Marc Anthony wins big at gala, no prizes for Carlos Vives or Alejandro Sanz

Salsa star Marc Anthony was the big winner at the 26th Premio Lo Nuestro Awards gala, taking home four prizes, while Colombia’s Carlos Vives and Spaniard Alejandro Sanz went emptyhanded despite having been two of the top favorites with five nominations each.

The creator of “Vivir Mi Vida” won four of the five awards he was after, including Album of the Year for his disc “3.0,” Song of the Year, and Artist of the Year in the Tropical category.

He was also honored this year at Miami’s American Airlines Arena with the Excellence Award, which honors the career of one of Latin music’s most successful artists, with more than 12 million copies of his discs sold.

The other winners of this year’s prizes, elected by popular vote by viewers of Univision, the United States’ leading Spanishlanguage network, were Mexican singersongwriter Gerardo Ortiz, the late “Queen of Banda” Jenni Rivera, and New Yorker Prince Royce, with three awards each.

Ortiz was chosen Artist of the Year, both in the Mexican Regional and Norteño categories, besides winning Mexican Regional Song of the Year with “Solo Vine a Despedirme.”

The tragically departed Jenni Rivera continues to win prizes despite her death in December 2912, taking awards in two different music genres, her usual Mexican Regional and also Pop, for which she was named Female Artist of the Year.

For his part, Prince Royce received the highest honor of the ceremony, being elected Premio Lo Nuestro Artist of the Year, as well as winning two Tropical trophies.

Sanz, who did not attend the ceremony, had his hopes dashed of winning five statuettes including the one for Artist of the Year, while Vives, recent winner of three Latin Grammys, saw none of his five nominations turn into an award.