A Latin Grammy Award is a music award  the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (LARAS) uses  to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The  Latin Grammy honors music produced anywhere around the world that were recorded in either Spanish or Portuguese. The winners of the  awards have to go  through a nominating and voting process, in which the selections are decided by peers within the music industry which are members of the Academy.
Laras was formed by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS)  in 1997. It was founded by Michael Greene and Mauricio Abaroa. The 1st Annual Latin Grammy Award took place in 2000 in  Los Angeles, California . During the first five years the show was broadcasted by CBS but in 2005 the show  was moved to Univision. Voting members live worldwide and  to be eligible a recording must have been recorded in Spanish or Portuguese during the  eligibility period of July 1 to June 30. Recording are first entered and are reviewed to determine into which category they are eligible for. Following that process, nominating ballots are mailed to voting member of the academy. The votes are counted by an accounting firm and finally the  winners are announced at the Latin Grammy Awards. Mr. Gabriel Abaroa has been the president and CEO for the past few years.
Importantly, there is a general field consisting of four genre award categories:

• Record of the Year is awarded to the performer and the production team of a single song.
• Album of the Year is awarded to the performer and the production team of a full album.
• Song of the Year is awarded to the writer(s)/composer(s) of a single song.
• Best New Artist is awarded to an artist without reference to a song or album.