New Delhi: Indra Nooyi’s sister, Indian American musician and businesswoman Chandrika Tandon, won the Grammy award in the Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album category. Her album ‘Triveni’ beat Ricky Kej’s ‘Break of Dawn’, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ‘Opus’, Anoushka Shankar’s ‘Chapter II: How Dark It Is Before Dawn’, and Radhika Vekaria’s ‘Warriors of Light’.
The musician along with her collaborators, South African flautist Wouter Kellerman and Japanese cellist Eru Matsumoto, were presented the award at the 67th edition of the Grammys, organised by the Recording Academy, in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Triveni, which draws its name from the symbolic confluence of three sacred rivers in India, is a meditative seven-track album to guide listeners on a journey of inner healing. This is not Tandon’s first brush with international acclaim. The IIM Ahmedabad alumni was earlier nominated in 2011, for ‘Om Namo Narayana: Soul Call’.
“We had such wonderful nominees in the category. The fact that we won this is really an extra special moment for us. There were fabulous musicians who were nominated with us,” said Tandon in an interview with the Recording Academy after her win.
Tandon is the older sister of Indra Nooyi, who led PepsiCo for 12 years as its CEO. She was the first Indian-American woman partner at McKinsey, and created New York-based Tandon Capital Associates. She learned music from classical singer Shubhra Guha and vocalist Girish Wazalwar.
The multi-hatted businesswoman is a trustee of New York University, Chair of the Board of NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Chair of NYU’s President’s Global Council, and a Trustee of NYU Langone Health. She is also the founder and patron of Madras Christian College’s Boyd-Tandon School of Business, and a member of Yale University’s President’s Council of International Activities.
The consulate general of India in New York took to their official X, and congratulated Tandon on her historic win.
“Congratulations to Ms. Chandrika Tandon… A mesmerizing fusion of ancient mantras, flute, and cello, Triveni bridges cultures and traditions through the universal language of music,” read the tweet.
Also read: Grammys leave out Zakir Hussain from ‘In Memoriam’ section
Grammy winners from India
India has had a history of wins at the prestigious music awards, from AR Rahman, Tanvi Shah and Gulzar in 2010 to now. But since 2022, Indian-origin singers and composers have been making their presence felt in a robust manner. That was the year Indian-American singer Falguni Shah won the Best Children’s Music Album Grammy for ‘A Colorful World’. Shah, who goes by the stage name Falu, along with her husband composed the ‘Millet Song’, which also featured Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It incorporated a portion of his speech at the ‘Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference’ in New Delhi.
Kej also secured his second Grammy at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in 2022 for ‘Divine Tides’. His first was in 2015 when he won in the Best New Age Album category for ‘Winds of Samsara’. Kej scored a hattrick in 2023 when he clinched his third Grammy for ‘Divine Tides’, this time in the Best Immersive Audio Album category.
In 2024, Shankar Mahadevan’s band Shakti won the Best Global Music Album. Mahadevan shared the award with fellow bandmate and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain. Hussain also picked up the coveted award in the Best Global Music Performance category for ‘Pashto’.
The Grammys have lost their value. Nobody really cares about the Grammy awards nowadays. Every Tom Dock and Harry seems to be winning the Grammy over the last few years.
In a way the situation is quite similar to that of Nobel Peace Prize. It’s more about politics and ideology than talent and skill.