For the first time in Grammy Award history, Latin Grammy voting members were invited to join the Recording Academy as part of its 2025 new member class. But will it make a difference in advancing the most popular Latin music artists to general categories?
News of this inclusion follows efforts by the Recording Academy to diversify its electorate. Of the 3,800 professionals and music creators accepted into the new 2025 class, 50% are 39 or younger, 58% are people of color and 35% identify as women.
“This year’s class reflects the vibrancy of today’s diverse music landscape,” said Harvey Mason Jr., chief executive of the Recording Academy. “The addition of many Latin Recording Academy voting members underscores that music has no borders and that our mission to serve music people, regardless of where they are from, is stronger than ever.”
Nearly a third (28%) of the new members identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2025 data report — marking a significant jump from the 11% of Hispanic/Latino identifying members added in 2024.
The invitation is a full circle moment for the Latin Recording Academy, which was established in 1997 as a branch of the Recording Academy. At the time of its creation, the Latin Recording Academy looked to capture the growing popularity of Latin music worldwide, which outpaced that of the mainstream music industry — and still does.
In 2000, the Latin Recording Academy made history with its first Latin Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, introducing 40 categories that far exceeded the meager seven categories offered by the Recording Academy for the Latin music universe. (At the upcoming 26th annual Latin Grammy Awards, set to take place Nov. 13 in Las Vegas, the number of categories has grown to 60.)
The decision to create a separate voting power at the time was not without controversy. There were widespread concerns over segregation from the mainstream Recording Academy, but also questions about the lumping of diverse Latin music altogether — and criticism over the lack of Mexican regional nominees, who were seldom picked despite being the top-selling Latin genre in the United States.
“Obviously the Latin Grammys exist, in part, because they were critical of the Grammy Awards for not including and recognizing a wide array of Latin genres,” says Petra Rivera-Rideau, associate professor and chair of American studies at Wellesley College. “[But] the Latin Grammys itself has reproduced a lot of exclusions, particularly with genres like reggaeton and música Mexicana, which right now are the two genres really propelling Latin music forward.”
Earlier this fall, Rivera-Rideau criticized the Latin Grammys for excluding Bad Bunny’s longtime producers, Tainy and MAG, who did not receive a nomination for producer of the year, despite the Puerto Rican star having the most Latin Grammy nominations this Latin Grammy season for his critically-acclaimed album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.”
Rivera-Rideau also made mention of Fuerza Régida’s chart-topping musica Mexicana album, “111xpantia,” which did not receive any Latin Grammy nominations despite peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Latin music continues to be the fastest-growing genre on streaming services in the United States, according to a 2024 mid-year report released by entertainment data analysis company Luminate; the rise was in large part due to the regional Mexican music subgenre.
“ I’m not sure if just including a wider swath of people will make a dramatic difference in who’s winning Grammys,” said Rivera-Rideau, author of ‘Remixing Reggaetón’ and the forthcoming co-author of “P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.”
Still, it will be revealing to find out which Latin stars actually get recognized by the Recording Academy moving forward, she says. “‘[Because] if you do it based on popularity or name recognition or what subgenres people listen to the most, then it would be música Mexicana or reggaeton, but traditionally in the Latin Grammys, that hasn’t been the thing that wins all the awards.”
Multi-hyphenate journalist and scholar Jennifer Mota, an inactive voting member of the Recording Academy, believes the inclusive effort to bring in more authentic, diasporic voices could help redefine what music excellence is.
“ We know that quality in music and what is considered ‘good music’ has always been seen through Eurocentric standards,” says Mota, who joined the member class of 2022. “However, throughout the years there has been a shift and a change within these decision-makers and the structural influence that’s existing right now.”
Two truths can exist at the same time, says Mota, who since 2020 has urged the Latin music industry to drop the term “urbano” when referring to the likes of reggaeton, Latin trap, dembow and more genres, as the term has a history of exclusion and segregation within the music industry.
“When we were having conversations on race and being Afro-Caribbean 10 years ago, it was extremely hard because, because it was considered new, [and] a lot of people didn’t want to face that you could be Latino and racist. … People in the industry didn’t want to accept that,” says Mota. “Now, I do see people making efforts.”
“It is worth celebrating,” says Mota, “and we can also recognize that we still have some work left to do, not just in the Latin Grammys, [but] in the Latin community.”
The 2026 Grammy Award nominees will be unveiled at 8 a.m. PST on Friday during a livestream event on live.grammy.com and YouTube. The full list of nominees will be published on Grammy.com immediately following the presentation.
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