Thursday, December 5, 2013

The 14th Annual Latin Grammy Award show: a  farce !

After you watched the 14th Annual Award show is like a "deja vu" of previous years....award show dominated by major record label artists, such as "out of tones"  Juanes, Jesse & Joy and others....Most of the winners for this year's Award show are from Sony Music, a major record label.
Again we have to congratulate the Latin Academy of Recording Arts for such a tremendous farce !
It is funny to see the same artists again & again, ;performing and presenting the awards. It seems that even though the Academy has approximately 5,000 members, only 3 % of them are "liked" by the president Mr. Gabriel Abaroa. "Liked" because this small percent of  artist are the ones usually performing in the past few years. This phenomenon is what I would described as "decadent period", in which Mr Abaroa, does not care about good innovative music but cares for whoever can produce him moneys. That is why months prior to the award show , Mr Abaroa meets only with  major record labels to see which artists are convenient for him to present and perform; a good example is Jesse & Joy, a Mexican pop duo who won the 2007 Latin Grammy for Best New Artist. They were not "new artist" back then in 2007 but it was obvious they were awarded the Latin Grammy because their record label manager ( Warner Mexico) was the Latin Grammy president's brother, Alejandro Abaroa. This duo was not nominated to the 14th Annual show, and still participated during the festivities....another clear example is Columbian singer Juanes, which was out of the music picture for a while, and now Mr Abaroa and the Academy has tried to revive him again!
What a shame when there is  new, excellent music around.... We have to give credit to Gabriel, because there are new artists that has been 'promoted' by the Academy, Let don't forget the "Best New Artist" category. This category belongs to his brother, because most of the winner of the Best New Artist category are from Warner Music Mexico, where his brother continue to work for. Come on ! do not tell me the Awards are fair ! Some of "big Members of the Academy" (musicians, composers and producers) have publicly expressed that winning a  Latin Grammy is not a synonym of being successful. This comment implies that the winning of a Latin Grammy does not influence in whether an artist will be famous/successful or not.
On the other hand, there are some Members of the Academy who complain when they lose or aren't nominated. Their "ego" lives out of winning a Latin Grammy...what a joke !
As I have previously mentioned, the Latin Grammy Award show ( same as the American Grammy) are not Academies where fairness is a characteristic. These are unfair award shows. The votes by the Members are usually not for the merits of the song but because of kickbacks, friendship, and financial gain.
Another question is : do all Members of the Academy "listen" to all the songs submitted to the Award show ?
It is impossible to listen to the 9400 songs  !
Again , what can we expect from an Academy in which it has been demonstrated that his president has an ownership interest in a digital music company, WILAEN. When this was discovered, the first thing Mr Abaroa did was to go and change the State of Florida corporate documents to reflect he was no longer the president of WILAEN. Remember that at one point most of the artists presenting and performing in the latin Grammys award show were featured in Mr Abaroa's WILAEN.  what ?  conflict of interest ? Mr Abaroa
did not know the definition of "conflict of interest" until then, when he was exposed !
What about the excessive salary, over $740,000.00 USD, he makes yearly. This is an excessive salary for a corporation that DOES NOT pay Income tax  ( 'not for profit")...is this company in reality a "not for profit" company ?
Mr Gabriel Abaroa has a lot to explain...and until he clarifies all those doubts ,the academy he presides will be an exemplar of mediocrity !

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Are the Latin Grammy's about quality or quantity ?

The Latin Grammy's 14th Award event are around the corner !!!
I am particularly so happy for the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences  for the large number of songs submitted by the Members of the Academy.
Hey, 9400 songs is not an small number....considering 2012 whereas 6400 songs were submitted.

The most important question the general public and the Members of the Latin recording Academy should ask is : are the Latin Grammy's about "quality" or "quantity" ?

As I  have previously stated  Do you think, in all honesty, that the Members of the Academy have enough time to listen and evaluate all of the songs submitted? Or do Academy members vote based on friendship, exchange of votes, influences, monetary incentives (voting pool) or kickbacks? The Members of the Academy should vote for the merits of the songs! http://latin-grammy.blogspot.com/

Nowadays & always, time is an important aspect of everyone's life, and that is why I raise the question of 
"honesty" and "fairness" during the evaluation of songs competing in the Awards.

For example, for the sake of discussion, there are 131,487 minutes in a 4-month period; that a third of a day
(8 hours) are dedicated to sleep, 8-hrs for work, and 8-hrs for leisure; that 58,438 minutes are dedicated 
to sleep,  58,438 minutes for work and 58,438 minutes for leisure; and assuming the Members are given
a period of approximately 2-weeks to evaluate the songs, then, their time required to listen to music would be approximately 80 % of their time off. Under these circumstances, it would be impossible for Members of the Academy of Recording Arts to listen to all the submitted songs. I can see Mr Gabriel Abaroa gets very excited about the number of songs submitted (this year 9400), but I would be ashamed because I will have no answer for...Mr. Abaroa, do Members listen to all the songs submitted ?

An interesting article w.eluniversal.com/arte-y-entretenimiento/121114/gabriel-abaroa-jr-los-premios-grammy-no-se-compran , demonstrates that Mexico is the country that has won most of the Latin Grammy
Awards; again this year most of the nominees are Mexican !

As a friend of mine used to say "you do not buy them...you rent them...!

Until the Academy does not change the way they select and evaluate the songs, it will continue to be an unfair Award show !