Vicente Fernandez – 2002 LARAS Person Of The Year.

International recording legend Vicente Fernández will be honored as the 2002 Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (LARAS) Person Of The Year, it was announced by the Latin Recording Academy. The honor recognizes Fernández’s professional and philanthropic accomplishments. A portion of the proceeds from the LARAS Person Of The Year tribute dinner will benefit the Latin Recording Academy’s outreach and education programs.

“As a true Latin American organization, the Latin Recording Academy looks to Mexico’s traditional and ongoing role as an epicenter of music and culture,” said Enrique Fernandez, Senior Vice President/Executive Director of the Latin Recording Academy. “No one embodies this like Vicente Fernández, and it is the Latin Recording Academy’s great pleasure to honor this man of limitless talent, passion and commitment to his fans and his heritage.”

In his native Mexico, Vicente Fernández is hailed as the “King of Ranchera Music.” He is a beloved and prolific artist who has recorded more than 55 albums throughout his career. His 1970s hit “Volver Volver” catapulted him to stardom and set the tone of his future success. With dozens of hit singles and several RIAA certified multi-platinum albums – including Lastima Que Seas Ajena, Entre El Amor Y Yo, and Los 15 Grandes Exitos, to name just a few – he now stands as a living legend and an icon of Mexican culture whose popularity extends to Latin and Central America, Spain, and Latin American communities throughout the U.S.

For 31 years, Fernández has remained with the same label, Sony Discos. He is the only artist to sell out the Plaza de Toros Mexico, and he has been nominated for nine GRAMMY Awards and one Latin GRAMMY Award. Radio stations in Mexico have designated Sept. 16 as Vicente Fernández Day, and in 1998, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of a gathering of 6,000 fans.

Most recently, Fernández was nominated for the Top Latin Albums Artist Of The Year and Latin Greatest Hits Album Of The Year honors at the Billboard Latin Music Conference & Awards 2002 in May, where he won the latter award for his best-selling album Historia De Un Ídolo – Volume 1. To this day, he remains active on stage and screen, playing sold-out concerts and adding to an impressive discography that has made him one of the Spanish-speaking world’s highest-grossing recording artists.

Fernández is as well known for his generous heart as for his musical talent. For example, in 2000 he teamed up with General Motors in an effort to raise money for the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund. In a series of 15 concerts, Fernández donated money for every ticket sold to support the Hispanic community and to help further the educational careers of countless outstanding Hispanic American students throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

He will receive the honor at a star-studded tribute dinner and concert on Tuesday, September 17 in Los Angeles. The LARAS Person Of The Year tribute dinner is one of the most prestigious events of Latin GRAMMY Week and will precede the 3rd Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards which will be held at Kodak Theatre on September 18. The Latin GRAMMYs will air on the CBS Television Network and on radio via the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation worldwide.

Vicente Fernández is the third Latin Recording Academy Person Of The Year honoree. Previous honorees are Julio Iglesias and Emilio Estefan.