Five Indians bag Grammys, Zakir Hussain gets three

India shone at the 2024 Grammy Awards with five Indian musicians, including tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia, picking up the coveted prize at a glittering ceremony held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

While Hussain was India’s big winner with three Grammys, Rakesh Chaurasia picked up two. Singer Shankar Mahadevan, violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan and percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram, Hussain’s collaborators in the fusion group Shakti, won one Grammy.

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 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.

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.

This is not the first win for Hussain at the awards organised by the US-based Recording Academy. He earlier won Grammys, across categories and in solo capacity as well as in collaborations, in 1991, 1996 and 2008. The As We Speak team — Hussain, Meyer, Fleck and Chaurasia — were also nominated for best instrumental composition for motion.

Sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar was the first musician from India to win a Grammy Award (best chamber music performance) in 1968. — PTI

Rapper Killer Mike arrested after winning three awards

Rapper Killer Mike, whose real name is Michael Santiago Render, was taken away in handcuffs. This is after he had won three awards before the main broadcast. He was arrested due to an alleged physical altercation with a security guard at the event, according to law enforcement officials.

Kylie Minogue wins for Best Pop Dance Recording

Singer Kylie Minogue has taken home the golden gramophone in an all-new category, Best Pop Dance Recording, for Padam Padam. The win marks Minogue’s second Grammy win after six career nominations. She had previously won Best Dance Recording for Come Into My World. It was one of three new categories introduced at the 66th Grammy’s, the other two being Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical and Best African Music Performance. Padam Padam charted at No. 7 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic chart; it was a much bigger hit in the UK, where it was a No. 1 hit. The song was embraced by the LGBTQ community on both sides of the Atlantic.

Miley’s fan moment with Mariah

Miley Cyrus, who took home her first-ever Grammy award, which was handed to her by Mariah Carey, for the song Flowers. Carey presented Cyrus with the first award of the night for Best Pop Solo Performance. Cyrus was seemingly shocked to hear her name from Carey! As the singer approached the podium and said: “This is just too iconic. Oh my God…”

Tracy Chapman gets standing ovation

Veteran Hollywood singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman performed her 1988 iconic track Fast Car, alongside country artist Luke Combs. The two singers, though hailing from different generations and musical genres, took the stage together on February 4 for a duet rendition of the song that has generated massive success for both of them. Decades after its initial release, Fast Car re-entered the charts when Combs’ cover of the track, infused with a country sensibility, became immensely popular in 2023. Dressed all in black, Chapman kicked off the first performance at the Grammys to the sounds of voracious cheers from the star-studded audience, which included Kacey Musgraves, Taylor Swift and Kelly Clarkson. After they finished, the crowd leapt to their feet in a thunderous applause. IANS