2018 GRAMMYs Spotlight: Juanes
Looking back at my upbringing as a member of the Latinx community, there are certain musicians that come to mind when I think about musical icons, one of them being Juanes. Through the course of his career, Juanes has had many hits in Latin America, including Me Enamora, A Dios le Pido, Es Porti, Fotografia with Nelly Furtado and who could forget La Camisa Negra. Not only has Juanes found success in terms of sells, selling over 15 million albums worldwide, he has been recognized by the Recording Academy winning 20 Latin Grammy Awards, including 3 Album of the Year wins, and 2 Grammy Awards, both for Best Pop Latin Album. For the 2018 Grammys he has been nominated once again under the Best Pop Latin Album category for his visual album, Mis Planes Son Amarte.
Photo Courtesy of the Latin Grammy Awards
With Mis Planes Son Amarte , Juanes’s first album released in the last 3 years, he had something to prove. Not only did it include his first song in English (Good Bye For Now), collaborations with fellow Colombian singers Kali Uchis (El Ratico) and Fonseca (Alguna Vez), but the audio album was accompanied with videos for each song making it the first visual album by a Latinx artist. The videos for Mis Planes Son Amarte tell a love story between an archaeologist/ astronaut and a native woman across time and space, it’s basically Interstellar meets Latin America.
Photo courtesy of the LA Times
Listening to the album makes it obvious that Juanes was able to combine his previous guasca-inspired sound with the now popular reggaeton sound, on top of adding modern pop/rock production. Lyrically the album’s theme is love, not only in terms of a relationship, and heartache, but as well as giving love out to the world, which with the current political atmosphere is a great message to spread.
In my opinion, the album was Juanes best work to date, it was a monumental moment in Latin music. I grew up listening to Juanes, and even though I always jammed to his music, it wasn’t until this album that I was able to fully appreciate him as an artist.
Tune in to the 60th Grammy Awards on January 28 to find out if Juanes adds another Grammy to his name.
The music videos to Mis Planes Son Amarte can be found on his official YouTube channel, Tidal and on Apple Music. The audio album is available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal.
