Santos, Lopez Set for Billboard Latin Music Awards

Music's biggest names will appear and perform at the 2015 Billboard Latin Music Awards Thursday when the event airs live from Miami on Telemundo.

Jennifer Lopez, Romeo Santos, Juanes, Natalia Jimenez, AfroJack, Wisin, Daddy Yankee, Carlos Santana, J Balvin, Carlos Vives, Marc Anthony, Luis Fonsi, Gerardo Ortiz, Pedro Fernandez, Belinda, Juan Magan, Gente de Zona, DJ Juan Magan and Ne-Yo are just some of stars set to rock the BankUnited Center at the University of Miami in Florida.

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The Billboard Latin Music Awards honor the most popular albums, songs, and performers in Latin music, as determined by the actual sales, radio airplay, streaming and social data that informs Billboard's weekly charts.

Santos leads the Latin Music Awards pack with 21 nods in 16 categories (a record in the history of the awards) including Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Top Latin Album of the Year.

Enrique Iglesias follows closely with 19 entries in 15 categories. Both acts broke the previous record of most finalist nods for a single year, held by Tito El Bambino and Don Omar, who both garnered 18 nods in 2010 and 2013, respectively.

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Colombian chart newcomer J Balvin is a 12-time finalist in 11 categories. Marc Anthony and Drake–who collaborated with Santos on the single "Odio"–are both named to seven categories, followed by Descemer Bueno and Gente de Zona (both featured on the Iglesias hit "Bailando") who are up for six awards each.

Lopez will perform a musical tribute Thursday to the late Selena Quintanilla-Perez. The performance will include a medley of Selena's greatest hits, according to Telemundo. Lopez originally paid tribute to the late Selena Quintanilla by portraying the famous singer in the 1997 biopic "Selena."

Selena was shot and killed by her former fan club president Yolanda Saldivar on March 31, 1995, at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi.

"There is never going to be another Selena," Lopez told Billboard of the Mexican-American entertainer. "And as far as music goes, that's what's beautiful about artistry...It's a special thing that Selena had. That's why we're still talking about her 20 years later."

The Billboard Latin Music Awards will air live from 8 p.m. ET on Telemundo.

(NBC and Telemundo are part of the NBC Universal family.)

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