Evaluna Performs ‘If the World Was Ending’ With JP Saxe at Latin Women in Music 2023, Accepts Tradition & Future Award

The first-ever Billboard Latin Women in Music was full of emotions and striking performances by the honorees. Evaluna Montaner’s moment on stage was no exception.

The singer-songwriter took the stage to perform “If the World Was Ending” with JP Saxe, and it was if time had stopped. The stripped-down performance was powered by Saxe’s melancholic piano notes and Evaluna’s ethereal vocals. Following her collaboration with JP Saxe on stage, Evaluna accepted her Tradition and Future Award, which was given to her by fellow songwriter and good friend Nicole Zignago.

“It’s a real pleasure to be here tonight to celebrate the career of someone I admire for her achievements and the marvelous woman she is and someone I have the honor to call my friend, Evaluna Montaner,” Zignago said. “She started when she was very young but in 2020, she wrote and sang ‘Amén’ with her brothers, father and husband, Camilo, a mix of tradition and future. It’s inevitable to feel the light when Evaluna enters a room. She’s an enormous and unstoppable force. She’s shown me to find happiness in the smallest of things.”

“Thank you for including me,” Evaluna began her speech. “I feel very proud to come from the family I come from. I feel very proud to have started the family that I started. I give thanks to God for putting every person in my life who’s empowered me and accompanied me in becoming the woman I am today, who’ I’m also proud of. I wouldn’t be here today standing if it wasn’t for the mother that birthed me, she’s sitting over there. I dedicate this award to you, I love you.”

Watch part of her speech here.

The two-hour music special, hosted by Ivy Queen and Jacqueline Bracamontes, honored Latin women in music. A first of its kind for Latin music, Mujeres Latinas en la Música celebrates Latin female artists, executives and creatives who are proactively working for positive change, inclusion and gender parity in the music industry. 

Throughout the night, Shakira received the first-ever Woman of the Year award. Other honorees included Ana Gabriel (Living Legend Award); Emilia (Rising Star Award); Maria Becerra (Visionary Award); Evaluna (Tradition and Future Award); Goyo (Agent of Change Award), and Thalia (Global Powerhouse Award).

The inaugural Latin Women in Music event was announced earlier this year as an expansion of Billboard’s Women in Music franchise. Billboard and Telemundo aim to further elevate Latin music globally and celebrate the women who have made a concrete impact on Latin music through their artistic achievements, or through tangible, noteworthy actions that have brought measurable recognition and opportunity to women, affecting positive change to the industry as a whole.