A Spanish Affair: 2023 Latin Grammy Awards head to Spain, first time out of the U.S.

The 2023 Latin Grammy Awards will be held in Spain’s southern Andalusía this November, leaving the U.S. for its first time, the head of its organization said this week.

Latin Recording Academy CEO Manuel Abud, and Juan Manuel Moreno, the regional president for Spain’s Andalusía area made the stunning announcement in Sevilla, known to many as the heart of the country’s oldest historical monuments and cathedrals.

“That the Latin Grammys will leave the United States for the first time is reason for special celebration, and what better place to hold them than Andalusía,” Abud said.

Andalusía regional president Juan Manuel Moreno did not target a specific date in November and did not reveal which Andalusían city would host the event.  

Moreno said the organizers would make those decision in due time.

Andalusía is home to popular tourist destinations such as Córdoba, Granada, Sevilla, and the coastal city of Málaga that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to Morocco.

The Latin Grammys were first held in Los Angeles, California in 2000. They were held in Las Vegas last year, where Spanish musician Rosalía won the award for best album for “Motomami.”

The Andalusían region was featured prominently in the world famous Spanish romance comedy film series, “A Spanish Affair” known in Spanish as Ocho apellidos vascos (2014) and Ocho apellidos catalanes (2015).

Those films highlighted the cultural differences between southern Spain in Andalusía and regions in northern Spain such as Basque Country and Catalonia.

The films illustrated the differences between the conservative, romantic south and the more progressive north in the relationships between a man, Dani Rovira from Andalusía and a woman, Clara Lago, from Basque Country.

The Latin Recording Academy has its headquarters in Miami Florida and its Awards Department in Santa Monica, California.