash between the Washington government and the major Hollywood awards is inevitable; the new agenda of progress announced by the Academy should bring with it sociopolitical demonstrations by voters, symbolized among the next nominees and winners of the award. Demonstrations like these could already be seen in this year's edition, an example being the speech by American singer Lady Gaga when accepting the award for “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance”: “I just want to say tonight that trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love [...] the queer community deserves to be elevated. Music is love.” The singer fired in protest against the Trump government's measures that overturned diversity policies, such as the non-recognition of transgender people, in official US government documents.

Latin artists expected to release projects in 2025, such as Bad Bunny, Tokischa and Anitta, among others, may clear up doubts about how the Latin community will or will not be included in the Academy's new progressive agenda, between nominations for their work and visibility with performances on the main stage of the awards. Bad Bunny is expected to lead the campaign among Latin artists at the 2026 Grammy Awards, being the Latin artist with the greatest impact in the United States currently. His latest album, released in January of this year, and entitled "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" brings with it a tribute to local rhythms and a message against the cultural erasure on the island of Puerto Rico, which currently belongs to the United States with the status of an overseas territory. The political message of the Puerto Rican singer's project is expected to be one of the main topics of debate at the next edition of the awards, together with the escalation of problems related to the deportation policies of Latin immigrants of the current Trump administration.