Rosalía accepted the Billboard Hall of Fame Award from Juan Luis Guerra at the Billboard Latin Music Awards in Miami on October 22, 2026. The Spanish singer praised the Dominican musician and thanked Latin America for its inspiration and support. She also received Top Latin Pop Album of the Year for LUX and Latin Pop Artist of the Year, Solo, completing a three-award evening.
Rosalía began her Billboard Hall of Fame acceptance speech by addressing the musician standing beside her. At Miami's James L. Knight Center on October 22, Juan Luis Guerra presented the honor, giving the singer a chance to speak directly to someone whose songs had influenced her. Her response made the presentation a personal exchange as well as an awards moment.
She thanked Guerra for the honor of receiving the award from him and described the emotional force his music had carried in her life. His songs, she said, had made her cry, dance and feel alive. The admiration was directed toward a composer she regarded as an exceptional teacher, bringing the relationship between listening and creating into the center of her remarks.
Rosalía said she felt shocked and would not forget the occasion. That response concerned the presentation and the person making it, rather than learning for the first time that she would receive the award. The honor had already been announced on October 1. The new development was the ceremony itself and the words she chose while accepting it.
The Billboard Hall of Fame Award recognizes a wider artistic career, distinctive musical identity and influence across styles and markets. Established in 1995, when Selena Quintanilla was honored, it is separate from an award tied to sales or the performance of one album. Its purpose explains why her speech looked across influences and relationships rather than concentrating on a recent single.
She acknowledged musicians from earlier generations who had helped make her own work possible. Rosalía named Celia Cruz, Rocío Jurado, Vicente Fernández and Daddy Yankee, bringing different traditions into the same expression of gratitude. The names moved from salsa and Spanish song to Mexican music and reggaeton, reflecting more than one route into the music she now makes.
Guerra occupies another place within that range through his work in bachata and merengue. Her comments described the impact of his songs in concrete emotional terms, rather than simply identifying him as a respected name. Having him deliver the award allowed her to connect a recognition of her own career with the experience of being another artist's listener.
Rosalía then turned to Latin America, thanking audiences for the place they had given her and for years of inspiration and learning. Born and raised in Spain, she has developed a major part of her international career through relationships with Latin American music and listeners. She expressed a wish to keep finding ways to return the affection and generosity she had received.
Her speech closed with a hope for many more years of music. It avoided a recital of sales figures or chart positions, instead describing artists who opened possibilities and people who welcomed her work. That emphasis gave the Hall of Fame moment its particular character, while two further results later recognized more specific aspects of her recent recording activity.
Rosalía also received Top Latin Pop Album of the Year for LUX, her fourth studio album, released in 2025. In that separate acceptance speech, she thanked God, her family, her team and fans. She then joked about whether the record was really a pop album, a remark connected with its varied orchestration and mixture of musical traditions.
LUX includes orchestral elements, classical references and performances in more than one language. Its Latin pop classification does not remove those features from the music. The record had reached No. 1 on Top Latin Albums, Top Latin Pop Albums, Classical Albums, Classical Crossover and World Albums, while debuting at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, her first top-ten appearance there.
During the album award speech, she also referred to coming from Barcelona and her pride in making music in Spanish. Those remarks belonged to the LUX presentation, not the earlier Hall of Fame address. Keeping the moments separate preserves the way she spoke about different recognitions, even though gratitude to Latin America and its music connected the wider evening.
The third award was Latin Pop Artist of the Year, Solo. That recognizes Rosalía as a performer within the category and differs from both the album's award and the honorary distinction. The three results therefore concern different aspects of her career, rather than representing repeated presentations of the same achievement under alternative names.
The ceremony followed the completion of the fifty-seven-date LUX World Tour in September, also in Miami, after shows across Europe and the Americas. Earlier in 2026 she had been honored as Woman of the Year at Latin Women in Music, a separate event. This time, the defining image was Guerra handing over the award as she thanked the musical generations and audiences whose influence she wanted to acknowledge. The tour began in March, with the organizer describing all fifty-seven dates as sold out. That earlier schedule provides context for the recent album cycle, while the awards ceremony was a separate appearance rather than another concert stop.
IMAGE_CREDIT: Alexander Tamargo/Telemundo via Getty Images
