Shakira emerged as the top winner at the 20th edition of the Youth Awards held at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in Puerto Rico. The Colombian star took home eight awards, including Best Song for My Ex (TQG), Girl Power (TQG), and Best Urban Track (TQG). She was also recognized for her social work through her “Founding Deal” foundation, which has been helping underprivileged children and their families in Colombia since 1997. The foundation provides education, technology, language, dance, and nutrition support to low-income children, parents, and teachers, thereby generating work in the communities where its schools are located. Shakira expressed her gratitude to her foundation’s director, Patricia Sierra, and the team for working tirelessly to transform Colombia’s most vulnerable communities. The singer also highlighted the need to address real-world problems such as poverty, discrimination, and lack of opportunities for quality education. It is an imperfect world that needs to be constantly changing for the better, she added, to thunderous applause from the audience.
Camila Cabello, a singer from Cuba, and Emmanuel Estuardo Yoque, a young individual from South Central Los Angeles, were recently recognized for their social contributions with the Agent of Change award. This award is presented to Latino artists and youth who are making a positive impact on society.
Karol G and Peso Pen were the big winners of the night, each taking home five awards. While Karol G was present to receive her accolades, Peso Pen was unable to attend due to his ongoing concert tour. The Mexican singer, who has a huge following on digital platforms, was instead performing in Los Angeles at the YouTube Theater.
The prestigious Peso Pen was recently recognized and awarded in numerous categories such as the Artist Men’s Youth Awards, The New Mexican Regional Generation, Best Mexican Regional Song, Best Mexican Regional Collaboration, and Best Mexican Regional Album. Karol G, on the other hand, also received several accolades including two shared awards with fellow artist Shakira for Girl Power and Best Urban Track. Additionally, Karol G also received individual awards for My Favorite Artist De Streaming and Social Dance Challenge, as well as the Best Urban Urban Album for her production Tomorrow It’ll be Nice.
Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, Argentine rapper Bizarrap, and Spanish artist Rosalía each won four awards in recognition of their outstanding performances.
The most awaited tribute during the award ceremony was for the late Jenni Rivera. Her daughters, Chiquis Marin, Jenicka López, and Jacqie Campos wore all white as they gave a musical performance of “Piece of Me,” a song composed by Jenni when she was carrying her son Johnny. Fans held white roses as they supported the trio in front of a stage adorned with family photos of Jenni and Johnny’s band.
Notably absent from the event was Tekashi .6IX9INE, who was supposed to perform alongside Yailin La Más Viral. The artist did not attend the award ceremony due to security concerns raised on social media. After thorough analysis and coordination with local authorities, the production decided to exclude Tekashi .6IX9INE from the event, as stated in the official statement from Univision. The ceremony was hosted by Alejandra Espinoza and Ángela Aguilar from Mexico, Dayanara Torres from Puerto Rico and Marcus Ornellas, a Brazilian soap opera actor. This information was sourced from the Los Angeles Times.
