The 2024 Grammy Awards has been a great event for India as well. In terms of India, five musicians including tabla maestro 'Zakir Hussain' and flautist' Rakesh Chaurasia received great accolades at the Los Angeles.

Hussain was India's big winner with three Grammy's while Rakesh Chaurasia holds two.

Singer Shankar Mahadevan, violinist Ganesh Rajgopalan and percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram, Hussain's participation in the fusion group Shakti also won one Grammy each at the event held.

Bagging the Best Global Music Album:

Shakti won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album for 'This Moment'. The album features four Indians as well as it's founding member, the legendary British guitarist John Mc Laughlin. This album stands as the group's first studio album in the last 45 years or more.

Hussain also won two more awards other than this- 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 altogether, including 'Abundance in Millets', a song by Falu featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 'Shadow Forces' by Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily and 'Alone' by Burna Roy.

Rakesh Chaurasia won two Grammys as part of the group of American banjo player Bela Fleck and American bassist Edgar Meyer for 'Pashto' and 'As We Speak'.

In a post on X, the Prime Minister praised these artists for winning the Grammy award and also for their dedication to their work and talent. He also added that this feat shall continue to inspire many more generations to dream big and sky-high in the field of music. This achievement serves as a testimony to the sweat and blood these people have put in.

While accepting his award for 'Pashto', as a part of the award speech, Hussain added that without love and music, we are absolutely nothing. Thanks to the Academy and to all the musicians for their live performance.

Hussain has also won Grammys across categories and in a solo capacity as well as in collaborations in 1991, 199 and 2008.

In 2008, six Indians - Rahman, H Sridhar, P A Deepak, Gulzar, Tanvi Shah and Hussain bagged the coveted accolades.

Rakesh Chaurasia after winning two Grammys holds pride in the fact that he has been able to bring the ranking to a higher pedestal of the Indian musicians altogether. The musician holds that everybody in the music industry is an inspiration for him and there was just so much to learn.

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References:

• www.shakti50.com
• financialexpress.com
• m.timesofindia.com