Miguel, Bruno Mars, Romeo Santos, Prince Royce, Marc Anthony and More Nominated for AMAs
Los Angeles, CA, (October 17, 2013) – On November 24th, when the American Music Awards is broadcast live from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, it will mark the 15 year anniversary of the awarding of Favorite Artist Latin when fans voted Julio Iglesias their Favorite Latin Star. Fifteen years later, the entire American Music Awards show is impacted by artists of Latino descent: Favorite Male Soul/R&B Nominee Miguel is half Mexican; 3x nominee Bruno Mars’ is one quarter Puerto Rican; and of course, artists within the Favorite Artist Latin category, Romeo Santos, Prince Royce and Marc Anthony, reflect, the wide range of music loved by fans in the U.S.
Produced by Dick Clark Productions, the AMAs reflect the legendary Dick Clark’s personal philosophies. In his decades-long career, the legendary television personality and producer also helped Latino stars rise from obscurity to international fame. From Richie Valens to Selena Gomez to Los Tigres del norte to Miguel, countless numbers of Latino stars have graced the American Bandstand and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve stages:
Richie Valens: The rock n roll pioneer and early purveyor of the Chicano music scene made an appearance on American Bandstand way back in 1958.
Jose Feliciano: The Puerto Rican singer-songwriter may be best known for his 1970 Christmas single “Feliz Navidad,” but in 1983 he made a stop in Philadelphia to sing and chat with Dick Clark on American Bandstand.
Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine: The pulsating rhythms of Cuban-Miami went mainstream when Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine took the stage on American Bandstand back in 1985. After Gloria recovered from a terrible car crash, she made her TV debut on the AMAs with “Coming out of the Dark.”
Los Lobos: Before they were Grammy award winners, Los Lobos were just a couple guys from East LA hoping to make it big when they appeared on American Bandstand in 1985.
Jennifer Lopez: By 2010, Jennifer Lopez was hotter than ever. She headlined the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve that year with a sexy performance of her hit song “Let’s Get Loud.”
Santana and Justin Beiber: Thousands of people rang in 2012 in New York’s Times Square with pop star Justin Beiber accompanied by rock legend Carlos Santana. Sadly this was Dick Clark’s last year as host of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve before he passed away.
Hot Hot Hot, a Dick Clark Production television show in the 80s, was revolutionary when Fernando Allende regularly hosted one hour of the show in English and one hour in Spanish.
Larry Klein, longtime executive producer of the America Music Awards, who worked with Dick over many decades, recalls fondly that Clark’s favorite music was Brazilian!!!!