Bad Bunny and CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso each have two record of the year nominations at this year’s Latin Grammys, even though the artist billing is the same on both of their entries.Bad Bunny is nominated with both “Baile Inolvidable” and “DTmF”; CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso with both “El Día Del Amigo” and “#Tetas.”

The Grammys allow “up to two (2) nominations per artist provided at least one (1) is with a co-nominee(s).” Beyoncé had two record of the year nominations at the Grammys in 2021, one on her own and one as a featured artist with Megan Thee Stallion. Pharrell Williams had two record of the year nods in 2014, as a featured artist behind two different acts – Daft Punk and Robin Thicke.

The Latin Grammys interpret that rule far more liberally, considering all the other nominated participants on the record – producers(s), engineer(s), mixer(s), and mastering engineer(s) – as “co-nominees.” If a given record had other people serving in any of those capacities, those people would be considered co-nominees, allowing the artist to have two nominations. An artist could have two nominations, except in the very rare case where the artist was also the sole producer, engineer, mixer and mastering engineer on his/her own record.

This very broad definition is new this year. In every previous case at the Latin Grammys where an artist had multiple record of the year nominations in the same year, the other one (or ones) was a collaboration with another artist. The artists involved were Carlos Vives in 2014, Maluma in 2017, Juanes in both 2017 and 2019, J Balvin in 2020, and Ricardo Montanerin 2021.

Asked about this, a Latin Recording Academy spokesperson responded: “This selection was made by the Latin Academy voting members and is one that we support in this voting category.

“Category guidelines are deliberately written to help our two Academies, and their members, interpret, apply consistency, and find the possibility to evolve the Awards process year to year. Much like music itself, sometimes specific category guidelines aren’t black-and-white. While some rules, like eligibility dates for example, are very straightforward, others are less so. Our process is subject to not only interpretation, but also to open discussion—the discussions we have with the media companies and members submitting the recordings, the artists themselves, and our members who passionately drive the whole Awards process.”

The reason this matters is two-fold. These double nominations for Bad Bunny and CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso cost two other artists a record of the year nomination. And the double nominations may well hurt Bunny’s and CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso’s chances of winning record of the year, since their votes will be split between two records.

“This is not a new policy, is simply an interpretation of the existing rule for record of the year,” the spokesperson said.

Will the Latin Grammys revert to the former, stricter (and more sensible) interpretation next year? To be determined.