1994 in Latin music

Events

• March 1 – The 36th Annual Grammy Awards are held at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
• * Luis Miguel wins the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album for his album Aries.
• * Gloria Estefan wins the Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album for her album Mi Tierra
• * Selena wins the Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Album for her album Live!.
• March 10 – BMI launches its own Latin music award to honor the best performing Latin songs of the year published by the company. "Otro Día Más Sin Verte" by Jon Secada is awarded Latin song of the year while Álvaro Torres is honored Latin songwriter of the year.
• May 16 - May 19 – The fifth annual Billboard Latin Music Conference is held at the InterContinental Hotel in Florida with the conference focusing on Brazilian music and Latin jazz for the first time.
• * The inaugural Billboard Latin Music Awards also takes place with Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan being the biggest winners with three awards. Cuban singer Celia Cruz and Cuban musician Cachao are inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame.
• May 19 – The 6th Annual Lo Nuestro Awards are held at the James L. Knight Center in Miami, Florida. Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan and American Tejano group La Mafia are the biggest winners of the ceremony with both receiving three awards.
• June 4 – National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences approves a new category for Latin jazz album. The new award category is scheduled to debut on the following Grammy Award ceremony the next year. Despite being its appearance on the jazz field, Latin music committees are eligible to cast their vote on the award.
• June 18 – Selena became the first non-crossover act to have an album to enter the Billboard 200 since Luis Miguel's Aries. The album was credited with popularizing Tejano music and catapulting the genre into an "unprecedented level of mainstream success"; eventually becoming the best-selling Tejano record of all-time. It holds the record for most weeks in the top ten of the Top Latin Albums chart—at 110 weeks—while the record holds the record for most weeks at number one on the Regional Mexican Albums chart at 96 weeks.
• November 12 – Billboard updates the methodology for the Hot Latin Tracks chart to incorporate the Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. Billboard also launches three sub-charts of the Hot Latin Tracks chart: Latin Pop Airplay, Regional Mexican Airplay, and Latin Tropical Airplay.

Bands formed

• Laura Pausini
• Kairo
• Mónica Naranjo
• Ana Bárbara
• Ezequiel Peña
• Giro
• Carlos Nuño

Number-ones albums and singles by country

• List of number-one albums of 1994 (Spain)
• List of number-one singles of 1994 (Spain)
• List of number-one Billboard Top Latin Albums of 1994
• List of number-one Billboard Hot Latin Tracks of 1994

Awards

• 1994 Premio Lo Nuestro
• 1994 Billboard Latin Music Awards
• 1994 Tejano Music Awards

Best-selling records

Best-selling albums

Best-performing songs

Births

• January 15 – Myke Towers, Puerto Rican rapper
• January 28 – Maluma, Colombian reggaeton singer
• March 10 – Bad Bunny, Puerto Rican reggaeton and trap rapper
• March 16 – Camilo, Colombian pop singer
• April 25 – Jay Wheeler, Puerto Rican reggaeton singer
• October 15 – Sebastián Yatra, Colombian pop singer

Deaths

• February 8 – Amparo Ochoa, Mexican singer-songwriter
• July 17 – Sebastián Piana, Argentine tango composer
• November 21 – Santiago Chalar, Uruguayan physician traumatologist, poet, songwriter, musician, guitarist and singer
• December 8 – Antônio Carlos Jobim, Brazilian bossa nova composer