Latin Grammy Controversy

The music has been written, arranged, recorded and produced. But once nominees for the second annual Latin Grammys are announced during a news conference at downtown Miami's American Airlines Arena, the truly creative part of the quest for the hefty little gramophone begins.

Between then and Sept. 11, when the envelopes are torn, record labels will go into overdrive -- some spending tens of thousands of dollars, some getting dangerously close to breaking the rules -- in a mad dash to land votes for their artists.

Still in its infancy, the Latin Grammys are already cast as the premiere awards show for Latin music. This year's will be televised live from American Airlines Arena on CBS.

`You can't manipulate the Grammys, but you can work them,'' said Jairo Martinez, director of promotions for Estefan Enterprises, who played it right on the edge when he staged a telephone campaign to promote Colombian rocker Shakira, whose MTV Unplugged was up for Best Latin Pop Album at February's U.S. Grammys.

`I didn't say, `Vote for Shakira.' That's against the rules. And it's in poor taste,'' said Martinez, who claimed that he made more than 1,000 phone calls. ``But I did say, `Did you know Shakira not only sang on the MTV Unplugged, but she wrote her own songs, she directed, she even did the lighting for the show?' I just wanted to remind people.''

Shakira won.

Given that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which puts on both Grammys, specifically forbids most forms of campaigning, including ``direct and indirect vote solicitation,'' getting the voters' attention takes some fancy -- and, some say, necessary -- scheming.

`ELECTORAL PROCESS'

`Grammy voting is like any kind of electoral process. It's sometimes based on name recognition and knee-jerk reaction,'' said Miami publicist Maria Romeu, who last year lobbied tirelessly on behalf of late jazzman Chico O'Farrill, whose Heart of a Legend was nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album. The award wound up being shared by Paquito D'Rivera and Michel Camilo & Tomatito.

`The genres are so broad and diverse, and the voting membership is so large, that many of the voters may not have heard of your artist, or heard their record,'' said Romeu, who printed 10,000 postcards reminding that O'Farrill was ``a true living legend.'' The postcards went to record labels, recording studios, instrument shops -- anyplace they were likely to catch the eye of voters.

There are 3,000 voting members in the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. They will pick winners in 38 categories from Best Rock Song and Best Ranchero Album to Best Tango Album and Best Music Video. But the Latin Academy does not make its roster of members public.

QUEST FOR VOTERS

That means that finding the voters, scattered throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe, is the first big challenge. Record labels usually direct their lobbying efforts to anybody who could at least potentially be a member. Membership categories include vocalists, producers, songwriters, composers, engineers, instrumentalists, arrangers, art directors, album notes writers, narrators and music video artists and technicians.

`I don't think I'll get any sleep until Sept. 11,'' said Mayna Nevarez, a publicist for BMG U.S. Latin, based in Coral Gables. ``We already started trying to make a list of everybody we can think of who might be a voter. We are going to work it like it's a record launch, send out press kits and CDs to everybody we can.''

But BMG, like the others, will have to be mindful of how it proceeds. The National Academy rule against vote solicitation includes mailings, phone calls or other approaches that include anything resembling a request for a vote, said Academy President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Greene.

However, labels can place congratulatory ads, usually seen in trade publications such as Billboard, and they are free to step up publicity campaigns that get their artists on television and in the print media around Grammy time.

`It's almost impossible to monitor what people do,'' Greene said. `But remember that Academy members are very circumspect about anybody lobbying. If somebody is trying to break the rules, it generally ends up backfiring.''

`NO COMPLAINTS'

As for Martinez's calls on behalf of Shakira, ``We have absolutely no complaints from anybody on anything to do with Shakira,'' Greene said.

Enrique Fernandez, a longtime voting member who was named executive director of the Latin Academy in May, said he has never been approached by anybody soliciting votes.

`I remember receiving something about Chico O'Farrill last year, but I didn't need reminding about who he was,'' Fernandez said. ``He and I were good friends.''

What's not clear is what, if any, action is taken by the Academy against those who break the rules outright.

`They would get a phone call or a letter to the chief executive officer reminding them of the policy,'' Greene said. ``They don't want to get crossways with us during the Grammy season because that's when we're looking at who is going to perform in the show.''

And performance spots in the show are almost as highly coveted as the awards themselves. Greene said that over the years, he has reprimanded some labels vying for U.S. Grammys, but he wouldn't say which.

Cuban jazzman Paquito D'Rivera, who has two U.S. Grammys and one Latin Grammy, said: ``I think the Grammys should go to the publicists.

``With awards like this, there are way too many people with great merit who have never won, and others who have simply been inflated by publicists, and that's why they win.''

He says he has never had anybody do any lobbying on his behalf.

Of course, there's more than the prestige of winning -- there's also money. Records that nab Grammys usually see sales go up -- which is why labels will invest big bucks at Grammy time.

That spending, though, doesn't approach the amount spent by movie studios at Oscar time. Millions can be spent lobbying for a film.

``You hire independent publicists,'' said Becky Fajardo, director of press and television for WEA Latina, based near Miami International Airport. ``You do everything you can to can to get all the press you can.''

Hiring an outside publicist usually costs about $5,000 a month, Fajardo said.

BMG's Nevarez says her label has secured an independent publicist to work with the Colombian rock group Aterciopelados. If the group gets a nomination Tuesday, Diana Baron of Los Angeles already has a plan.

``I don't want to give up my secrets,'' Baron said. ``But we go to marketplaces where we feel there is a strong Grammy voter ship, places where there is an active music industry, like L.A., Austin, Miami, Chicago, and pitch the media in those markets the worthiness of writing about the act again.''

THERE'S A WAY

D'Rivera has gotten close enough to the process to be soured.

``Those who can afford the right publicity can win,'' he said. ``Everybody knows that. . . . One year, I sent my votes for an award show [he would not say whether it was the Grammys and then felt bad, because I voted for people whose records I hadn't even heard. They were my friends. Or they were going to vote for me if I voted for them. Everybody does that. But I felt embarrassed and decided not to participate again.''

Coming Monday in Living & Arts: Cashing in on the Grammys: A win -- or even an appearance -- by an artist at the music awards show could pay off big.

Article by Lydia Martin

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