The 18th Annual Latin Grammy Awards announced the nominations for this year’s categories on Tuesday, but missing from the list is the category for Best Tejano Album. The reason for no nominations? The Latin Recording Academy says “due to low submissions this category will not be given this year.”
The category had already been sent to the pre-show ceremony before the live television broadcast in recent years and now no category at all.
Tejano music legend Ruben Cubillos, a cultural and Tejano activist, creative director and former lead singer of the iconic group The Latin Breed gave his take on the subject below:
HOW DOES THE WELL RUN DRY?
The answer has been, is and continues to be the same — APATHY!
Dissolving the Latin Grammy category — 24. MEJOR ÁLBUM DE MÚSICA TEJANA is a tragedy even Jose Feliciano could see coming down the track! The lack of artistic vision, focused musicianship, and no GANAS are easily only 3 excuses (NOT REASONS) why the Latin GRAMMYs had no choice but to sideline this possible accolade. It must be earned!
Tejanos musicians/artists/acts have given up, surrendered, disconnected from the art of making music like no other genre. This exclusive group of people have done an outstanding job of erecting a high wall around a self pity island to isolate their lack of confidence. In the world of make believe, real artists figure out how to stay relevant/competitive/significant to their loyal fan base—not ignore them.
Visionaries believe future musicians/artists/acts will locate the blue print, generated by a Tejano THINK TANK, which reveals the path to a cure for Tejano music apathy. How I wish it were that easy. There is always HOPE!
Time to generate a TEJANO MUSIC THINK TANK of visionaries before being called home!
Let us know your thoughts on this matter. Leave a comment in the section below.
Tejano Nation 
Wow! That so wonderfully worded and so very true. Being a Tejano musician since early 90’s myself, and still in contact with a few Tejano legends, I have noticed that quite a few of the newer and younger acts are focused on gimmicks and trends and not so much on the music itself.
In this day and era of social media and self promotion, I do understand the need to stay with the times. But if time has taught us anything, it’s that real Tejano fans stay true to their roots.
Same goes for country music. Many of those bands have also “sold-out” and no longer even sound like country. It’s pop music with a “twangy” vocal.
I will not call out any of these acts, but I’ve seen quite a few at Fan Fair that sound like they spent no time rehearsing. Some vocalist who have no business with a microphone. And musicians that are more concerned with their dance moves and outfits.
In the end, all that’s fine. But musicianship should always come first. The bands with awesome arrangements, great lead and backing vocals, great crowd interaction, and a good sound technician are the ones that I remember and still think about a year later after the show.
The ones that kept hitting sour notes, playing off key, but had shiny outfits and fancy dance moves…I forgot about them by the following morning.
Work hard…challenge yourself. Rehearse your butts off. If you truly love your heritage and this genre, prove it.
Make beautiful music that will still be remembered 10, 20, or 30 years from now.
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what’s with the bogus commentary here? when i produced perhaps the best tejano album since selena’s “amor prohibido” called “anoche sone” by liza ybarra we were roadblocked by everyone in the industry. producers, clubs, and EVEN the distributor- chano. of course the most important peeps were the terrestrial radio stations that laughed us out the door. i took the album to kxtn seven different times via seven different methods- y nada. when trying to copyright and publish the music, no help from nadie. the s.a. bmi rep at the time was some incompetent stooge who told us to “just figure it out”, so i ended up calling the l.a. office and they treated me like gold walking me through the steps. a studio musician friend (not in the tejano genre) showed me how to copyright. when it came to entering the ttma categories- once again puro b.s. we ended up losing the new female artist contest to someone who didnt meet ttma’s own rules of eligibility. the winner was a mazz 2nd vocalist who had no material of her own. i was actually able to enter the album in the REAL grammy category at the time, but when it came to enter the much easier to win latin grammys- the texas rep (a very prominent tejano musican) for those grammys refused to tell me how to enter. so i couldnt figure it out and we didnt. SO WHEN YOU HAVE A DOG-EAT-DOG MENTALITY among the so-called leaders of your industry. peeps looking out for THEIR good ole boyz, guess what? the industry ate itself. IN CASE U GUYZ HAVE TROUBLE COMPREHENDING- THE LATIN CATEGORY WAS DROPPED BECAUSE NOT ENOUGH ARTISTS ENTERED. N-O-T because there is a lack of recordings, or that the artists are of low caliber, or inexperienced. as if norteno, banda, or reggaeton music is of better muscianship? it is astonishing and embarrassing what the “industry” has become. p.s. how many of you own liza’s self-composed masterwork? none? exactly- you have proven my point…lil bro
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