Best New Artist is one of the Latin Grammys’ four General Field categories, placing a newcomer conversation alongside Record, Album and Song of the Year. It is also the category that asks voters to make a bet: not about who had a breakthrough year, but whose voice, point of view or musical world feels like the beginning of something.
The award has a history of recognizing artists before they became fixtures. Juanes won in 2001, Calle 13 took the honor in 2006 before becoming one of the most audacious and decorated acts in Latin music, and Karol G won in 2018, years before her global stadium era. Those names are not a forecast for any one nominee, of course, but they underline the category’s particular thrill: sometimes the “new” artist is the next artist who changes the conversation.
For 2026, the Latin Recording Academy has assembled 11 nominees across a striking range of geographies and approaches: Mexican indie folk, coastal Colombian rhythms, Brazilian R&B, dream-pop, singer-songwriter confessionals and more. The spread is part of the story. Macario Martínez’s roots-minded songs and viral rise sit in a very different lane from maye’s hazy, finely layered pop. Arath Herce’s songwriter craft shares the ballot with ARIA VEGA’s Caribbean-facing pop, while three Brazilian nominees bring distinct perspectives from one of Latin America’s most influential music cultures. Two of those artists, Loulu Gilberto and Zeca Veloso, are also the children of bossa nova and tropicalia icons João Gilberto and Caetano Veloso, respectively — a notable family footnote, but not a substitute for hearing what they make on their own.
Here’s a closer introduction to all 11 nominees — what they sound like, the moments that brought them here, and where Billboard readers may already have encountered them — in alphabetical order.
