Why we’re not surprised with the Latino winners at the 57th GRAMMY Awards

Four Latin acts, including Calle 13 and Ruben Blades had plenty to celebrate during one of the biggest nights in the world of music Sunday night at the 57th annual GRAMMY Awards.

It’s only befitting that man who has received countless accolades for bringing the name of Colombian folk genre vallenato into the forefront of pop music win an award for “Mas + Corazon Profundo.” Carlos Vives got the award for best Tropical Latin Album of the Year. He was the only one of the three winners who was actually present at the ceremony held in Los Angeles.

SEE ALSO: The many reasons to admire Carlos Vives

“We picked a long route, a path that didn’t exist, making our traditional folk music, a new kind of pop music,” Vives told the Associated Press backstage after receiving his award.

This win shouldn’t come as a big surprise for anyone who follows the world of music closely. In November the Recording Academy had already awarded Vives a Latin GRAMMY for the same album in the category of Best Contemporary Tropical Album back in November.

Another non-surprise: The category of Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative album was taken by the boys at Calle 13, yawn.

No, we’re not yawning at their brand of politically-charged protest hip-hop. We just figured, again this would be a no-brainer, considering their the act that has won the most Latin GRAMMYs in history. So when we saw their name in lights as part of the nominees, we figured this be a done deal as well.

Ruben Blades was another no-brainer after, once again, he created a much buzz at the Latin GRAMMY’s with his “Tangos” performance  — a departure from the genre we’re used to hearing from him. “Tangos” got Blades the Best Latin Pop Album award at Sunday’s ceremony.

SEE ALSO: An epic ‘quinces’ for the Latin GRAMMYS

Ok, so there was one surprise of the night among the Latin artists who won. It was Mexican legend Vicente Fernandez. He won with “Mano a mano ? Tangos a la manera de Vicente Fernández.” The septuagenarian crooner with the Best Regional Mexican Music Album, and even though he’s got multiple Latin GRAMMY and GRAMMY awards, he hadn’t created much buzz with this album until this awards ceremony.

Another pleasant surprise of the night was rocker Juanes, who showed the U.S. English-speaking audience rock in Spanish is done, and aside from Mary J. Blige’s stunning performance with Sam Smith — and Pharell’s theatic rendition of “Happy” — was one of the most exciting performers of the night.