The Latin Grammy Winner Touring Brazil With an Accordion and No S
Key Facts
- What happened. João Gomes, Jota.pê and Mestrinho are touring Brazil with their album Dominguinho.
- What it won. The 2025 Latin Grammy for Best Portuguese Language Roots Album, on November 13.
- How big the tour is. Twenty-seven announced dates through January, then six European cities in February.
- The catch. The Rio show is an outdoor garden concert at 15:00, not a seated hall recital.
- The spelling. The project is Dominguinho. The accordionist it honours was Dominguinhos, with an S.
- What it costs. Comparable dates ran from R$165 to R$1,095, or about US$32 to US$215.
Three musicians from different corners of Brazilian music made a loose record in ten days. It won a Latin Grammy, and the tour behind it runs to twenty-seven dates.
If you live in Brazil and have not heard of this, it is the most acclaimed Brazilian roots album of its year. If you are visiting, it is the shortest route into the music of the Northeast.
It Won, and the Category Matters
The album won the Latin Grammy for Best Portuguese Language Roots Album at the ceremony in Las Vegas on November 13, 2025.
Coverage that says nominated is reporting the September 2025 story and stopping there. The nomination was real, and so was the win two months later.
It was João Gomes’s first Latin Grammy, after nominations in 2023 and 2024. Jota.pê had already swept all three of his categories in 2024.
One caution on sourcing. The academy’s own database would not open to us, so the win rests on four Brazilian outlets that agree on the details.
The Name Is Not a Typo
The project is called Dominguinho, singular. The musician it honours was Dominguinhos, with an S.
Brazilian coverage flagged the difference deliberately, and foreign readers and copy editors alike tend to assume an error.
The title works two ways. It evokes a lazy Sunday afternoon, since domingo means Sunday, and it nods to the accordionist’s legacy.
Jota.pê has resisted calling it strictly a tribute. He describes the record as a hangout between friends playing that turned into an album.
Who Dominguinhos Was
José Domingos de Morais, born in Garanhuns in the interior of Pernambuco in 1941, was the accordion virtuoso of his generation. He died in 2013.
He met Luiz Gonzaga, the founding figure of the genre, at the age of nine. He moved to Rio at thirteen to work with him.
What made him matter was the bridging. He played the rural music of the Northeast with bossa nova, jazz and pop musicians, recording with Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso.
He won a Latin Grammy himself in 2002. When three young musicians name a record after him, Brazilian listeners hear a claim to a lineage.
Forró, and Why the Accordion Signals Something
Forró is the umbrella name for the dance music of Brazil’s Northeast. That is the dry, culturally distinct region behind much of the country’s internal migration.
Its core trio is accordion, zabumba, a two-headed bass drum, and triangle. The accordion is called the sanfona.
It occupies the place the fiddle holds in American country music. It is the instrument that signals regional identity and rural origin.
For decades this music carried a class stigma in the wealthier Southeast. The past few years have moved it to the centre of Brazilian pop, and this record is part of that shift.
The Three of Them
João Gomes, 24, comes from the Pernambuco backlands and is the commercial engine. He broke out around 2021 as the star of piseiro, a stripped-down keyboard-driven offshoot of forró that spread through social media.
Jota.pê, 31, is from Osasco in Greater São Paulo and is the critical favourite. He works in Brazilian popular music with strong Afro-Brazilian influences, and he is not a Northeastern regional artist at all.
Mestrinho, from Sergipe, is the accordionist and the direct instrumental heir to the Dominguinhos line. He is the technical and traditional anchor of the group.
A second volume of the project arrived on May 7 through Sony Music Brasil, twelve tracks self-produced by the three of them. That is the material the current tour carries.
The Dates, and What Rio Actually Is
Twenty-seven dates have been announced. Rio is November 14, Salvador November 28 at the Arena Fonte Nova, and Belo Horizonte December 5 at the Mineirão.
Recife follows on December 6 at Classic Hall and Goiânia on December 19. The run continues into January with Belém, Brasília and Curitiba.
The Rio show needs a correction most listings miss. It is in the gardens of the Cidade das Artes in Barra da Tijuca, starting at 15:00.
That is an outdoor afternoon concert, and it is 18 and over because alcohol is served. Anyone picturing a seated recital in the concert hall has the wrong building in mind.
A European leg follows in February 2027, with Dublin, Berlin, Porto, Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. Only the Porto venue, the Coliseu, has been named.
What It Costs
Rio prices had not been published in readable form at the time of writing. We are not printing a figure we cannot see.
Comparable dates give the shape. The São Paulo show in April ran from R$165 (about US$32) to R$995 (about US$196) for a VIP package.
Standing was R$245 (about US$48) and premium standing R$495 (about US$97) at that show. A Belo Horizonte date in February ran standing at R$360 (about US$71) full price.
Conversions use 5.0856 reais to the US dollar, the Banco Central closing rate for September 8, 2026.
A Banco do Brasil cardholder presale with a twenty per cent discount runs across the Brazilian dates. Half-price meia-entrada applies as it does everywhere in Brazil.
One Belo Horizonte listing described the Mineirão show as free entry while also saying ticketing had not been announced. Treat that as a template error rather than an offer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did the album win a Latin Grammy or was it only nominated?
It won, on November 13, 2025, for Best Portuguese Language Roots Album. The nomination story from September 2025 is often recirculated as if the ceremony had not happened.
Why is the name spelled without an S?
The project is Dominguinho, the accordionist honoured was Dominguinhos. The title also plays on domingo, the Portuguese word for Sunday.
What kind of show is the Rio date?
An outdoor afternoon concert in the gardens of the Cidade das Artes in Barra da Tijuca, starting at 15:00. It is sold as standing, front stage and box, and it is 18 and over.
Where else does the tour go?
Twenty-seven Brazilian dates through January, including Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Recife, Goiânia, Belém, Brasília and Curitiba, then six European cities in February 2027.
Sources: Turnê Dominguinho, the official tour and ticket page, Revista Continente, the win and the singular spelling, Brasil de Fato, the ceremony and the category, Brasil de Fato, Jota.pê on how the record was made, CNN Brasil, the nomination, Portal POPline, the São Paulo price table, Itatiaia, Belo Horizonte pricing, Alô Alô Bahia, the Salvador date
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
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