Latin Grammy 2013: My Favorite for “Grabación del Año”

Among all the good songs in this Latin Grammy category, there’s only one that gets me to say “wow”. With such a constellation of Latin music stars picking one song is hard, so I used the “wow” factor as my guideline.

My favorite song to take the Latin Grammy as “Grabación del Año” is “La Nave del Olvido” from (Concha) Buika. Not only it’s a great song, but the arrangement made for it and Buika’s performance are really amazing. “La Nave del Olvido”, part of Buika’s “La Noche Mas Larga” (2013) album was arranged in a nice mellow jazz song that starts with guitar and piano notes, with a soft trumpet in the background.

The jazz format allows Concha Buika to do what she does best, improvise and fill the performance with a passion that is so contagious there is no way you cannot take note of this song! She goes from a smooth jazz singing to almost screaming in passion, and then rolls into a jazz-flamenco type improvisation! When the song finished, I was like…”wow”!

Obviously, there are other beautiful songs in this “Grabación del Año” Latin Grammy category.

Pablo Alborán’s “Tanto” is a beautiful song in a very good Latin pop music album, which is nominated for “Album del Año” and should have a good shot at it. This is my 2nd favorite song from the category of this Latin music star that will soon become a super star. I wouldn’t be surprised if “Tanto” ends up with the Latin Grammy in this category.

The version of “Bachata Rosa” by Natalie Cole with Juan Luis Guerra is really nice as well. It is part of the album nominated for “Album del Año” recording “En Español“. Done with a twist to the original version by it’s author Juan Luis Guerra, it’s a nice refreshing version. Natalie is able to perform quite nicely with the Dominican singer songwriter. The result was a really nice duet and good version of the song, with good chances for “Grabación del Año”.

Draco Rosa’s version of his hit “Mas y Mas” featuring Ricky Martin in a duet is also really good and my favorite from Draco’s “Vida” (2013) album, which is also nominated for “Album del Año”, and one of 3 albums in that category are that mostly duet albums.

Lastly “Volvi a Nacer” is the other song that I really like in this category. Part of Colombian star Carlos Vives’ album “Corazon Profundo“, which is a great album and also nominated for Album del Año, it’s really a nicely written, arranged, and performed song, in what I would call Vallenato-pop. Another good “Grabación del Año” contender.

I didn’t care that much for the rest of the songs. “Lo Mejor Que Hay en Mi Vida”, “Mi Marciana”, and “Un Abrasaco” are likable songs by Andrés Cepeda, Alejandro Sanz, and Caetano Veloso respectively, but nothing to write home about. I’m not sure why Marc Anthony’s “Vivir Mi Vida” and Santiago Cruz “Desde Lejos” made it into the nominee list of this category, but I would be really surprised if they win the Grammy.

Let’s see who ends up winning the Latin Grammy on November 21st.