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00:00 Welcome to Andalusia and welcome to a behind-the-scenes walk through the magic of the Latin Grammys
00:07 for the first time outside of the US.
00:09 Excuse the mess, but we're going to take you over the different things that we're doing here
00:13 and preparing for a very magical Latin Grammy celebration.
00:25 So what we have here is the outside rotunda of the Exhibition Palace
00:30 and what we wanted to do here was to create the Sevilla experience.
00:34 So our guests can really immerse into the culture of Sevilla and La Feria de Sevilla,
00:40 the Sevilla fair, without actually having to go to the fair.
00:43 In my mind, coming to a Latin Grammy week should be a full experience.
00:48 It should not be just come to a show, come to a person of the year celebration and go home.
00:53 The moment you land in your host city, it should feel, you know, Latin Grammy.
00:59 I always dream of making Sevilla part of the story,
01:01 making sure that Sevilla has its own role,
01:05 that it was a character in this story that we're telling and it has happened.
01:10 Right, in every venue, every single thing that we've been doing for Latin Grammy week,
01:15 you've seen Andalusia and Sevilla, you know, clearly present.
01:20 When we first came here and if you come here on any day, what you see is three identical hangars,
01:26 open galleys, but it's important that you see how they originally look,
01:31 because when we go to person of the year and the telecast,
01:36 remember that this is the way they look and you'll see some magic.
01:41 Okay, so here you have it.
01:43 This was a galley, open galley with nothing and now it's ready to celebrate our person of the year.
01:49 Two thousand people sit down dinner, 34 artists, a camera orchestra,
01:55 and we're ready to rock and roll tonight for Laura Parsini, our person of the year.
02:00 It is strange because I'm always thinking about the first time I've been here,
02:04 and I'm like, "Oh, I've never been here."
02:06 And I'm like, "Oh, I've never been here."
02:07 For Laura Parsini, our person of the year.
02:09 It is strange because I was born in Italy and I thought it was not possible for me
02:14 to be nominated or to have this privilege to be the person of the year for Latin Grammy Academy.
02:22 And I feel so honored.
02:25 It's a strange situation to explain because I'm Italian, I'm proud to be Italian,
02:30 but at the same time, I grew up traveling a lot in Spain and Latin America.
02:35 Latinos are not part of me.
02:39 I am part of them.
02:41 I was born with them.
02:43 I can see that they taught me how to respect any kind of culture and ideas,
02:51 and they stay by my side every day, even though I'm probably in some way different from them.
03:01 And so I would like for them to stand forever supporting diversity,
03:08 supporting friendship and love.
03:12 I love working with artists.
03:13 The Latin Academy is all about them.
03:17 We're here for them.
03:18 This is their house.
03:19 This is their academy.
03:21 It's not the administration or the academy.
03:26 They are the academy.
03:27 At the end of the day, we are all the academy,
03:29 and we work together in creating this magic, but it's with their art.
03:33 And what we do here is we are the vehicle to support them
03:38 and to create this platform for them to create the magic together.
03:42 So yes, I love my artists,
03:44 and I think we have a great, mutually respectful relationship.
03:50 So you've been to Premiere, you've been to the Person of the Year,
03:56 you've been to the official party,
03:58 and now I really want to welcome you to where the magic actually really happens,
04:05 which is the actual stage for the 24th Latin Grammy Awards
04:12 for the first time outside of the US, in Seville.
04:15 Here you have it.
04:27 It's interesting because the Grammys are one of the awards
04:31 that actually, like, they pay tribute to the people that are behind the songs.
04:36 You know, when the nominations came out,
04:37 it was funny because people were saying, "Who's Edgar Barrera? Who's this guy?"
04:41 And I think that's exactly what I want to be.
04:44 I don't want to be a person that everybody knows me,
04:47 but I want to, you know, for people that know about music,
04:51 to know who I am and stuff like that.
04:53 So it's never been about myself.
04:55 It's always been about the artist and about the song.
04:58 And making, you know, the Grammys and having me as the most nominated
05:02 is just an honor and I'm just grateful to be here.
05:04 My lifestyle is... I have no life, actually.
05:08 This is my life revolves all around, you know, the music that I create,
05:13 the this, the what I do.
05:15 It's funny because the other day I was talking to Camila Cabello
05:18 and she was asking me, like, "What's your hobby?"
05:21 And I'm like, "I write songs."
05:22 And she's like, "Yeah, well, that's what you do for a living."
05:24 We're like, "What do you do for fun?"
05:25 I'm like, "I write songs."
05:27 I was asked the other day that if I predict that we're going to stay at this level,
05:32 Latin music will stay at this level,
05:34 there's always ups and downs, but I think the bar keeps going up, right?
05:39 So, yes, there's going to be ups and downs,
05:40 but within a bar that I believe it's already...
05:44 I mean, it's clearly at an all-time high.
05:46 My dream and my hope and our hard work at the Latin Academy
05:51 is that the bar keeps rising,
05:53 but I guess we'll see.
05:54 It's natural that there will be some up and downs,
05:57 but again, the bar keeps going up.
06:00 I think we are living the future of Latin music right now.
06:04 I think the future is already here
06:06 because we've become, like, global already.
06:10 And now, like, for myself, speaking of myself,
06:14 like, for being nominated as Songwriter of the Year
06:17 with only Spanish songs in the Grammys, the American Grammys,
06:22 it doesn't make it about myself there.
06:24 It's more about, you know, the whole culture coming in
06:27 and, you know, that we can get nominated for the Grammys
06:30 with all Spanish songs.
06:31 Competing with, you know, other amazing writers
06:35 that are writing for biggest artists in the world,
06:38 biggest names in the world,
06:39 it's like we're also there, you know,
06:41 and it's like we're breaking rules.
06:45 We're, you know, we're...
06:46 I think Latinos are taking all, taking the world.
06:51 (upbeat music)
06:53 Oh, well, I'm not gonna tell you about what I listen to
07:04 because that's gonna be difficult.
07:05 I can't, I can't.
07:07 I grew up in a family of music lovers.
07:11 My dad is a samba lover and he was a Beatles lover.
07:15 And then I developed love for opera and classical music
07:20 and I love jazz and it's been, you know, kind of this mix.
07:23 So my dad had a record store,
07:26 so I was always, you know, getting the latest records,
07:30 you know, and I was the popular kid
07:31 because I had the record.
07:33 I grew up listening to a lot of different genres
07:36 and I come from the border where culture,
07:40 like culture-wise, I have like,
07:43 kind of like both cultures of the US
07:45 and Mexico culture living in the border
07:47 makes you like too Mexican for an American
07:50 and too American for a Mexican.
07:52 And for me growing up,
07:54 listening to all this type of music
07:56 to like cumbias in my house with my dad
07:59 and, you know, boleros and a lot of Colombian music
08:04 and then going to Miami and then, you know,
08:06 learning about salsa music
08:08 and learning about merengue and stuff like that.
08:10 And reggaeton, especially that's, you know,
08:13 been in my, when I was growing up as a teenager,
08:17 you know, and I also have a lot of my personal playlist
08:22 is like mainly like rock music.
08:23 I love rock music.
08:25 I listen to a lot of old rock like AC/DC
08:28 and stuff like that.
08:29 That's like what kind of what I listen to.
08:32 So, you know, having all of this in my head
08:34 and the minute that I work with an artist,
08:37 I try to be the producer that does the different song,
08:40 you know, the song that's different from the album.
08:43 Like when I work with Yankee,
08:44 like I was with Daddy Yankee in the studio
08:46 and he was telling me, you know, like play me stuff.
08:49 I'm like, well, I'm not going to do a reggaeton record
08:51 with Daddy Yankee
08:52 because he does that with his eyes closed.
08:54 So how can I add to his career?
08:56 The way I added to his career was like
08:58 he wanted to do a salsa record with Marc Anthony.
09:00 I'm like, oh, you know, I can help you out with that.
09:02 Or I've always wanted to work with Bad Bunny, for example.
09:05 I've been a big fan of his music for a long time
09:08 and he's an amazing songwriter.
09:10 And it's like, I'm never going to work with Bunny
09:13 because he's such a great songwriter
09:14 that I can add to his career.
09:16 And the way I worked with Bunny was with Grupo Frontera,
09:20 you know, doing something that he's not used to doing.
09:23 And that's kind of, you know,
09:26 how I add to the career of the artist.
09:29 Yes, of course, I have mentors.
09:41 They don't know me because I'm talking about great stars
09:46 such as Whitney Houston was my favorite one.
09:48 I followed her a lot.
09:50 I'm still listening to her every day,
09:54 trying to learn something.
09:58 She was a teacher for me and my father too,
10:02 because when I sang with him in piano bars,
10:04 I was trying to listen to him,
10:07 watching him, the way he breathed,
10:10 helps me now to understand how to use my body and my voice.
10:18 And I do have a lot of mentors.
10:19 Andres Castro is one of them.
10:22 He's a producer who gave me my first opportunity
10:25 to be in a studio as an intern.
10:28 Omar Alfano is another one of my mentors.
10:30 He's one of the biggest songwriters in Latin music,
10:33 you know, in salsa music.
10:35 And he was the first writer to actually bring me in
10:39 to a session where, you know, that started all of this to happen.
10:44 I feel like I don't know if I want to be a mentor
10:47 because sometimes I feel shy about it.
10:50 But the suggestion I can do is just to be authentic,
10:55 to be prepared, but not to be too much technical,
11:01 even though you have to know some technical stuff
11:07 to use your voice in a better way.
11:10 But to be...
11:12 Use your instinct while you're making any kind of art
11:25 will help you to be an artist.
11:29 Using your instinct.
11:32 And you have to study,
11:33 but then when you're on stage
11:35 or you're walking with other people,
11:37 try to keep out of yourself your authenticity,
11:42 your instinct, because this is art for me.
11:45 This is one thing that I tell a lot of upcoming writers
11:48 and producers that are starting off in the industry,
11:51 because they always try to write songs
11:54 for the artists that are already big artists.
11:56 You know, people send me songs for,
11:58 "Oh, I have this song for so-and-so artist.
12:00 Can you help me connect the song?"
12:02 And it's really hard whenever it's a big artist
12:04 because they have so much stuff going on.
12:06 And what I always tell new writers and producers
12:09 is to also believe in the up-and-coming artists.
12:12 And that's the way I started too.
12:13 But I will make a confession.
12:15 I am a particular fan and supporter
12:18 of the Best New Artist category.
12:21 It is the one in which you can truly impact
12:23 the life of the artist by getting that nomination.
12:26 Believing in a band like Grupo Frontera,
12:29 back where, you know,
12:31 helped them be the artists that they are now,
12:34 is part of this, you know,
12:36 being part of that success is also what makes you
12:39 become a better producer and a better writer.
12:43 And same thing with Christian Nodal.
12:44 You know, we started off working together
12:46 early in his career.
12:48 Maluma, the same thing.
12:49 And, you know, the first time I wrote a song
12:52 with Karol G was 2017.
12:54 You know, we wrote the song together
12:56 and she became biggest star in the world.
13:00 And now, you know,
13:02 because we also had that relationship back.
13:06 So that's what I always tell writers and producers
13:08 to also believe in artists
13:09 that are starting out their careers right now
13:11 and to grow and learn and, you know,
13:14 make errors with the artist.
13:17 I call all of them
13:19 the moment they receive their nomination.
13:20 Because I think it's very important for them
13:22 to realize that, you know,
13:24 taking the Latin Grammy home,
13:26 yes, it's the dream of everybody.
13:28 But all 10 of them are already winners, right?
13:31 All 10 of them were selected
13:33 among 600 submissions.
13:37 So for them to be here,
13:40 I want to make sure that they realize the importance
13:44 and for them to get excited about it
13:47 and forget the competition part.
13:50 I always tell them that this is not a competition.
13:53 It's a celebration.