Meet the 2026 Latin Grammy Best New Artist Nominees: Aria Vega, Macario Martínez, Delilah & More

Best New Artist is one of the Latin Grammys’ four General Field categories, placing a newcomer conversation alongside Record, Album and Song of the Year. It is also the category that asks voters to make a bet: not about who had a breakthrough year, but whose voice, point of view or musical world feels like the beginning of something.

The award has a history of recognizing artists before they became fixtures. Juanes won in 2001, Calle 13 took the honor in 2006 before becoming one of the most audacious and decorated acts in Latin music, and Karol G won in 2018, years before her global stadium era. Those names are not a forecast for any one nominee, of course, but they underline the category’s particular thrill: sometimes the “new” artist is the next artist who changes the conversation.

For 2026, the Latin Recording Academy has assembled 11 nominees across a striking range of geographies and approaches: Mexican indie folk, coastal Colombian rhythms, Brazilian R&B, dream-pop, singer-songwriter confessionals and more. The spread is part of the story. Macario Martínez’s roots-minded songs and viral rise sit in a very different lane from maye’s hazy, finely layered pop. Arath Herce’s songwriter craft shares the ballot with ARIA VEGA’s Caribbean-facing pop, while three Brazilian nominees bring distinct perspectives from one of Latin America’s most influential music cultures. Two of those artists, Loulu Gilberto and Zeca Veloso, are also the children of bossa nova and tropicalia icons João Gilberto and Caetano Veloso, respectively — a notable family footnote, but not a substitute for hearing what they make on their own.

Here’s a closer introduction to all 11 nominees — what they sound like, the moments that brought them here, and where Billboard readers may already have encountered them — in alphabetical order.

• Arath Herce

  Veracruz-born singer-songwriter Arath Herce’s 2025 album Musas en Mi is the clearest doorway into his patient, writer-first approach. NPR describes his direction as alt-rock, while the album gives his lyrics room to breathe within the Latin singer-songwriter tradition. The Academy recognized it beyond best new artist, nominating Herce for best singer-songwriter album and its title track for best singer-songwriter song, as well as “Me Levanté de la Cama” for best pop/rock song. That spread makes this feel less like a blank-slate introduction than recognition of a developing craft. Start with the album, then follow the songwriting: the nominations make a case for both the intimate scale and growing reach of his work.

• ARIA VEGA

  Barranquilla-born ARIA VEGA puts Colombia’s Caribbean coast in the foreground: its rhythms, imagery and attitude are part of the engine, not decoration. In July, Billboard named her Latin Up-And-Comer Artist of the Month; since then, VEGA scored her first Billboard chart-topper on Latin Airplay with “Chévere,” her collaboration with fellow Colombian star Ryan Castro. It also topped Latin Rhythm Airplay and reached No. 21 on Hot Latin Songs. The radio breakthrough came as VEGA prepared to open for Shakira at the singer’s Macondo Park residency — a fitting stage for an artist carrying coastal sounds into a larger pop conversation. She was also featured in The Women’s Panel: Global Rising for this year’s Billboard Latin Music Week alongside LALI, Greeicy and more.

• Delilah

  Billboard first spotted Delilah Cabrera at Sueños in 2024, when weather disruptions left the then-16-year-old Mexican-American singer with just a 10-minute set. Even in that short window, prickly corridos tumbados guitar lines and her delicate, cutting vocal made an impression. Editors picked “Modelo” as a starting point. Since then, Delilah has signed to Interscope, releasing songs including “Si Dios Lo Quería.” Her nomination feels like a second look at an artist still shaping her sound in public — and a reminder that a festival set can be a first glimpse, not a full introduction. Her early career also connects the online discovery pipeline to the lived, local scene where regional Mexican music finds its audience.

• Dora Sanches

  Brazilian singer Dora Sanches brings an R&B sensibility to a nominee class moving through folk, pop and rock as she adds a contemporary groove and vocal approach to a ballot that resists one definition of “Latin” or “new.” Her nomination also puts a Brazilian artist in a conversation often dominated in U.S. coverage by Spanish-language releases, widening the listening map. Recent single “Passarinho” offers a snapshot of her direction; the nomination is an invitation to explore further. In an 11-artist field, some of the best discoveries may come from following sounds that take you somewhere unexpected. 

• FABIAN

  Fabian Zignago is the son of Peruvian singer-songwriter Gian Marco and the brother of singer-songwriter Nic (Nicole Zignago), who also received this coveted nomination in 2022. But Billboard’s August 2026 On the Radar Latin profile focused on the 23-year-old’s own emerging catalog. The Peruvian-American artist’s soft, expressive delivery comes through on “Golpe” and “Pared,” as well as “Líneas Paralelas,” a collaboration with ROBI. He grew up around instruments and recording studios; now he is building his own stage résumé, from New York’s SOB’s for the LAMC’s BMI Acoustic Lounge to a Miami performance debut. His best new artist nomination is a good reason to listen past the famous surname and hear a songwriter finding his own lane. The family connection is context, not the hook; the songs are where his own sensibility comes into focus.

• Kendall Peña

  Costa Rican singer-songwriter Kendall Peña makes pop that feels intimate and internet-native without losing its sense of place. His May album hotel506 offers an entry point — the title nods to Costa Rica’s country code, making home part of the framing. The nomination is a notable moment for the country’s contemporary pop scene, whose international visibility has often been associated with established names such as Debi Nova. But Peña’s own songs — personal, melodic and built for close listening as much as discovery playlists — are the real introduction. The best new artist field can turn attention toward scenes that do not always get the global spotlight, and Peña’s nomination places Costa Rica firmly in this year’s wide-ranging class.

• Loulu Gilberto

  Loulu Gilberto is the youngest daughter of João Gilberto, the Brazilian guitarist and singer whose intimate style helped define bossa nova. But her 2026 nominations center on work of her own: her self-titled debut arrived in May, and the tender “O Amor Nos Encontrou” earned nods for both record of the year and best new artist. That double recognition puts her voice and a specific recording at the heart of the conversation. The album is the place to hear how she approaches Brazilian song traditions from a new generation’s point of view — with the inheritance present, but not doing all the talking. That balance makes her nomination especially intriguing: listeners arrive with expectations, then meet an artist whose own recordings get the final word.

• Macario Martínez

  Before Macario Martínez became a Latin Grammy nominee, a short video helped “Sueña Lindo, Corazón” go viral. The Mexico City folk singer had been working as a street sweeper when listeners connected with a song that felt intimate, not engineered for a trend. Billboard followed his chart debut: “Esa Noche,” his collaboration with Eslabón Armado, entered Hot Latin Songs at No. 50 in March 2025. Martínez later released Si Mañana Ya No Estoy, an album whose title fits the urgency and tenderness in his writing. The appeal is more than an improbable career turn: his acoustic, roots-minded songs feel direct without feeling small.

• maye

  Venezuelan singer-songwriter maye makes intimate, softly atmospheric pop full of small melodic details. Billboard described her 2025 debut Música Para Abrir El Cielo as an “organic fusion of dream pop with nuances of bossa nova, bolero, and Latin influences, articulated with a contemporary Gen Z sensibility.” The title translates as “Music to Open the Sky,” and the record’s gentle expansiveness is part of its appeal: maye doesn’t need to shout to make an emotional point. Her best new artist nomination gives that debut a wider frame; the music is soft, but never slight. It rewards the sort of record that reveals more of its personality on repeat listens than in a quick, high-volume first impression.

• Sofia Monroy

  Sofia Monroy writes from the in-between. Born in Mexico and raised in Sweden, she makes the tension of carrying two identities the heart of “Alma Dividida” — a song about belonging to more than one place and being told to choose. Billboard selected it for Best New Music Latin in September 2025, noting how “enveloping percussion and strings” support candid, un-grandiose lyrics. The result is Latin pop with a personal center: the chorus names an experience shared by many immigrants and children of migration. Her nomination brings that story into a category built around first impressions.

• Zeca Veloso

  Zeca Veloso is the son of Caetano Veloso, one of Brazil’s defining singer-songwriters and tropicalia trailblazer. His own musical introduction includes “Todo Homem,” an introspective song, and work with his father and brothers. The family connection will draw listeners in, but Best New Artist is a chance to focus on what Zeca is building in his own right. Both he and fellow nominee Loulu Gilberto are children of pioneering Brazilian musicians, but their nominations invites listeners to consider how a new generation interprets a deep musical inheritance as material to reshape and carry forward. For Veloso, the question is not whether he comes from a storied lineage, but what he chooses to do with it next.