Pancho Céspedes receives the Latin Recording Academy's Excellence Award in Las Vegas

Foto: Wikimedia Commons / Fotopex (CC BY-SA 3.0)

November 11, 2026

Cuban-Mexican singer-songwriter Francisco "Pancho" Céspedes received the Latin Recording Academy's Musical Excellence Award on Monday, November 9, 2026, at a ceremony held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, according to Billboard Español. The Academy also honored Alaska, Lila Downs, Daniela Mercury and Chichí Peralta with the award, while Omar Alfanno received the Board of Directors Award.

"If you ever had a romantic or intimate moment listening to my songs, that was my goal," Céspedes said in his speech, according to Billboard. Excelsior reported that he recalled arriving in Mexico and the opportunity that led Luis Miguel to record his song "Pensar en ti" for the album Aries, and that he closed with the words "Long live freedom!"

A native of Santa Clara, Céspedes released his first solo album, Vida loca, in 1997. The special awards ceremony precedes the main Latin Grammy gala, set for Thursday, November 12, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and airing on Univision. Eight Cuban artists are among this year's nominees.

Fuente: Billboard Español; Excelsior; Latin Recording Academy

Francisco Fabián Céspedes Rodríguez

Singer, Musician, Composer

Pancho Céspedes knew from a very young age that he had to abandon his medical career to focus on what really made his blood flow: music. The rhythm and all the romanticism he carried within had to flow somehow, and what better way to show his experiences than through his songs. For this reason, for several years, he was part of some Cuban groups such as Pucho López's group (with which he visited Spain for the first time in the early 1990s) and the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, a group with which he sang songs both of his own authorship and "feeling" — a music movement that emerged in Cuba, which is a mixture of bolero with jazz and with which they performed throughout his country — to finally arrive in Mexico, where he decides to settle and begin a career in music.