Nelly Furtado performs at the 11th Annual Latin Grammy Awards on Thursday, Nov. 11 in Las Vegas.MARK RALSTON/AFP / Getty Images
Pop singer Nelly Furtado and jazz-pop fusion musician Alex Cuba have become the first Canadians to win Latin Grammy awards, held Thursday night in a Las Vegas arena.
Furtado, originally from Victoria, B. C., took the Best Female Pop Vocal prize for her album, Mi Plan, and also performed at the event.
Cuba, a Cuban-born singer-songwriter who settled in Victoria at the age of 25, won the Best New Artist award. He can also claim a share in Furtado's win: He co-wrote several songs on Mi Plan and performed a duet on the disc.
The Latin Grammys are given out by the Latin Recording Academy to musicians performing in Spanish, Portuguese and related dialects. The 11th annual edition was broadcast on Univision, a Spanish-language network based in the U.S.