Las Vegas Weekly

November 5, 2009 · 5:35 PM

Live from the Latin Grammy Awards!

By Sarah Feldberg

Residente from Puerto Rican hip-hop group Calle 13 accepts one of their multiple Latin Grammys at the 10th Annual Latin Grammy Awards at Mandalay Bay.

Photo: Matt Sayles / AP Images

Celebrating its 10th year, the Latin Grammy Awards are in Las Vegas for the second time, filling the Mandalay Bay Events Center with the biggest names in Latin music and fans dressed to the nines for the black tie show. Here, you'll find minute by minute coverage of the winners, performances and stars live from Mandalay Bay!

5 p.m. "Cinco, cuatro, tres, dos, uno, aplauso!" the announcer's voices booms over the speakers at the Mandalay Bay Events Center as lights come up on the 10th Annual Latin Grammy Awards. First on stage is Italian songstress Laura Pausini, who emerges from backstage in a stunning gown to sing her hit "En Cambio Yo" backed by cast members from La Reve. Strong men stack themselves like building blocks; aerialists twist and turn and dancers wear large harnesses strapped to giant sheets that wave back and forth like underwater flowers.

5:05 p.m. Hosts Lucero and Eugenio Derbez take the stage to welcome the crowd and television audience. Derbez discusses his five reasons why the Latin Grammys are in Spanish today. No. 4: "So gringos see that spending three hours watching the Grammys without understanding is bull!"

5:15 p.m. Puerto Rican hip-hop duo Calle 13 accepts its fourth award of the night for Recording of the Year for "No Hay Nadie Como Tú" ("There's No One Like You"). Rapper Residente dedicates the award to all the people in Puerto Rico who have been laid off and are living on unemployment, late Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa and the people of Colombia.

5:45 p.m. Enrique Iglesias presents the 2009 Latin Recording Academy Person Of The Year award to Mexican legend Juan Gabriel, who arrives on stage in sequins and ruffles looking like the Latin Liberace. If the Liberace Museum is not on his agenda for his time in Las Vegas, someone should be fired.

5:56 p.m. Backed by dancers climbing and sliding down stripper poles and a mock casino scene complete with slots, cocktail servers and drunk tourists, Puerto Rican reggaeton duo Wisin Y Yandel perform "Medicina" and "Abusadora." The Mandalay Bay Events Center almost takes on the look of a Las Vegas club. But not quite.

6:12 p.m. Winners of the Best Alternative Music Album Los Amigos Invisibles stop by the press room to and tell us that they were still walking the green carpet (courtesy of Heineken) when their award was called. "We thought they'd give it to another band," they joked, adding that the whole thing made them feel just a little seasick.

6:16 p.m. "He was the first musician that I listened to when I got to Miami," Enrique Iglesias says of 2009 Person of the Year Juan Gabriel. "For me, personally, he was the most important Mexican artist."

6:23 p.m. Backed by dancers from Mystere and a collection of wife-beater clad aspiring gangsters, Calle 13 and Rubén Blades perform La Perla so fiercely that it echoes from the stage into the press room where journalists are fighting to get Enrique Iglesias' attention. Iglesias says his next album will be like him, bilingual - seven songs in Spanish, seven in English. A reporter from MTV3 says he looks "delicious." I'm inclined to agree.

6:31 p.m. Winners (in a tie with Grupo Pesado) of Best Norteño Album Costumbre sing a few bars in the press room. The crowd breaks into surprised applause.

6:38 p.m. Shaila Dúrcal is wearing a white gown with rich blue floral patterning that vaguely evokes dishware. On her it works.

6:56 p.m. The Latin Grammy for Best Urban Song goes to baldy boys Wisin Y Yandel for "Abusadora."

7:09 p.m. Alicia Keys and Alejandro Sanz bring the crowd to their feet with a bilingual duet of "Looking for Paradise" in which both artists sing in both languages. The pared down performance focuses simply on the two powerful singers and their energetic band.

7:27 p.m. David Bisbal breaks into spirited song in the press room. It's the most intimate performance a girl could want.

7:32 p.m. Dressed in tuxes, Los Tucanes de Tijuana explain the meaning behind the bright green ribbons that the majority of the performers and presenters have pinned to their jackets: Not merely part of Heineken's sponsorship package, the ribbons signify Latin pride.

7:56 p.m. Juan Gabriel chugs a hefty glass of what appears to be white wine on stage, proving once and for all that shiny jackets and drinking ability are not mutually exclusive.

8 p.m. Alicia Keys and Alejandro Sanz enter the press room hand in hand. Keys says she'd love to record in Spanish. Does she speak it? I wonder.

8:28 p.m. Calle 13 is called to the stage for the fifth time this evening to collect the award for Album of the Year for Los de Atrás Vienen Conmigo. With their entourage behind them, Residente dedicates the award to Mercedes Sosa. "It's important for the people to know her," he says. When they stop by the press room their arms are so full of awards that the step brothers begin to drop them and decide to let the golden gramophones sit on the floor.

8:31 p.m. The show ends on a Brazilian note with a samba medley by Daniela Mercury. Juan Gabriel's act is tough to follow, but she makes a valiant effort and, skirt swinging, Mercury leaves the audience dancing.

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