Oye! Awards Spotlight Mexican Music

In a move that seeks to promote music made and distributed in Mexico, the Mexican recording industry banded together for the inaugural Oye! (Listen!) National Music Awards, which took place Nov. 26 at the Auditorio Nacional.

Awards were given in 13 categories. Mexican duo Sin Bandera was the evening's big winner, with awards for best pop group, best new artist, and record of the year for its eponymous Sony debut. Colombian diva Shakira scored two awards, for best solo female international artist and best pop solo female artist.

"It's a breath of fresh air for the Mexican market," says EMI Latin USA chairman/CEO Jorge Pino, whose band Intocable won for best norteño group.

The Oye! Awards are the culmination of three years of work since the creation of Mexico's Academy of Music in 1998. "It was important to create a neutral organization, with credibility and which was represented by people in the industry," says Fernando Hernández, general director of Mexico's Assn. of Record and Video Producers (Amprofón), which organized the awards with the academy, event promoter CIE, and TV network Televisa.

Although Hernández says Mexico's fledgling academy has learned a lot from the Grammy Awards, there are major differences between the two, including that label employees are not allowed to be voting academy members and that only one vote is allotted per label.

Hernández hopes that future versions of the awards will air jointly on Mexico's two TV networks—Televisa and TV Azteca—and that the show will generate enough revenue to create a fund to fight piracy.

For a complete list of winners, visit billboard.com/awards.