Josh Tatofi enjoyed singing Hawaiian songs for fun but never thought about doing a Hawaiian music album until the night his manager, Aaron Mikami, took him to see Weldon Kekauoha at Waikiki’s Kani Ka Pila Grill in August 2014. There, with the connivance of Kekauoha’s bass player, Alika “Alika Boy” Kalauli IV, Tatofi was called up to sing one of Kekauoha’s signature songs, “Lei Ho‘oheno.”

“When he called me up I felt like I was 9 years old,” said Tatofi, 26, taking a break from rehearsing with band members Travis Kaka and Laupepa Letuli at B.A.R. Studio in lower Kalihi. “Then I sang ‘Lei Ho‘oheno’ and when I was finished I looked at Weldon and he said, ‘Don’t ever sing that song better than me.’

“That one moment changed everything for me.”

This weekend Tatofi is in New York to attend today’s 60th Grammy Awards as one of two Hawaii nominees in the regional roots music album category. His first Hawaiian album, “Pua Kiele,” which he decided to record after that transformative experience, advances the traditions of modern Polynesian R&B and the hapa-haole music that has been part of Hawaii for more than a century. Tatofi fits them together and sings beautifully in English and Hawaiian throughout.

“It was my manager and the boys who encouraged me to go for the Grammys,” he said. “Aaron really pushed to submit all the forms and make sure that we met all the guidelines. Being a finalist was something I was never even expecting … and it’s been surreal ever since.”

This year for only the second time there are two Hawaii finalists in the category. Hawaiian music traditionalists Ho‘okena are there for the third time with their 30th anniversary album, “3.0.” The other regional roots finalists are “Top of the Mountain” by Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers, “Kalenda” by the Lost Bayou Ramblers and “Miyo Kekisepa, Make A Stand (Live)” by the Canadian powwow and round dance drum and singing group Northern Cree.

From 2005 to 2011 there was a separate category for Hawaiian music but it was eliminated in 2011 when The Recording Academy decided to cut the number of categories from 109 to 78. The new regional roots category lumped Hawaiian music together with the music of Native Americans, the zydeco and Cajun music of Louisiana, and polka.

Louisiana-based recording artists dominated the category both in the number of finalists and winners until last year when Maui’s Kalani Pe‘a won the Grammy.

That evening at Kani Ka Pila Grill got Tatofi thinking about doing a Hawaiian album. He didn’t have to look farther than his own family for inspiration.

His father, Tivaini “Tiva” Tatofi, his uncle, Teimomi “Timo” Tatofi, and Kelly “Kelly Boy” De Lima are the founding members of the popular contemporary group Kapena. When he recorded “Pua Kiele” with De Lima’s son, Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning studio engineer/musician Kapena De Lima, they were bringing that tradition forward another generation.

“Kapena — the original trio — had a Hawaiian and two Tongans and they were singing everything: Tongan, Fijian, Samoan, Tahitian,” Tatofi said. “I think that’s what really allowed me to sing Hawaiian music, because Dad guys had been doing it.

”When people hear me sing Hawaiian they know that my family’s been doing it, Kapena’s family has been doing it. It’s just that we’re doing it in this generation.”

Last May, “Pua Kiele” won 2017 Na Hoku Hanohano awards for male vocalist of the year and island music album.

The album opens with a Hawaiian-language song titled “Kaneohe,” arranged with soulful multilayered harmonies reminescent of the chart-topping hits of R&B star Brian McKnight. Fans of traditional hapa-haole music will embrace two other songs, “Don’t Break My Heart” and “Shanda Jean,” as Tatofi captures the spirit of an earlier era in island music.

TATOFI’S TONGAN heritage is an important part of his life. Born in Hawaii, he grew up speaking Tongan at home and English at school, and remains fluent in both languages. He lived in Kaneohe until he was 13, when his grandfather, the Rev. Topou Tatofi, was transferred to a church on Maui and the family went with him.

Tatofi graduated from Baldwin High School in Wailuku and then spent “a couple of years” at Colorado State University before returning to Oahu.

Looking back, Tatofi said the move wasn’t easy. He’d just started making “real friends” in Kaneohe and then had to start all over again with “a whole different set of people,” but he said he doesn’t regret anything.

“A lot of my ‘dues paid’ would probably be in Maui from 13 years old to 18 years old. I was performing in bars and whatnot from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. for, like, four bucks. I did a lot of labor before I came back to Honolulu.”

Looking into the future, he knows that as the oldest son of an oldest son, he will eventually take on responsibilities to his extended family in Tonga.

“It’s not one of those things where I feel like it’s a burden; it’s really an understanding that I’ve had for my whole life that after my dad it’s me,” he said.

“I couldn’t write a better story on the position that I’m in. I’m so blessed to able to see a standing monarchy (in Tonga) and live in a place where the monarchy fell — unfortunately — but to kind of feel both ends is crazy. I feel like I’m in a position to tie Tonga, Samoa and Hawaii (together). I feel like it’s my duty.”

Tonga was a British protectorate from 1900 to 1970, but the Tongan monarchy remained in place and never relinquished its sovereignty. The constitution limits land ownership to native Tongans although land may be leased. Due to the long and close historical ties between Tonga and Samoa, Tatofi said it’s almost certain he has some Samoan ancestry.

“I feel that Tonga is where Hawaiian would be if it still had a monarchy, and that the rest of the South Pacific learned from Hawaii,” he said. “They saw what happened in Hawaii and they put laws in place. The monarchy in Tonga is very strict when it comes to land (ownership).”

Visiting Tonga, as he did after his Honolulu City Lights show in December, keeps him in touch with his Polynesian heritage.

“When I went back to Tonga recently I got real grounded, real fast,” he said. “To get a cup of rain water you have to walk down to the church, go to the rain water (tank), fill up the bucket, go back home, warm it up to kill all the bacteria, and then you can drink it.

“The majority of Tonga is very much off-grid living. You build your own septic (tank), you build your own trash system, you eat what you grow, and I feel like that’s how Hawaii would have been.”

IN HAWAII, where Tatofi appreciates all the conveniences many Hawaii residents take for granted, his family keeps him grounded. His father never encouraged him to become a professional musician and told him to keep it as a hobby. But when his album “Pua Kiele” began getting notice, “he finally started to come around: ‘Son, you know you’re pretty good.’”

Tatofi’s three sisters — all of whom are pursuing careers in medicine — can also be counted on “to bring me back to ground zero.”

“When I was younger my oldest sister always told me I can’t join her band. ‘Josh, you suck at singing. You can’t join my band.’ After I won the male vocalist award she was like, ‘Yeah, but you still can’t join my band.’”

Whatever happens in New York today, Tatofi will take his career forward another step Feb. 16 when he headlines “The Valentine’s Date That’s Worth The Wait” dinner show with three other Hoku Award winners — Kalani Pe‘a, Lehua Kalima and Mark Yamanaka — at the Pomaikai Ballrooms in Iwilei.

“It’s kind of my first ‘Josh Tatofi concert’ so it’s a big one for me and the team. We’ve always been supporting our friends as supporting acts, which we’ll always do, but we wanted to step it up this year — do Pomaikai Ballrooms, and maybe in the future, Hawaii Theatre.”

He’ll also be working on a Christmas album to follow up on the popular success of a social media music video he put together with Kapena De Lima. The duo’s Christmas season remake of “Who Would Imagine A King” from the Whitney Houston film, “The Preacher’s Wife,” garnered many requests for a complete album.

He and De Lima are planning a second Hawaiian album, too.