The term forró (Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: [fɔˈʁɔ]) describes a type of music, a rhythm, a dance, and the event where people listen to and dance to forró music. Forró is an important part of the culture in Brazil's Northeastern Region. It includes many different dance styles and types of music. These dances and music styles have become very popular throughout Brazil, especially during the Brazilian June Festivals. Forró has also grown in popularity worldwide, with a strong forró community in Europe.

Origin of the music

Forró dances were popular events that happened in specific places, using different types of music. Forró, as a celebration and style of music, began in several states in the Brazilian Northeast. It started in areas near cities and in rural parts of Bahia, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, and Alagoas. Forró includes many traditional rural rhythms from these states, such as baião, xote, arrasta pé, xaxado, coco, and rural samba, among others.

According to reports from Pernambuco, these dances were called "forrobodó," "forrobodança," or "forrobodão" by the end of the 19th century.

Origin of the term

There are many ideas about where the name "forró" came from. The most common idea is that "forró" comes from the word "forrobodó," which means "a big party" or "a loud event." This idea is supported by Luís da Câmara Cascudo, a Brazilian expert in folklore who spent much of his life studying the Brazilian Northeast. The word "forrobodó" is thought to be based on "forbodó," a shortened form of "fauxbourdon," a term used in the Portuguese court to describe a boring party. Over time, "forrobodó" became a common word in Portuguese to describe a fun but wild party. Portuguese people who moved to Brazil brought this word with them, and their children gradually changed it into "forró," losing its negative meaning.

Popularity

Forró is a very popular type of music and dance in Brazil's Northeast. In the past, going to a forró event meant going to a party or social gathering. The music uses three main instruments: the accordion, zabumba, and a metal triangle. However, the dance style changes when it moves to the Southeast region. As part of Brazil's popular culture, forró continues to evolve. A style called college forró is popular among middle-class students in colleges and universities in the Southeast. This style has influences from other dances, such as salsa and samba-rock.

Luiz Gonzaga introduced the traditional forró music from the Northeast to the Southeast. He transformed the baião, a term from the word "baiano" and originally used as a warm-up for artists to find inspiration before playing, into a more complex rhythm. Later, forró became popular across Brazil in a slower form called xote, which was influenced by pop-rock music and became more accepted by young people in the Southeast, South, and Central regions.

A compilation album titled Brazil: Forró – Music for Maids and Taxi Drivers was released internationally in 1989. It was nominated for a Grammy Award in the United States in 1991.

Music

Forró, which refers to the music and not the dance, includes many different musical styles today. The original style of forró, from which many modern styles developed, was created by Luiz Gonzaga and others like Jackson do Pandeiro and Marinês.

This style, also called forró pé-de-serra, is played by a group of three musicians. The group includes:
• An accordion (tuned in a dry way, unlike the wet tunings used in Europe), and
• A rhythm section made up of a triangle and a zabumba. The triangle keeps a steady beat, while the zabumba creates syncopated rhythms, which are rhythms that do not follow a regular pattern.

Luiz Gonzaga defined this combination of instruments as the base of forró. Before Gonzaga, other instrument combinations were used. The triangle and accordion were already common in European folk music and are also used in Cajun music in the United States. Forró keeps a format with a small group of musicians, including two percussionists, which was common in Europe and the United States before the use of drum sets became popular.

This instrument combination serves as a foundation and is not fixed. Sometimes, other instruments like fiddle, flute, pandeiro, bass, cavaquinho, and acoustic guitar are added.

The zabumba and triangle are always part of the rhythm section in forró music. The accordion is always used in forró, except in the sub-style called "forró rabecado," where the accordion is replaced by a fiddle.

The triangle plays a steady rhythm on all sixteenth notes of a four-beat measure, emphasizing the third note. This is similar to the role of rhythm guitar or the hi-hat in a drum set in rock music, but the triangle’s high-pitched sound makes the third beat stand out more. The zabumba, played on both sides, produces a deep sound on one side and a sharp, whip-like sound on the other. It plays the syncopated rhythms that are essential to forró.

Forró often uses the escala nordestina, a scale that mixes two musical scales called Lydian and Mixo-lydian. This scale is the foundation of traditional forró and forró pé-de-serra, much like the blues scale is the basis of music from the Mississippi Delta. The escala nordestina is clearly heard in songs like "Vem Morena," a baião by Luiz Gonzaga. The accordion is the main melody instrument in forró and is sometimes called the "Soul of Forró" or the "Soul of the Sertão," referring to the region where forró originated.

As forró evolved, it absorbed influences from other music styles and developed into distinct forms.

Forró lyrics have changed over time and vary by subgenre. Originally, they focused on life in the rural Northeast of Brazil, especially the Sertão region, and themes like drought, migration, and homesickness (saudade).

An example is the song "Asa Branca," an anonymous piece made famous by Luiz Gonzaga in the 1940s. It describes leaving the Sertão due to drought and the hope of returning when rain returns. The return of rain is symbolized by the arrival of "asa branca," a white-winged bird that only appears when it rains. A recent version of the song was performed by the group Forro in the Dark with David Byrne.

In the modern style called forró universitario, lyrics often reflect the lives of young, urban middle-class people, similar to themes in rock music. Like many musical styles, forró lyrics also often focus on love, romance, passion, jealousy, or memories of past relationships.

Today, forró uses many different instruments, though it always includes references to the traditional combination of accordion, triangle, and zabumba:
• Accordion
• Acoustic guitar
• Bass guitar
• Drum kit
• Electric guitar
• Fiddle
• Pandeiro
• Pífano
• Rabeca
• Shaker
• Triangle
• Zabumba drum

"Electronic" forró (modern forró)

In the 1990s, forró music changed in style and became a more popular and widely sold genre of Brazilian pop music. A forró music industry grew in Northeastern Brazil during that time, as many new bands, such as "Mastruz Com Leite" and "Limão Com Mel," were formed. These bands used electric guitars and keyboards, and their songs began to sound similar to the sertanejo genre of Brazilian music, which often focuses on romantic relationships and related themes. Because of the use of electric instruments, this new type of forró was first called forró eletrônico, or "electronic forró" in Portuguese. In the following decades, this newer style of forró became more popular in Northeastern Brazil than the traditional version of the music.

Dance

Forró has several different rhythms, including xote (a slower rhythm), baião (the original forró), arrasta-pé (the fastest rhythm), and forró itself. Each rhythm has unique dance styles that vary by region and may have different names depending on where they are danced. Forró is always danced in pairs, with one person leading and the other following. In some European forró communities, people are beginning to challenge traditional ideas about who leads and who follows, and same-sex couples or men leading and women following are becoming more common.

Forró is usually danced closely, with the leader’s left hand holding the follower’s right hand, the leader’s right arm around the follower’s back, and the follower’s left arm around the leader’s neck. Some styles require dancers to stay farther apart, only holding hands near the shoulders.

Forró has been influenced by dances like Cuban salsa, Samba de Gafieira, and zouk, allowing dancers to spin, though spinning is not required. More complex moves may be difficult in crowded dance areas. Below are popular forró styles in Brazil:

• Xote: A basic style danced closely with a left-left-right-right movement. No spinning or variations are used.
• Universitário: Popular outside the Northeast, similar to xote but with forward and backward movements like traditional bolero. It includes many variations.
• Miudinho: The leader tilts slightly to the left, holds the follower’s waist with their left hand, and the follower wraps both arms around the leader’s neck. Dancers stay in one place, with hip movements and optional spinning.
• Puladinho/Manquinho: The leader keeps their right leg still while the left leg taps the ground to mark the beat. The follower keeps their left leg still while the right leg moves. Partners may switch legs, but this is rare.
• Merenguinho: Dancers move sideways with steps similar to merengue.
• Cavalguinho: Similar to puladinho, but both partners tap both legs on the ground in alternating rhythms, mimicking the motion of riding a horse.

Xote originally came from the schottische dance.

• Baião/Pé-de-serra: A style of xote with side tilts and less leg movement to match the faster rhythm.
• Cacau: From Paraíba, danced with quick leg movements while partners stand slightly apart.
• Amassa-cacau: A variation from Ceará, danced less closely with many hip movements, and legs mimic squeezing cacao.
• Valsado: Dancers move sideways, crossing legs in front of each other.
• Valsadão: Similar to valsado but danced slightly apart. It is the most complex style with many variations.
• Forrófieira: A newer style combining traditional forró with steps from samba de gafieira. It is popular in Rio de Janeiro and parts of the Northeast.

Arrasta-pé: Danced only to its own rhythm, similar to a fast xote with both legs tapping the ground to mark beats.

Miudinho and puladinho can be danced to baião or arrasta-pé music, but arrasta-pé’s intense leg movements make it difficult to perform. Some people include brega/calypso in the forró category because forró has influenced its style, though it is danced to its own rhythm (not to be confused with calypso music).

Forró dance styles are often grouped into two main categories for practical reasons: the older Nordestino (from the Northeast) style and the later-developed Universitário (university) style from the South.

Nordestino forró is danced with couples very close together, often with intertwined legs and a sideways shuffle movement. This style has fewer step variations due to the close contact.

Universitário forró, which began in southern Brazilian cities, is more popular outside the Northeast. It uses a forward-backward step, similar to bolero or salsa. With more space between partners, it allows for more steps, turns, and movements. Common steps include:
– Dobradiça: Partners move sideways apart.
– Caminhada: Simple steps forward or backward.
– Comemoração: A balancing step with the leader’s leg between the follower’s.
– Giros: A variety of turns, including ones involving both dancers.
– Oito: Dancers move around each other side by side.

Universitário forró likely developed from pé-de-serra/baião styles, while Nordestino refers to styles closer to the original xote.

International forró festivals

The first forró festival held outside Brazil took place in 2008 in Stuttgart, Germany, called "Forró de Domingo." This festival remained the largest forró event outside Brazil until its final edition in 2018. A performance from the 2014 festival has over 54 million views on YouTube, making it the most-watched forró performance on the platform. Today, many forró festivals are held annually in Germany and other parts of Europe. Since 2016, festivals have also been held in North America, Russia, Oceania, and Japan. In 2019, more than 70 international forró festivals were planned outside of Brazil.