Billboard Latin Music Awards


The Billboard Latin Music Awards are annual honors presented by Billboard magazine to recognize outstanding achievements in Latin music record chart performance. Established as an extension of the Billboard Music Awards, they are among the longest-running award ceremonies in the Latin music industry. The event is typically held during the same week as Latinfest+.

History

The first award ceremony began in 1994 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami, Florida, under the name Latin Music Awards to "represent a broad cross-section of Latino talent, covering every music genre," and was then published in Billboard Magazine. The winners were selected based on points accumulated from Billboard's radio and retail charts and categorized into subcategories designed to reward artists, songs and albums over one year. The categories of the Latin music were: pop, tropical/salsa, regional Mexican, rap, rock and jazz. The first ceremony also introduced several special awards, decided by the Billboard editorial committee: the Latin Music Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement Award, to recognize an artist's career in the Latin music industry and to honor a musical personality who has largely contributed to the Latin music genre.
During the 1996 ceremony the Spirit of Hope Award was introduced as a special honor "in recognition of artists' extraordinary philanthropic and humanitarian contributions beyond their musical work." The 1997 ceremony was the first with hosts Daisy Fuentes and Herb Alpert. The 1999 awards show, hosted by Daisy Fuentes, was televised for the first time from the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.
Since 2021, the Billboard Icon Award, initially presented exclusively during the Billboard Music Awards, has also been awarded during the Latin ceremony. In 2022, the ceremony introduced the Legend Award given to artists "whose contribution to music makes them a household name and who maintain a career that has withstood the test of time".
Enrique Iglesias is the most awarded artist, having won 47 awards, while Shakira is the most awarded female artist with 44 awards.

Ceremonies

Categories

The categories are listed according to Billboard's mention throughout the nominations; any changes in the name during the ceremonies are listed alongside.

Overall artist categories