Odeón Awards Show Aims to Become Spanish Music’s Biggest Night

The Madrid awards “bring back the tradition of annual awards for Spanish music,” organizers say.

Madrid’s Premios Odeón will spotlight Spain’s currently thriving music scene with a nationally live-televised show featuring 25 performers on Monday night (Jan. 20) at the Teatro Real. The new awards are designed, Grammys-style, to become Spanish music’s biggest night.

Alejandro Sanz, Rosalía, Pablo Alborán, C. Tangana and David Bisbal are among internationally-known artists up for awards. Nominees also include flamenco guitarist and singer El Barrio, pop singer Beret, Operación Triunfo alums Natalia Lacunza and Alba Reche, rocker Leiva, pop singer Antonio José and many others who sell out shows and have radio hits in Spain. Crooner José Luis Perales will receive the Odeón’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Acknowledging the impact that Latin music has recently had in the Spanish market, the awards include a Latin Artist category, with Ozuna, Maluma and Morat among those in competition.

The creation of the Odeón Awards was propelled by a surge in music sales and streaming in Spain over the last few years. In the first half of 2019, sales in the country went up 27%; income for subscription streaming services was up 41% over the same period in 2018, according to Spanish music industry association Promusicae. The increase was Spain’s biggest since 2001, the year that kicked off a decade when the industry hit bottom, blighted by a combination of the country’s flailing economy, illegal downloading and the turn-of-the-century crisis of the global music industry.  

The new awards are organized by AGEDI (Asociación de Gestión de Derechos Intelectuales) a Spanish rights management organization for labels and producers. The Odeóns replace Spain’s Amigo Awards, whose decline paralleled that of the country’s music industry. In 2002, the Amigos’ ceremony was canceled due to “the delicate situation the record industry is going through;” in 2007, those awards were shelved altogether.

“The Premios Odeón bring back the tradition of annual awards for Spanish music,” said an announcement about the awards. “These awards aspire to reclaim that lost audience, relaunching the importance of music in society and establishing itself as the annual reference point for our musical panorama.”