The pop icon also performed at the Thursday (Oct. 22) ceremony, broadcasted live on Telemundo.

Cristian Castro accepts the Billboard Lifetime Achievement Award onstage at the 2026 Billboard Latin Music Awards held at James L. Knight Center on October 22, 2026 in Miami, Florida. Christopher Polk

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Cristian Castro became emotional on Thursday evening (Oct. 22) as he accepted the Billboard Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Billboard Latin Music Awards , delivering a poetic speech inspired by love.

“Romantic love and poetry are the only real things — the truest aspects of our human existence, the firmest thought, the clearest expression that emerges from our spirit and our hearts from the time we are children,” the pop icon remarked upon receiving the award from Mexican actress Jacqueline Bracamontes.…