Latin Grammys 2018: Marc Anthony, Bad Bunny and Will Smith to Open Awards Show
The Latin Recording Academy has unveiled its roster of performers for the 19th Annual Latin Grammy Awards, taking place Thursday, November 15th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Opening this year’s show is 2016 Person of the Year and salsa mastermind Marc Anthony, alongside Latin Grammy-nominated trap purveyor Bad Bunny and Grammy-winning rapper and actor Will Smith. The cross-cultural pop trifecta will perform their viral 2018 hit, “Está Rico,” a sizzling bilingual number which has already clocked 57 million views on YouTube. It will be their very first live performance together.
“Will and I have always wanted to work on a musical collaboration,” said Anthony in a press release. “Working with Bad Bunny for the first time has been a great surprise. We all had a magnificent chemistry, and that energy is palpable in both the music and the video.”
Smith had previously performed at the Latin Grammys in 2015, when he joined forces with Bomba Estéreo in their high-energy performance of the carnivalesque anthem, “Fiesta.” Smith is just one of many Anglophone hitmakers who’ve ventured into pop en español in recent years, including Top 40 heavyweights like Drake, Justin Bieber, Beyoncé and Khalid.
Bad Bunny is nominated for Best Urban Song this year, along with Prince Royce and J Balvin, for their 2018 single, “Sensualidad.”
Other artists scheduled to perform at this year’s ceremony include J Balvin, Mon Laferte, Halsey, Natalia Lafourcade, Sebastian Yatra and more.
The 19th Annual Latin Grammy Awards will air live November 15th on Univision, starting 8 p.m. EST/PT (7 p.m. Central).