A year after Bad Bunny shattered the Billboard Latin Music Awards record with an extraordinary 27 nominations, there is a new artist at the top of the list, and the change says almost as much about the state of Latin music as it does about Peso Pluma.
La Doble P leads the 2026 Billboard Latin Music Awards finalists with 17 nominations, nearly doubling the nine he received last year. His cousing Tito Double P follows with 15 and Fuerza Regida with 12, giving Mexican music a clean sweep of the three most-nominated acts at this year's awards.
Karol G, one of Latin music's leading female artists, earned nine nominations, including Artist of the Year, Tour of the Year, Global 200 Latin Artist of the Year and Latin Rhythm Artist of the Year, Solo. Her collaboration with Marco Antonio Solís, "Coleccionando Heridas," is nominated for Latin Airplay Song of the Year and Latin Pop Song of the Year.
Bad Bunny, meanwhile, goes from a record-setting 27 nominations in 2025 to seven this year. His 2025 total remains the highest ever recorded by a single artist in one edition of the Billboard Latin Music Awards. El conejo is tied with Prince Royce who has eight.
The numbers reveal one of the most significant shifts in this year's nominations: Mexican music has taken control of the top of the leaderboard.
Peso Pluma, Tito Double P and Fuerza Regida are the three most-nominated acts of 2026, giving Mexican music an emphatic presence across categories that extend well beyond Regional Mexican.
For Peso Pluma, the change from last year is particularly dramatic.
He received nine nominations in 2025, while Bad Bunny dominated with a record 27. Fuerza Regida was second with 15, Rauw Alejandro had 14, and Karol G and Tito Double P had 10 each.
Now Peso Pluma has nearly doubled his total, climbing from nine to 17 nominations in a single year. Tito Double P has also made a major jump, from 10 to 15. Fuerza Regida remains near the top, slipping only slightly from 15 to 12.
Bad Bunny's change is the most striking: 27 to seven.
His 2025 total was not simply another big year. Telemundo and Billboard described the 27 nominations at the time as a historic record for the awards. His nominations were fueled in part by Debí Tirar Más Fotos and three songs from the project, "Baile Inolvidable," "DTMF" and "Nuevayol," which each collected five mentions.
That makes Peso Pluma's 17 nominations impressive without making them unprecedented.
The Mexican star is nominated for Artist of the Year and Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Solo, while DINASTÍA, his project with Tito Double P, is competing for Top Latin Album of the Year. Four collaborations between the pair, "daño," "dopamina," "chiclona" and "7-3," account for nine nominations across categories including Global 200 Latin Song of the Year, Hot Latin Song of the Year, Streaming Song of the Year and Regional Mexican Song of the Year.
Tito Double P's rise is equally notable. His 15 nominations include Artist of the Year and Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Solo. Nine of his nominations come through collaborations with Peso Pluma, including five for "daño." "Dopamina" adds another two nominations.
Then there is Fuerza Regida.
The California-based group has 12 nominations, including Artist of the Year, Global 200 Latin Artist of the Year and Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Duo or Group. "Marlboro Rojo" alone is nominated four times, including for Hot Latin Song of the Year and Streaming Song of the Year.
Together, those results show how thoroughly música mexicana is now competing in categories that measure Latin music's broader commercial performance rather than being contained within its own genre.
Prince Royce's eight nominations give tropical music another major presence, while Bad Bunny's seven still place him among the year's six most-nominated artists. He remains up for some of the night's biggest awards, including Artist of the Year, Tour of the Year and Global 200 Latin Artist of the Year, as well as Songwriter of the Year.
There is also something genuinely new about the 2026 ceremony.
For the first time, the Billboard Latin Music Awards will include Fan Artist of the Year, a category determined exclusively by public voting. The five artists with the highest number of mentions will compete for the award, with fans able to vote through Oct. 22. The winner will be announced live during the ceremony.
The awards themselves will be presented across 47 categories, down from 49 in 2025. Unlike awards determined by academy members or judging panels, Billboard Latin Music Awards finalists are based on performance on Billboard's weekly charts. The 2026 eligibility period covers charts dated Sept. 13, 2025, through Sept. 5, 2026, using data including streaming, digital song and album sales, radio airplay and touring.
The Billboard Latin Music Awards will air live Oct. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT from Miami's James L. Knight Center on Telemundo and Peacock.
