Zabdiel, Richard, Joel, Eric and Christopher have been voted as the winners of reality show La Banda during the live grand finale Sunday (Dec. 13) night.
The five will now be the members of boy group CNCO, with the name announced at the very end of the show. Although the name CNCO would seem to allude to “cinco,” Spanish for five, the group’s name is being pronounced as if it were spelled out in English: “C-N-C-O.”
With superstars Alejandro Sanz, Ricky Martin and Laura Pausini as judges, La Banda premiered last September on Univision as the first show of its kind on Spanish language television. The crux of the music reality competition was finding the next Latin boy band, with contestants coming in from all over Latin America as well as the U.S.
Fifth Harmony, One Direction to Appear on ‘La Banda’ Finale
La Banda was produced by Univision as a music-based, multi-media competition show developed by Simon Cowell’s SYCO Entertainment, Haim Saban’s Saban Brands and co-produced with FremantleMedia Latin America.
Performers at the grand finale included Pitbull and Fifth Harmony — singing in English and Spanish — while One Direction made a video appearance wishing the competing boys good luck.
As part of its win, CNCO will record an album with Sony Music Latin, to be produced by rapper Wisin.
Also in the works is La Banda 2, which will look for the next girl band.