A Latin Grammy Award is an accolade by The Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. Unlike the regular Grammy Award which primarily honors music produced in the United States, the Latin Grammy honors works produced anywhere around the world that were recorded in either Spanish or Portuguese. However, both awards have similar nominating and voting processes, in which the selections are decided by peers within the music industry.

The first annual Latin Grammys ceremony was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on September 13, 2000. Broadcast by CBS, that first ceremony became the first primarily Spanish language primetime program carried on an English-language American television network.

The 13th Annual Latin Grammy Awards will be held on November 15, 2012 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

A Grammy Award (originally called Gramophone Award) – or Grammy – is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and some of the awards of more popular interest are presented in a widely viewed televised ceremony. It is the music equivalent to the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for stage performances, and the Academy Awards for motion pictures.

The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4, 1959, and it was set up to honor musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1958. Following the 2011 ceremony, NARAS overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. The 54th Grammy Awards were held on February 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

The Grammy Awards had their origin in the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s. As the recording executives chosen for the Walk of Fame (Tabinda Walk) committee worked at compiling a list of important recording industry people who might qualify for a Walk of Fame star, they realized there were many more people who were leaders in their business who would never earn a star on Hollywood Boulevard. The music executives decided to rectify this by creating an award given by their industry similar to the Oscars and the Emmys. This was the beginning of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. After it was decided to create such an award, there was still a question of what to call it; one working title was the Eddie, to honor the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison. They finally settled on using the name of Edison's invention, the gramophone, for the awards, which were first given for the year 1958.

Edward Bello Pou, better known by his stage name El Cata, is a Dominican rapper, songwriter, record producer, who emerged in the music scene in 1999, born and raised in Barahona, Dominican Republic.

Bello is the second son of Maria Luisa Pou. He has four sisters. At five, he emigrated to USA, where he stayed 20 years and then returned to the country. In New York, he worked at a furniture store in the department of Medicare and a bank. He studied music at the Bronx Community College. He attended Miami Beach Senior High School from 1993 to 1995. While at Miami Beach Senior High, Bello spent most of his time in class writing and composing songs. He would walk down the hallways of his high school singing the songs he would write during class. His sister, Elizabeth, also attended high school during those years.

He has recorded several promotional albums, since 1999 when he started his career but are not considered official albums from El Cata's discography and are no longer available. In 2009 he release his official debut studio album El Malo through Allegro/Planet Records, which includes the singles "Loca Con Su Tiguere", "Pa' la Esquinita" and "El Que Brilla Brilla". This year he also recorded a remix of "Loca Con Su Tiguere", featuring Voltio and Ñejo & Dalmata, also the remix of "Ella Quiere Coro Conmigo" featuring Yenz and shared credits on Pitbull's smash single "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" as co-writer of the song. As of 2010, he collaborated again on Pitbull's track "Watagatapitusberry" from Pitbull's album Armando. The song also featured Rapper record-producer Lil Jon, Sensato and Black Point.

Marco Antonio Muñiz (born September 16, 1968), known professionally by his stage name Marc Anthony, is an American singer-songwriter, actor and producer. Anthony is the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time. The two-time Grammy and three-time Latin Grammy–winner has sold more than 12 million albums worldwide. He is best known for his Latin salsa numbers and ballads.

Anthony has won numerous awards and his achievements have been honored through various recognitions. He was the recipient of the 2009 Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Chair's Award. He also received the "2009 CHCI Chair's Lifetime Achievement Award" on September 16, 2009. Anthony holds the record having the most number-one singles on the Billboard Tropical Songs.

Anthony is a minority owner/limited partner of the Miami Dolphins NFL team.

Marco Antonio Muñiz, known professionally by his stage name Marc Anthony, born in New York City to Guillerminna, a housewife, and Felipe Muñiz, a musician and hospital lunchroom worker. Anthony is of Puerto Rican descent, and his parents named him after Mexican singer Marco Antonio Muñiz. Anthony grew up in East Harlem as the youngest of 7 children. He was raised Roman Catholic.

Draco Cornelius Rosa Suárez (born June 27, 1970), also known as Robi Draco Rosa, Robby Rosa, Draco Rosa or simply Draco, is a Puerto Rican Grammy Award and Latin Grammy Award winning musician, dancer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and actor.

Born as Robert Edward Rosa Suárez on Long Island, New York and raised in Peñuelas, Puerto Rico and Ponce, Puerto Rico, he originally garnered fame as a member of boy band Menudo in the 1980s. In recent years, he has appeared on VH1's Behind the Music, I Love the '80s and Where Are They Now? in archived footage of early concerts and videos. He has released four concept albums, consisting of "Vagabundo", "Mad Love", "Vino" and "Amor Vincit Omnia". He studied on 9th grade on Colegio San Conrado and graduated from Academia Santa Maria, both in Ponce.

Rosa's early interest in music led him to audition for the Latin pop boy band, Menudo, where he replaced Johnny Lozada in 1984 and quickly became a fan favorite. He was the second band member to join the singing group who was not a native of Puerto Rico (Miguel Cancel was born in Illinois). He was also the first member who spoke English fluently, having been born in New York. With the group's cross-over to English, his timing in joining Menudo was perfect, as he was able to sing most of the English songs. The group's first English album Reaching Out, featured a single which was in the Hollywood film Cannonball Run 2, "Like A Cannonball." Rosa sang the single.