Janeiro is a candidate for the Latin Grammy for Best Contemporary Pop Album in Portuguese, with the album ‘Fugacidade’, his third original album, released in September last year.
Speaking to Lusa, Janeiro revealed that the nomination was “a very big surprise”.
“This work was developed over three years, with a band that includes several of my friends and people I have been playing with for many years. The album was produced between me and Zé Maria Gonçalves Pereira, another friend. An album made with a lot of love and dedication to art, a lot of dedication to music and very focused on the work. Therefore, it was a very big surprise, and I am very very very happy, and, of course, happy”, he stated.
Additionally, “Fugacidade” was written with a guitar given to him by musician Rui Veloso many years ago, and that is “also very special”.
For Janeiro, being nominated for a Latin Grammy, even without winning, is already “incredible recognition”.
“Not just for my work, but also for Portugal. More than for my career, I hope this can impact Portuguese culture, and how Portuguese culture reaches abroad,” he said.
Furthermore, he hopes that his nomination will serve “for the Portuguese to also believe that it is possible to make a pop album with content”. “With lyrical content, with harmonic and melodic content, with stories that are real, are autobiographical, and that I lived and that I feel, and which also healed me so much”, he mentioned.
The musician recalled that “Fugacidade”, composed of 13 songs, is a work that “is part of a great healing of leaving the city”. “The album is a play on the internal city escape we feel and these ephemeral times, these so fast and so empty times”, he explained.
The third original solo album was the first he let “marinate” after recording, producing, mixing, and mastering it. “Meanwhile, I started recording another album with Paulo Novaes [‘Proto-colar, Vo.2’, released in 2023] and let this album marinate. That was the best thing I could do,” he said.
Janeiro makes music “that is for everyone, but has touches of jazz, touches of MPB, winks at Brazil, and also brings a lot from the Portuguese song”.
He believes the nomination will make more people aware of the music he creates.
Henrique Janeiro, 31, from Coimbra, who signs musically only with his last name, released his debut EP, “Janeiro,” recorded in a home studio, ten years ago. The first album, “Frag.men.tos”, was released in 2018, the year he participated in the Festival da Canção with the song “(sem título)”.
Two years later, he released the album “Sem Tempo”, as well as its acoustic version, titled “Com Tempo”.
He later released, in collaboration with Brazilian musician Paulo Novaes, the EP “Proto-colar, vol.1” and the album “Proto-colar, vol.2”.
Currently, while working on a new album set to be released in the first half of 2026, Janeiro is also dedicated to music production and sound design.
The upcoming album, which will have 14 tracks, is already titled “Reticências” and will feature “many special participations”, which the musician is not yet ready to reveal.
In addition to Janeiro, another Portuguese is nominated for the Latin Grammys, which will be held on November 13 in Las Vegas, USA.
Fado singer Camané is competing in the category of Best Portuguese Language Roots Album, with the album “Ao vivo no CCB — Homenagem a José Mário Branco”, released in November last year, marking the singer’s second nomination.
