This year is proven to make one of the historical landmarks of the Indian Music industry. Grammys 2024 which took place on February 5, at the Crypto.com auditorium of Los Angeles Indian Musician Shankar Mahadevan’s band Shakti’s “This Moment” was declared as winner for best global music album category making him bagged his first Grammy award. The vocalist shared his excitement over the big win during an interview with PTI. Alongwith Mahadevan the band includes founding member, guitarist John McLaughlin, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan and percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram.
Shankar Mahadevan said the Grammys stage is the epitome of world music recognition
Mahadevan said, “These kinds of feelings can’t be described in words because it’s a matter of honour and privilege. The Grammys stage is the epitome of world music recognition. I was very happy and blessed to be a small part of this recognition and the fact that Indian music was appreciated worldwide. That’s a great feeling. I’d like to thank god for giving me this opportunity.”
The musician who is part of famous Indian music composer trio Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, said, “You’re completely blacked out when the name is announced. You have to walk that whole passage and go up the stage, But it is a feeling of relief because the tension of waiting for the prize to be announced, even during a small school award function, really kills you,”
“And over here (at the Grammys), it’s got all kinds of mixed feelings. As the award function is going on you’re analysing, ‘This will happen, that will happen. Oh maybe, maybe not!’ It’s crazy. But it was a feeling of absolute elation and joy. We were just celebrating from the word go,” he added.
Moreover, it was an incredible coincidence that the same day he won the Grammy also marked the release of his biography The Musical Maverick which is penned by Ashis Ghatak and published by Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd.“I was so happy that these two dates merged together and my dear friend Ashis Ghatak’s hard work finally saw the light of the day… It was totally unplanned, undecided but it happened,” he said of his biography.
Therefore he praised the author Ghatak who has also penned the biography of Indian jazz legend Louis Banks, by saying, “Ashis is no frills, no nonsense. I like such people, he really touched my heart. When he asked me, ‘Can I write a book or biography on you?’ I said, ‘Yeah, if you feel I’m worthy of it, please go ahead’… The way he started taking details about my life and the people around me.. he used to work passionately, patiently. There are very few people like him.”
Also Read: Ameen Sayani, the grand old man of Indian radio, passed away at 91
