| The Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) today announced that chart-topping Latin Pop vocalist and TV/social media personality Sebastián Yatra will host the October 6th PBS broadcast of the 33rd Annual Hispanic Heritage Awards. Yatra will also perform and be recognized as this year’s recipient of the Inpira Award, which was created to honor Latino role models for youth on a national stage and provide inspiration. Past recipients have included Diego Luna, America Ferrera, Becky G, Prince Royce, and Karol G among others. Yatra will join Bad Bunny (Vision Award), Selena Gomez (Arts Award), Linda Ronstadt (Legend Award), Jessica Alba (Business Award), and America’s essential farmworkers (Heroes Award) on the telecast – with additional performers, set to be announced in the coming days. “The Hispanic Heritage Foundation is thrilled to recognize Sebastian Yatra with the Inspira Award,” said Jose Antonio Tijerino, President and CEO of HHF. “As an international star, Sebastian has used his exceptional talents and positive energy to inspire youth as well as proudly represent his Latino culture. We are also thrilled to have Sebastian host the Hispanic Heritage Awards on PBS which allow us to celebrate Latino accomplishment, vision and culture with America and across the world.” “Now more then ever, Latinos are united all over the world to share our passion for our culture,” said Sebastián Yatra. “That makes me especially proud to be hosting this year’s Hispanic Heritage Awards, which bring us even closer together in the United States and is honoring so many Latinos that I personally admire, see as an example to follow, and motivate us to be better each day.” Born in Medellin, raised bilingually in Miami, and having returned to Colombia to pursue his love of music, Sebastián Yatra quickly developed a distinctive artistic balance – fusing the cross-cultural pop & rhythm influence of two countries, an immediate ease with social media, and an impressive natural gift as a vocalist and songwriter strongly influenced by the most engaging pop vocalists of both languages. Having achieved breakthrough success in Colombia with a first significant #1 hit by the age of 19, it quickly became apparent that Sebastián Yatra was going to be a standout new generation pop champion for Latin music., with FADER MAGAZINE boldly declaring soon after that. “Sebastián Yatra is giving Latin [pop] a new cool… bringing back the Latin ballad…. Using his plush voice & charm, the Medellín-born artist makes heartstring-tugging melodies [showing] ballads can still bang.” Now, by the age of 25, Sebastian Yatra has already had the opportunity to collaborate with the likes of The Jonas Brothers, Halsey, One Republic, Juanes, Mana, Daddy Yankee and more, while also building his own credits to a truly eye-popping SEVEN #1 Billboard singles, over 12 BILLION music streams, a combined following of over 35 million social media & YouTube subscribers, and standing as the #1 Latin music male figure on Tik Tok. His position as Latin Pop’s undisputed next generation standout was recently bolstered further when genre icons Ricky Martin & Enrique Iglesias extended a once in a lifetime invitation to be the opening performer of their upcoming joint tour. While he was adhering to Covid-19 stay-at-home guidelines during recent months, Yatra was hailed by Pop Sugar as “a light during dark times, entertaining us with regular Instagram Lives, connecting with his fans by sharing their covers of his songs, creating social media challenges to be more loving and positive, posting hilarious TikTok videos, and even virtually reading bedtime stories to kids. He’s one of the sweetest, funniest, most talented, and most humble artists of this generation” The Hispanic Heritage Awards were created by the White House in 1988 to commemorate the establishment of Hispanic Heritage Month in America and is among the highest honors by Latinos for Latinos and supported by 40 national Hispanic-serving institutions. For a video, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C92ZiK5MxAs. In keeping with current COVID-19 mitigation guidance and with the safety of participants in mind as well as the increased impact the pandemic has had on communities of color, the Hispanic Heritage Awards and PBS broadcast will not include a live ceremony but will feature more intimately filmed performances and Honoree segments filmed on location across the United States and Latin America. |
| About the Hispanic Heritage FoundationThe Hispanic Heritage Awards serve as a launch of HHF’s year-round, innovative, high-impact, actionable programs focused on education, workforce, leadership and culture. HHF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information, visit www.hispanicheritage.org and follow the Hispanic Heritage Foundation on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. |