Mario Puglia was not certain of a Juno Award nomination.
That’s not just because the Toronto-based Venezuelan Canadian singer had never received a nomination before. And not because just a few years ago, the self-taught musician was an out-of-work former restaurant worker before one of his tracks went viral in Madrid.
It’s not even because Puglia had spent almost the entire year preceding the awards out of the country visiting family, with no clear plan of how or when he’d come back to Canada.
Outside of those reasons, Puglia was unsure because no one was sure: until 2026, no one had ever even been nominated for the award he’s now up for.
“It opens more doors; doors that I’m sure I’m [more] ready now to accept than I was before,” Puglia said about the importance of being nominated for the Junos’ inaugural Latin music recording of the year award.
“I don’t know if the word is hope, but like la garra; the will to to keep doing what you love.”
Global music charts are full of Latin artists achieving stardom, but Canadian musicians are still fighting for official recognition.
Four other musicians — Alex Cuba, Andy Rubal, Isabella Lovestory and Lido Pimienta — are nominated in the new category, which joins other recently additions including South Asian music recording of the year (introduced in 2025) and Indigenous, rap and dance music categories (2022).
While artists and fans of the genre say this recognition was a long time coming — one reflective of a worldwide fascination with a musical space exploding in popularity — that doesn’t mean it was easy.
“It all started about two to three years ago when we were like, ‘OK, you know what? It’s been 55 years of the Junos. We feel like we still need to be a part of it,'” explained Ricardo Taco, director of Latin music with Live Nation and the co-chair of the new category.
“It’s a very proud moment for all of us, and I’m just happy to be a part of it.”
Latin music’s rise
That process involved convincing the Junos of the genre’s popularity, both inside Canada and abroad.
For a start, there’s the stratospheric success of international artists like Bad Bunny — whose El Último Tour del Mundo became the first all-Spanish album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in 2020, and whose Debí Tirar Más Fotos became the first all-Spanish album to win album of the year at the Grammys in February.
Meanwhile, over the past decade, Latin music increased from eight to 25 per cent of Spotify’s global streams. According to RIAA, it generated $500 million US in revenue in the first half of 2025 — a six per cent increase from the same period a year earlier, a greater rate of growth than any other genre.
From 2018 to 2023, Latin music made up 20 per cent of submissions and 40 per cent of nominees at the Junos, according to Charlie Wall-Andrews, whose report, Understanding the Barriers and Opportunities of the Latin Music Community in Canada, was integral to the Junos’ recent move to add the new category.
Wall-Andrews, assistant professor of creative industries at Toronto Metropolitan University, argued the fact there was no Latin music category was a conspicuous oversight, considering there were categories for the relatively less popular genres of Christian, jazz, children’s and classical music.
She also argued Latin musicians’ ambiguous inclusion in the global music category, given their widespread popularity, removed opportunities for other world music artists. In the past 10 years, nearly half of the global music album winners made Latin music.
“When you look at south of the border, there’s a reason why there’s the Grammys and then the Latin Grammys,” Wall-Andrews told CBC News. “It’s so sensational. It’s so big that it has its own segmented awards show. And the consumption of Latin music internationally speaks for itself.”
More central to her research was the lack of attention given to independent Latin Canadian artists, who rely on awards recognition for such attention, and the parallel lack of funding targeting them.
This category, she said, could help change that.
“Being able to have the opportunity for Latin artists to have representation on such an important stage is an extraordinary experience,” she said. “And I think that it could also lead to celebrating Latin music more meaningfully, and I hope will help it have a trajectory on the international global stage.”
That’s something the production duo of Josh Polasz and Jorge Pineda hope for as well.
“I’m not even Latino and I’m in Latin music,” Polasz said, laughing. “So it shows you how big it is, right?”
From a first-time nominee last year to hosting the Junos, comedian Mae Martin chats with the CBC’s Griffin Jaeger on coming back to the Canadian stage and rising Canadian culture.
That pair have worked with many Canadian artists both inside and outside of Latin music. They said the new award creates a specific goal for Latin musicians in Canada, offering both a tangible target for success inside of the country and validation that they are part of a larger community.
“I’m surprised this hasn’t happened sooner. Especially being in Canada — it’s such a diverse place,” Polasz said. ” … It’s crazy that [Latin music] is only getting the spotlight now.”
While there is a slight fear of a silo-ing effect — where artists of specific genres are kept from the highest echelons and mainstream categories of awards shows — Pineda said that’s a worry for the future. As Latin music continues to grow, he said, there will only be more demand to create new categories reflecting its diversity, or we’ll simply see Latin artists being nominated in categories not specifically made for them.
Until that happens, he’s happy with the new category.
“There’s all these clichéd sayings, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day,’ and blah, blah, blah,” Pineda said. “But the way I see it is, we have the first piece of the foundation laid. Let’s start there.”
