Public Radio International ran an exciting feature last week on Spanish singer Buika. Her album "La Nina de Fuego" was nominated for Best Album. Of course, Juanes won that prize. This year.

Buika is originally from Equatorial Guinea and she grew up in Spain among gypsies. She got her start in music impersonating Tina Turner in Vegas, but that day is gone...

You can listen to a five minutes interview with Buika (and hear some of her music) here.

paidContent.org is among a number of news sources reporting that Telemundo "is ending its two-year partnership with Yahoo as of January 1, 2009."

According to paidContent.org, some Telemundo.com content will run across MSN Latino. But the Spanish language TV channel that NBC Universal owns will set up a solo Internet site that will include some social media features.

"We partnered with Yahoo because they offered huge reach, scale and technology, but for the most part we brought the content," Alfredo Richard, Telemundo's VP, Corp Comm told peidContent.org. "It was great for us in terms of getting visibility-and we couldn't have done it without Yahoo. But with more than 10 million unique users every month, we've got enough reach that we can do it on our own now."

Puerto Rican singer Kany Garcia was honored with the best new artist prize at the Latin Grammy Awards Thursday night in Houston and her CD "Cualquier Dia" won the award for best female pop vocal album, according to the Associated Press.

Garcia was nominate for four awards. She achieved her current popularity with the release in 2007 of her first album "Cualquier Día." It featured her the single "Hoy Ya Me Voy" and that has become her most popular song.

Cuban-American music icon Gloria Estefan was honored as person of the year. Her CD "90 Millas" won the prize for best traditional tropical album and her single "Pintame de Colores" took the award for best tropical song, according to UPI.

The lifetime achievement award punctuates a career that has seen her become one of the 100 top selling artists or all times. Estefan has sold 90 million records and recorded 24 albums.

Colombian Rocker Juanes had his moment Thursday night, picking up five Grammys at the Latin Grammy Awards in Houston, according to NPR.

According to UPI, Juanes' song "Me Enamora" took the prizes at the Thursday night show for record and song of the year, as well as best short form music video, and his CD "La Vida... Es Un Ratico" ("Life is a Moment") was named album of the year and best male pop vocal album.

The 35-year-old star has now won 17 Latin Grammys.

Someday I'm going to have to get back to Puerto Rico. My wife and I got to spend a few days in San Juan about 10 years ago, but it was to attend a conference that took up much of my time during the daylight hours.

I loved the tour of Old San Juan. But Puerto Rico has a lot to offer besides history. The beaches alone could take up all of my time on my next trip there.

YouTube is full of good video footage on the island paradise. Here's a few to consider...

NBC News Havana Bureau Chief Mary Murray tried to capture the atmosphere in Cuba on the night after the U.S. Election with this blog post at MSNBC. The simple message: the average Cuban hopes that life will be better in Cuba after President Obama takes office.

Murray cited a number of examples like this one:

Housewife Rosa Llanos heard the news on short wave radio and thought about her daughter and grandchild living in South Florida. She wants Obama to stick to his promise to lift current U.S. restrictions that limit family visits to once every three years.

The Bush Administration's hardline policy with Cuba over the last eight years has brought about little democratic change in the island nation. Cubans, both in the U.S. and in Cuba, are anxious to see how how the new U.S. President reshapes U.S. relations with Cuba...


Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Arthur Kwiatkowski