Behind the Scenes of ‘1800 Seconds’ with the 23rd Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards® Best New Artist Nominees

1800 Tequila has returned with another edition of its signature content series, 1800 Seconds, showcasing emerging artists and celebrating their unique taste within music and the broader culture. This year, 1800 Tequila is partnering with the Latin Recording Academy to highlight the nominees in the 23rd Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards Best New Artist category. The featured artists include Pol Granch, Ángela Álvarez, Sofia Campos, Nicole Zignago, Silvana Estrada, Vale, Nabález, Clarissa, and Cande y Paulo.

This year’s revamped 1800 Seconds program is a three-part video series that brings music fans and aspiring artists a behind-the-scenes look inside the process of preparing for and attending the Latin GRAMMY Awards as a nominee for Best New Artist. Through interviews with the nominees, the video series describes their origins and demonstrates the significance of their Best New Artist nominations to their careers as artists. Each video, documenting the excitement of every step of their Latin GRAMMY nominations, exemplifies the diversity of backgrounds, of each nominee, and the unique musical tastes they bring to the Best New Artist category.

Billboard asked Proximo Spirits Senior Vice President of Marketing Lander Otegui why 1800 Tequila was invested in the Best New Artist category. “Our purpose for creating 1800 Seconds is to elevate emerging artists, so the Best New Artists category immediately drew our attention,” he said. “As the most awarded tequila, 1800 Tequila puts a heavy emphasis on taste above all else – not just in tequila, but in music and beyond. Giving these new artists a platform like 1800 Seconds allows 1800 Tequila to apply their unparalleled taste to amplifying the future of Latin music.”

Throughout the 23-year history of the Latin GRAMMYs, the Best New Artist nominees have made great contributions to the advancement of their craft, and the expansion of the category speaks to Latin music’s surge of popularity around the world. Since the category’s inception, we’ve seen the award for Best New Artist experience tremendous growth in popularity, while serving as a launch pad to stardom for not only the winner but also every other artist nominated. While each artist wants to win the prestigious title and bring home the hardware, we’ve seen artists like ROSALÍA, Sebastián Yatra, and Rauw Alejandro still become global superstars without winning the award. This year’s group of nominees has been the most diverse to date, encompassing a wide range of genres and ages.

The Latin Recording Academy’s Senior Director of Partnerships & Client Solutions, Gerry Rojas, worked on the 1800 Seconds series as executive producer. When asked how the Best New Artist category has evolved over the years, Rojas told Billboard, “When you look at some of the biggest names driving notoriety in Latin music, many of them were Latin GRAMMY Best New Artist nominees and their trajectory is so inspiring and humbling to see how they support future Best New Artists.”

In the days leading up to the award show, Billboard spoke with a few of this year’s Best New Artist nominees; Sofía Campos and Nicole Zignago, as well as both winners, Silvana Estrada and Ángela Álvarez.

When Billboard asked Estrada her reaction to being nominated for Best New Artist, she said, “I really didn’t expect it. There are people who expect it, in fact, they plan their entire year and don’t book shows in November because of the Latin GRAMMY. I had no idea, so this was overwhelming.”

After releasing her first project in 2017, Lo Sagrado, Estrada took almost five years off from releasing new music and focused on perfecting her sound. Billboard asked Estrada to share some advice for the next generation of aspiring artists. “For someone who is just starting out, you have to focus on the music first,” she said. “It is very easy to get distracted. But if you have a good song, if you put a lot of effort and hard work into getting a solid project, if you have a song that moves you or a beat that makes you dance, you do it for the quality of the music, and everything else will follow.”

1800 Tequila places a strong emphasis on the importance of their distillation process, similar to an emerging artist working on their debut project. Greatness takes time, and the nominees for Best New Artist have been working tirelessly for this dream for years. 1800 Seconds builds on its mission of elevating emerging musicians by sharing their artistic journeys and aspirations, telling their stories in greater depth and to a larger audience than ever before. Check out the 1800 Seconds series here, and keep an eye on this year’s Latin GRAMMY Best New Artist nominees.

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