Prince Royce Calls Out Latin Grammys Over Bachata Snub: "It's in the Category Name"

Prince Royce and Romeo Santos gave bachata fans the collab album they’d been waiting years for, and when the 2026 Latin Grammy nominations arrived, Better Late Than Never walked away with nothing. Royce took it to Instagram Stories with an open letter, and his focus wasn’t just his own project. The best merengue/bachata album category has five nominees this year, and none of them are bachata albums. Royce pointed out that only about 15 percent of the music across the nominated projects is actually bachata, arguing that putting the genre in the category name comes with a responsibility to represent it.

The Latin Recording Academy’s CEO, Manuel Abud, responded to Billboard by saying the membership votes on the nominations and that he cannot explain why the album was left out. That answer is sitting about as well as you’d expect with fans. Royce now holds 15 Latin Grammy nominations without a win, and Romeo Santos has one victory across four nods.

The conversation online has moved past the album itself and into a bigger question about how Latin music’s biggest awards show treats bachata, a genre with decades of global influence. Do you think the Latin Grammys got this one wrong? Sound off in the comments.