Calle 13 leads nominations for Latin Grammys

With nominations in five categories including album of the year, the Puerto Rican reggaeton duo Calle 13 is a favorite to win a Latin Grammy in Las Vegas - which might have producers of the international awards ceremony on edge.

Residente, whose real name is Rene Perez, offended political figures from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Santiago, Chile with his cutting populist critiques.

He's promised to be on his best behavior Thursday at the 10th annual Latin Grammys awards show at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Calle 13 is scheduled to perform "La Perla," a collaboration with Panamanian salsa legend Ruben Blades that pays homage to Latin America's many poor but tight-knit barrios. The song's video is nominated for best short form music video.

Mercedes Sosa's collection of duets, "Cantora 1," goes up against Calle 13's politically-charged "Los de Atras Vienen Conmigo," (in English, "The Ones Behind are Coming with Me") for best album. The Argentine singer-songwriter who helped start the "Nuevo Cancion" movement that combined folk traditions of Latin America with progressive politics in the 1960s, was nominated only weeks before she died on October 4.

No other artists come close to Calle 13's five nominations, but artists from Brazil and Puerto Rico are well-positioned to bring home the most golden gramaphones.

Puerto Rico's Gilberto Santa Rosa, Jose Lugo and Wisin y Yandel are also nominated in three categories, while from Brazil, Ivan Lins and the Metropole Orchestra, Ivete Sangalo and Caetano Veloso each have three nominations. Songwriter and producer Jorge Luis Piloto also got three nominations.

The Latin Recording Academy will give a Lifetime Achievement Award to classical maestro Jose Antonio Abreu, who started a network of orchestras that has trained 300,000 young people across Venezuela and mentored the classical music's latest superstar, Gustavo Dudamel, the newly minted musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The ceremony will be broadcast live on Univision, with most of the 49 awards presented at an earlier event streamed live on the Latin Grammy Web site. Members of the Latin Recording Academy vote for the winners.

Cuban diva Omara Portuondo, nominated for best contemporary tropical album for "Gracias," will present an award, the first time an artist from the Communist nat-ion will take the stage at the Latin Grammys.

R&B singer Alicia Keys, Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury, Spanish balladeer Alejandro Sanz, salsero Oscar D'Leon, norteno band Los Tucanes de Tijuana and Spanish folk rockers La Quinta Estacion are also scheduled to perform.

---

Online:

The Latin Recording Academy: latingrammy.com