![\"Macario](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Macario-Martinez-Credit-daviddbarajas-billboard-1800.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFrom a Mexican folk singer who found an audience on TikTok to Brazilian songwriters carrying family legacies in entirely their own directions, here are this year’s 11 nominees.<\/p>\n
\t11\/9\/2026\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tMacario Mart\u00ednez<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t@daviddbarajas<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n \t\tEspa\u00f1ol\t<\/p>\n \t<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tBest New Artist is one of the Latin Grammys\u2019 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. <\/p>\n \n\tThe award has a history of recognizing artists before they became fixtures. Juanes<\/a> won in 2001, Calle 13<\/a> took the honor in 2006 before becoming one of the most audacious and decorated acts in Latin music, and Karol G <\/a>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\u2019s particular thrill: sometimes the \u201cnew\u201d artist is the next artist who changes the conversation.<\/p>\n \n\tFor 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 Mart\u00ednez\u2019s roots-minded songs and viral rise sit in a very different lane from maye\u2019s hazy, finely layered pop. Arath Herce\u2019s songwriter craft shares the ballot with ARIA VEGA\u2019s Caribbean-facing pop, while three Brazilian nominees bring distinct perspectives from one of Latin America\u2019s most influential music cultures. Two of those artists, Loulu Gilberto and Zeca Veloso, are also the children of bossa nova and tropicalia icons Jo\u00e3o Gilberto and Caetano Veloso, respectively \u2014 a notable family footnote, but not a substitute for hearing what they make on their own.<\/p>\n \n\tHere\u2019s a closer introduction to all 11 nominees \u2014 what they sound like, the moments that brought them here, and where Billboard readers may already have encountered them \u2014\u00a0in alphabetical order.<\/p>\n \tArath Herce<\/p>\n \n\tVeracruz-born singer-songwriter Arath Herce\u2019s 2025 album Musas en Mi is the clearest doorway into his patient, writer-first approach. NPR describes<\/a> his direction as alt-rock, while the album gives his lyrics room to breathe within the Latin singer-songwriter tradition. The Academy recognized it beyond best new artist<\/a>, nominating Herce for best singer-songwriter album and its title track for best singer-songwriter song, as well as \u201cMe Levant\u00e9 de la Cama\u201d for best pop\/rock song. That spread makes this feel less like a blank-slate introduction than recognition of a developing craft. Start with the album, then follow the songwriting: the nominations make a case for both the intimate scale and growing reach of his work.<\/p>\n \tARIA VEGA<\/p>\n \n\tBarranquilla-born ARIA VEGA puts Colombia\u2019s Caribbean coast in the foreground: its rhythms, imagery and attitude are part of the engine, not decoration. In July, Billboard named her Latin Up-And-Comer Artist of the Month<\/a>; since then, VEGA scored her first Billboard chart-topper on Latin Airplay with \u201cCh\u00e9vere,\u201d her collaboration with fellow Colombian star Ryan Castro. It also topped Latin Rhythm Airplay and reached No. 21 on Hot Latin Songs. The radio breakthrough came as VEGA prepared to open for Shakira at the singer\u2019s Macondo Park residency \u2014 a fitting stage for an artist carrying coastal sounds into a larger pop conversation. She was also featured in The Women\u2019s Panel: Global Rising for this year\u2019s Billboard Latin Music Week alongside LALI, Greeicy and more.<\/p>\n \tDelilah<\/p>\n \n\tBillboard first spotted Delilah Cabrera at Sue\u00f1os in 2024<\/a>, when weather disruptions left the then-16-year-old Mexican-American singer with just a 10-minute set. Even in that short window, prickly corridos tumbados guitar lines and her delicate, cutting vocal made an impression. Editors picked \u201cModelo\u201d as a starting point. Since then, Delilah has signed to Interscope, releasing songs including \u201cSi Dios Lo Quer\u00eda.\u201d Her nomination feels like a second look at an artist still shaping her sound in public \u2014 and a reminder that a festival set can be a first glimpse, not a full introduction. Her early career also connects the online discovery pipeline to the lived, local scene where regional Mexican music finds its audience.<\/p>\n \tDora Sanches<\/p>\n \n\tBrazilian singer Dora Sanches brings an R&B sensibility to a nominee class moving through folk, pop and rock as she adds a contemporary groove and vocal approach to a ballot that resists one definition of \u201cLatin\u201d or \u201cnew.\u201d Her nomination also puts a Brazilian artist in a conversation often dominated in U.S. coverage by Spanish-language releases, widening the listening map. Recent single \u201cPassarinho\u201d offers a snapshot of her direction; the nomination is an invitation to explore further. In an 11-artist field, some of the best discoveries may come from following sounds that take you somewhere unexpected.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tFABIAN<\/p>\n \n\tFabian Zignago is the son of Peruvian singer-songwriter Gian Marco and the brother of singer-songwriter Nic (Nicole Zignago), who also received this coveted nomination in 2022. But Billboard\u2019s August 2026 On the Radar Latin <\/a>profile focused on the 23-year-old\u2019s own emerging catalog. The Peruvian-American artist\u2019s soft, expressive delivery comes through on \u201cGolpe\u201d and \u201cPared,\u201d as well as \u201cL\u00edneas Paralelas,\u201d a collaboration with ROBI. He grew up around instruments and recording studios; now he is building his own stage r\u00e9sum\u00e9, from New York\u2019s SOB\u2019s for the LAMC\u2019s BMI Acoustic Lounge to a Miami performance debut. His best new artist nomination is a good reason to listen past the famous surname and hear a songwriter finding his own lane. The family connection is context, not the hook; the songs are where his own sensibility comes into focus.<\/p>\n \tKendall Pe\u00f1a<\/p>\n \n\tCosta Rican singer-songwriter Kendall Pe\u00f1a makes pop that feels intimate and internet-native without losing its sense of place. His May album hotel506 offers an entry point \u2014 the title nods to Costa Rica\u2019s country code, making home part of the framing. The nomination is a notable moment for the country\u2019s contemporary pop scene, whose international visibility has often been associated with established names such as Debi Nova. But Pe\u00f1a\u2019s own songs \u2014 personal, melodic and built for close listening as much as discovery playlists \u2014 are the real introduction. The best new artist field can turn attention toward scenes that do not always get the global spotlight, and Pe\u00f1a\u2019s nomination places Costa Rica firmly in this year\u2019s wide-ranging class.<\/p>\n \tLoulu Gilberto<\/p>\n \n\tLoulu Gilberto is the youngest daughter of Jo\u00e3o Gilberto, the Brazilian guitarist and singer whose intimate style helped define bossa nova. But her 2026 nominations center on work of her own: her self-titled debut arrived in May, and the tender \u201cO Amor Nos Encontrou\u201d earned nods for both record of the year and best new artist. That double recognition puts her voice and a specific recording at the heart of the conversation. The album is the place to hear how she approaches Brazilian song traditions from a new generation\u2019s point of view \u2014 with the inheritance present, but not doing all the talking. That balance makes her nomination especially intriguing: listeners arrive with expectations, then meet an artist whose own recordings get the final word.<\/p>\n \tMacario Mart\u00ednez<\/p>\n \n\tBefore Macario Mart\u00ednez became a Latin Grammy nominee, a short video helped \u201cSue\u00f1a Lindo, Coraz\u00f3n\u201d go viral. The Mexico City folk singer had been working as a street sweeper when listeners connected with a song that felt intimate, not engineered for a trend. Billboard followed his chart debut: \u201cEsa Noche,\u201d his collaboration with Eslab\u00f3n Armado, entered Hot Latin Songs<\/a> at No. 50 in March 2025. Mart\u00ednez later released Si Ma\u00f1ana Ya No Estoy, an album whose title fits the urgency and tenderness in his writing. The appeal is more than an improbable career turn: his acoustic, roots-minded songs feel direct without feeling small.<\/p>\n \tmaye<\/p>\n \n\tVenezuelan singer-songwriter maye makes intimate, softly atmospheric pop full of small melodic details. Billboard described her 2025 debut<\/a> M\u00fasica Para Abrir El Cielo as an\u00a0\u201corganic fusion of dream pop with nuances of bossa nova, bolero, and Latin influences, articulated with a contemporary Gen Z sensibility.\u201d The title translates as \u201cMusic to Open the Sky,\u201d and the record\u2019s gentle expansiveness is part of its appeal: maye doesn\u2019t need to shout to make an emotional point. Her best new artist nomination gives that debut a wider frame; the music is soft, but never slight. It rewards the sort of record that reveals more of its personality on repeat listens than in a quick, high-volume first impression.<\/p>\n \tSofia Monroy<\/p>\n \n\tSofia Monroy writes from the in-between. Born in Mexico and raised in Sweden, she makes the tension of carrying two identities the heart of \u201cAlma Dividida\u201d \u2014 a song about belonging to more than one place and being told to choose. Billboard selected it for Best New Music Latin in September 2025<\/a>, noting how \u201cenveloping percussion and strings\u201d support candid, un-grandiose lyrics. The result is Latin pop with a personal center: the chorus names an experience shared by many immigrants and children of migration. Her nomination brings that story into a category built around first impressions. <\/p>\n \tZeca Veloso<\/p>\n \n\tZeca Veloso is the son of Caetano Veloso, one of Brazil\u2019s defining singer-songwriters and tropicalia trailblazer. His own musical introduction includes \u201cTodo Homem,\u201d an introspective song, and work with his father and brothers. The family connection will draw listeners in, but Best New Artist is a chance to focus on what Zeca is building in his own right. Both he and fellow nominee Loulu Gilberto are children of pioneering Brazilian musicians, but their nominations invites listeners to consider how a new generation interprets a deep musical inheritance as material to reshape and carry forward. For Veloso, the question is not whether he comes from a storied lineage, but what he chooses to do with it next.<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n \t<\/a><\/p>\n Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tThe Daily\t\t<\/p>\n A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry<\/p>\n \t\tBy providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and our Privacy Policy<\/a>.
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