After the Oscar win for MM Keeravani’s composed song Naatu Naatu from SS Rajamouli’s 2022 movie RRR, India again shone on an international stage—this time at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Shakti, the fusion group that has tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Ganesh Rajagopalan, and V. Selvaganesh, won the Best Global Music Album award for The Moment. Indian music isn’t a one-trick pony.
The album was released on 30 June last year. It has eight songs created by Hussain (tabla), Mahadevan (vocalist), Selvaganesh (percussionist), Rajagopalan (violinist) and John McLaughlin (guitar synth). They were nominated for the Grammys with other artists such as Bokante founded by Snarky Puppy’s Michael League, Nigerian singers Burna Boy and Davido, and Peruvian singer Susana Baca.
Hussain also bagged the Best Music Performance award for his contribution to the song Pashto, along with American banjo player Bela Fleck and composer Edgar Meyer, featuring flute player Rakesh Chaurasia.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also nominated for this year’s Grammy Awards. The song Abundance in Millets, featuring Modi, sung by Falguni Shah and her husband Gaurav Shah, was nominated for the Best Global Music Performance award. Hussain bagged his second award of the night in the same category. His third win was in the Contemporary Instrumental Album category for the album As We Speak, which features Pashto.
Never before have so many Indian or Indian-origin performers been nominated or won at the Mecca of music awards. It shows how India’s sleeping giant, its music industry has finally woken up and is making itself seen and heard, one step at a time.
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Global collaborations
Naatu Naatu, a massive hit for both its beats and hookstep, was already big in India in 2022 after the release of Rajamouli’s mammoth period drama featuring Junior NTR and Ram Charan. But when it was performed on stage at the 95th Academy Awards, and won the award for Best Original song, everyone sat up and took notice. For Indians, the cheeky irony was not lost—the song features two Indian activists, played by NTR and Charan, ‘defeating’ a ‘gora firang‘ (White man) in dance to win a girl’s heart. Mahadevan and Hussain, prominent performers and composers, strengthened this footing with their win.
Hussain’s win also highlights how collaboration is key to going global in music. It is not new for musicians in Hollywood; most major artists collaborate not just to reach a wider audience, but also to push sales and climb the top of charts in various categories. While it is not as common for Indian musicians, things have been slowly picking up in the last few years.
As the landscape of Indian music evolves, artists like Falguni Shah are making significant strides in global recognition, showcasing the power of collaboration and cultural fusion.
The singers behind Abundance in Millets—which includes parts of Modi’s speech—have also teamed up with other artists. Shah has collaborated with Puerto Rican singer and actor Ricky Martin and Haitian rapper, singer and songwriter Wyclef Jean for her earlier projects. Her debut album, Falu, was featured in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Beyond Bollywood exhibit as a representative of Indian-American trendsetting artists. She also performed at the 2022 Grammy Awards.
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Jai ho paved the way
Even before music composer AR Rahman, who won the Oscars, Grammys, BAFTA, and Golden Globe back in 2010 for Slumdog Millionaire (2009), sitar player Pandit Ravi Shankar had won a Grammy in 1967 for his performance West Meets East with violinist Yehudi Menuhin in the Best Chamber Music Performance category.
But Rahman paved the path for more Indian musicians to explore the world beyond its immediate borders and neighbours. He won the four biggest awards for his song Jai Ho, in the Best Original Score category.
The Grammy Awards is also extending a hand at making world music more diverse and inclusive with its new categories. The three categories created are Best African Music Performance, Best Pop Dance Recording, and Best Alternative Jazz Album. African acts like Wizkid and Burna Boy have gained consistent global popularity and chart-topping success.
This addition also acknowledges the influence of Afrobeats and local expressions from across the African continent, like Afro-fusion, Afro-pop, Bongo Flava, Ethio jazz, Ndombolo, Ghanaian drill, and South African hip-hop to name a few.
The time is ripe to add more Indian names to the global music space.
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(Edited by Ratan Priya)