The 2024 Grammy Awards has been a great event in terms of India’s perspective as five musicians, including tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia, picked up the coveted prize at a glittering ceremony in Los Angeles, PTI reported 

While Hussain was India’s big winner with three Grammys, Rakesh Chaurasia followed him with 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 bags the best global music album 

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 was 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”.

In a post on X, the prime minister praised the five artists for making India proud at the Grammys, saying their “exceptional talent and dedication to music” had won hearts worldwide.

“… These achievements are a testament to the hardwork you keep putting in. It will also inspire the new generation of artists to dream big and excel in music,” Modi said.

“Without love and music we are nothing,” Hussain said in his award acceptance speech for “Pashto”, one of the 12 songs in the fusion album “As We Speak”.

“Thanks to the Academy, thanks to all these great musicians for giving us this beautiful (live) music today… Families are here and without them, we are nothing. Without love, music, harmony, we are nothing,” the veteran percussionist said.

Hussain’s road to success 

This is not the first win for Hussain at the awards organised by the US-based Recording Academy. Earlier, he won Grammys, across categories and in solo capacity as well as in collaborations, in 1991, 1996 and 2008.

In 2008, six Indians — Rahman, H Sridhar, P A Deepak, Gulzar, Tanvi Shah, and Hussain bagged the coveted accolade across categories.

Rakesh Chaurasia expresses gratitude

Rakesh Chaurasia said he was “happy and honoured” to bring two Grammys home to India.

“More than the joy I felt for myself, the pride of winning it as an Indian musician ranks higher. To win two Grammys on my first-ever nomination makes it sweeter,” he told news agency PTI.

The musician thanked Hussain for being an inspiration, saying that it was Hussain who introduced him to Fleck and Meyer.

The “As We Speak” team — Hussain, Meyer, Fleck and Chaurasia — were also nominated for best instrumental composition.

(With inputs from PTI)