The countdown has been on all week long leading up to today – as the 2017 Billboard Latin Music Awards take place live from the Watsco Center on the campus of the University of Miami.
It’s the show where the fan’s choice for music is honored and celebrated – and fans will get to see some of the top names in Latin music.
International superstar Jennifer Lopez is getting ready to release her first Spanish album in 10 years. The icon and star of NBC’s Shades of Blue is sharing her sound tonight on stage – where she'll also be honored with Telemundo's Star Award for her outreach off the stage.
With well over one billion streams on YouTube, Luis Fonsi's "Despacito" is the first Spanish song to sit atop the Billboard Hot 100 since "La Macarena" in 1996.
Tonight will be the first time the song, featuring Daddy Yankee will be performed live.
“We recorded the song a few months back, we released a video and it’s been crazy,” Fonsi said. “Four months of just promo and the song, thank God, is blowing up everywhere. Now we get to come home and celebrate it with our fans in the biggest Latin music show, so it’s going to be very exciting.”
Also exciting is that ‘Bieber Fever’ has crossed over into the Latin market as Justin Bieber was featured singing in Spanish for the first time ever in the song's remix.
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So who made the first move - Fonsi or Bieber?
“It actually came from him. He was in Colombia - in Bogota doing his tour – and he went out one night to a night club and heard the song and he saw how everybody started singing the song and dancing and going crazy,” said Fonsi. “He said ‘wait a minute, I want to be part of this song’, so he talked to his management, his management reached out to us and they said he wants to jump in on the remix so I was like yes.”
Nicky jam tops the list of finalists with nine entries -- he's tied with Shakira, who also goes in with nine entries tonight.
Enrique Iglesias is a finalist in eight categories - including his song featuring Wisin "Duele el Corazon" for Hot Latin song of the year.
You can watch all the action starting with the red carpet arrivals on our sister station, Telemundo 51, at 7 p.m. and look for Roxanne Vargas’ live reports starting on NBC 6 News at 4.
