 Marquee Event: Billboard Latin Music Bash and label awards. (Photo: Arnold Turner/A. Turner Archives) |
MIAMI — Universal Music Latin Entertainment and Sony Music Latin, today’s two dominant Latin music labels, swept the label awards at the annual Billboard Bash. The main awards will be handed out at the Billboard Latin Music Awards on Thursday night in Miami.
Leading the charge was Universal Music Latin Entertainment and its imprints-Universal Music Latino, Machete, Disa and Fonovisa-with six wins, including Top Latin Albums Label of the year (Universal Music Latin Entertainment), which is given for overall sales.
Check out all of our coverage of the 2011 Billboard Latin Music Conference and Awards right here.
UMLE also picked up awards for Latin Rhythm Albums Label of the Year and Regional Mexican Albums Label of the Year. Meantime, UMLE imprint Universal Music Latino won for Tropical Airplay Label of the Year and Latin Rhythm Airplay Label of the Year, while Disa won for Regional Mexican Airplay Label of the Year.
In turn, Sony Music Latin was the Hot Latin Songs Label of the Year, and also won for Latin Pop Airplay Label of the Year, Latin Pop albums label of the year and Tropical Albums Label of the Year.
For the second in a row, Arpa Musical, which specializes in regional Mexican catalog, won the Publisher of the Year award while Arpa writer Espinoza Paz, who is also an artist on Fonovisa Records, also encored with a win for Songwriter of the Year.
Regional Mexican music also determined the winner of the producer of the year award, which went to Fernando Camacho Tirado, the producer for La Arrolladora Banda El Limón, among other acts.
And Publishing Corporation of the year went to EMI Music, which boasts a robust catalog that includes Don Omar and Ricky Martin, among other writers.
This year, Billboard partnered with Eventful to create a fan’s choice award, with voter’s choosing from a list of top touring Latin acts. The inaugural Eventful fan’s choice award went to Chayanne.
Labels, publishers and songwriters were honored at the annual Billboard Bash, which also featured performances by Billboard Latin Music Awards finalists. The evening included a new artist showcase featuring Rakel and Abel Ullón in addition to performances by Puerto Rican reggae/rock band Cultura Profetica, El Cata, 24 Horas and Dyland and Lenny, who treated music fans to a blend of raps and soulful vocals reminiscent of RKM and Ken-Y.
Presented by State Farm in association with AT&T, the event was hosted by Mikaela Records and presented by Crash and Pico of mun2.
Check out the photos below from the Billboard Bash:
 Rakel from Colombia whose debut album “Milagros Organicos” drops this summer. (Photo: Arnold Turner/A. Turner Archives) |
 DJ E Money from SoCal (Photo: Arnold Turner/A. Turner Archives) |
 Clarissa Serna from Corpus Christi (left) with Lea Ramon (Photo: Arnold Turner/A. Turner Archives) |
 D’Manti (right) with producer Luny (a.k.a. Victor Cabrera), half of the famed Reggaeton production duo Luny Tunes (Photo: Arnold Turner/A. Turner Archives) |
 Grupo Shot (from left): DJ Kane, Clarissa Serna, Lea Roman, E Money, Aaron Nichols (Photo: Arnold Turner/A. Turner Archives) |
 The Gracious Hosts (from left): Billboard Publisher Lisa Ryan Howard, Billboard Editorial Director Bill Werde, Billboard Permission Coordinator Dana Para, Billboard Editorial Godsend Elizabeth Hurst (Photo: Arnold Turner/A. Turner Archives) |
Billboard.biz will be reporting from the Billboard Latin Music Conference and Awards all week — check back every couple of hours for the latest.