India shone at the 2024 Grammy Awards with five Indian musicians, including tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia, picking up the coveted prize at a glittering ceremony in Los Angeles.
While Hussain was India’s big winner with three Grammys, Rakesh Chaurasia picked up two. Singer Shankar Mahadevan, violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan and percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram, Hussain’s collaborators in the fusion group Shakti, won one Grammy each at the event held at the Crypto.com Arena Sunday night.
Shakti won the 2024 Grammy Award for best global music album for “This Moment”. The album features the four Indians as well as its founding member, the legendary British guitarist John McLaughlin. “This Moment”, which released to critical acclaim in June 2023, is the group’s first studio album in more than 45 years.
Besides his award for Shakti, Hussain won two other awards — the best global music performance for “Pashto” and best contemporary instrumental album for “As We Speak”.
The best global music performance category had eight nominees, including “Abundance In Millets”, a song by Falu and featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “Shadow Forces” by Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily, and “Alone” by Burna Boy.
Rakesh Chaurasia, nephew of legendary flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia, won two Grammys as part of the ensemble of American banjo player Bela Fleck and American bassist Edgar Meyer for “Pashto” and “As We Speak”.
This is not the first win for Hussain at the awards organised by the US-based Recording Academy. He earlier won Grammys, across categories and in solo capacity as well as in collaborations, in 1991, 1996 and 2008.
The “As We Speak” team — Hussain, Meyer, Fleck and Chaurasia — were also nominated for best instrumental composition for motion.
Other nominees in the best global music album were “Epifanías” (Susana Baca), “History” (Bokanté), “I Told Them…” (Burna Boy) and “Timeless” (Davido).
Nominees in the best contemporary instrumental album segment included “On Becoming” by House Of Waters, “Jazz Hands” by Bob James, “The Layers” by Julian Lage, and “All One” by Ben Wendel.
Sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar was the first musician from India to win a Grammy Award (best chamber music performance) in 1968. Since then, several musicians from the country, including Zubin Mehta, Anoushka Shankar, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, L Shankar, and T H Vinayakram, have received Grammys in various categories.
In the highly anticipated Album of the Year category, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift’s album “Midnights” emerged as the winner. She secured the award by surpassing nominees such as SZA, Jon Batiste, boygenius, Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey, Janelle Monáe and Olivia Rodrigo.
In one of the biggest wins of the night, American singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” bagged the award for Record Of The Year. Miley won the trophy defeating bigwigs like SZA (Kill Bill), Taylor Swift (Anti-Hero) and Billie Eilish (What Was I Made For?). Earlier in the day, the song had also earned Cyrus the award for Best Pop Solo Performance.
American singer-songwriter and musician Victoria Monét was named the Best New Artist. American singer-songwriter Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottom Country has been named the Best Country Album.
American singer and musician Jack Antonoff has bagged his third consecutive Grammy for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical, at the 66th Grammy Awards.
American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish’s ballad “What Was I Made For?” from Greta Gerwig’s fantasy comedy Barbie was named the Song Of The Year. Theron Thomas has won the Grammy for Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical. (PTI)
