Christina Aguilera
David BlackMaking her return to the Latin Grammy stage after more than two decades, Christina Aguilera’s 2021 performance was a little lace, a little leather and a lot of girl power.
Draped in a black gown with brick-red hair falling down her back, Xtina’s iconic raspy vocals took center stage, as she performed “Somos Nada” alongside Julio Reyes Copello, playing a lone grand piano.
After an outfit switch into a lacy black bodysuit, she entered a dark, sensual club scene alongside a handful of dancers in flashy outfits for her energized new single “Pa Mis Muchachas.” She was joined by Becky G, Nicki Nicole and Nathy Peluso, the latter wearing a leather leotard and fishnet tights. All four women delivered a noteworthy performance, making their mark during the star-studded evening.
Reminiscent of her other girl-power anthem “Lady Marmalade,” the song’s climax came when Aguilera darted from note to note, delivering her unparalleled runs and vocal inflections.
“Pa Mis Muchachas” contributor Peluso was nominated for four Latin Grammys and took home best alternative music album for Calambre early in the night.
Hosted by Ana Brenda Contreras, Carlos Rivera, and Roselyn Sánchez, the 22nd annual Latin Grammys Awards includes a star-studded lineup of both performers and presenters such as C. Tangana, Maná, Los Dos Carnales, Ozuna, Gloria Trevi, and Myke Towers, among others, taking the stage.
With the theme “rediscovering life through music,” the three-hour show will “invite audiences to rediscover what’s important in life using music as a storyline,” according to a statement from the Latin Recording Academy.
Colombian singer-songwriter Camilo leads the 2021 Latin Grammys nominees with 10 nods, including nominations in the album, record, and song of the year categories. He’s followed by tropical music icon Juan Luis Guerra with six, Spanish rapper Tangana with five nominations, and multiple artists, including Bad Bunny, with four.
NEWS
No matter what you thought of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, there was only one undisputed winner by the end of it all: the reaction community in the worlds of streaming and YouTube. Your favorite content creators broke down the bars, reacted to all the most shocking moments, and helped this showdown become one of hip-hop's most culturally significant and resonant moments in a long time... For better or worse. See, the battle's technically not over yet, but only because the 6ix God's idea of victory is clearly quite different. In his federal defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group – his label – for releasing K.Dot's "Not Like Us," he named various content creators who allegedly helped boost the track's widespread popularity and, as a result, its supposedly defamatory nature.
Furthermore, the specific allegation that Drake brings up in this highly controversial lawsuit is that UMG "whitelisted" copyright claims for YouTubers, streamers, etc. concerning "Not Like Us." This means that they would be able to monetize their content without facing a copyright claim from UMG over "Not Like Us," and this isn't really an allegation because various creators have backed this up. But a few important (alleged) caveats that people are talking about online need to be clear. First, "whitelisting" supposedly happens on behalf of a record label behind a song like the West Coast banger, and UMG is instead the distributor of that track. Secondly, as rapper and online personality ScruFaceJean brings up as seen in the post below, tracks like "Push Ups" were also "whitelisted" by its team.
Along with Jean, many other of your favorite content creators spoke out against this Drake lawsuit. Zias! and B.Lou, for example, spoke with their lawyer about the possibility of countersuing for emotional distress, as they found the Toronto superstar's accusations and his implication of them very disturbing and misguided. NoLifeShaq also dragged The Boy through the mud, calling him "soft" and positing that, whether "whitelisting" happened or not, they would react to "Not Like Us" accordingly as they did to his own tracks.
In addition, it's important to bring up that many others fans have pointed to how Drake excitedly used streamers to generate hype and reaction clips for his own diss tracks against Kendrick Lamar. The most direct example is with Kai Cenat, whom he texted to "stay on stream" before dropping "Family Matters." Ironically, the Twitch giant appears in this clowned-upon defamation lawsuit as an example of what the OVO mogul's accusations and implications are. And one more thing: there is no direct link between monetization and algorithmic boosting on sites like YouTube. With all this in mind, content creators seem to feel almost insulted at the idea that they only reacted to the two biggest rappers in the world beefing with each other because one of them would allow them to make money. If Drizzy knew the first thing about the reaction community, maybe he wouldn't have included this...
