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Grammy Awards 2024: Shankar Mahadevan and Ganesh Rajagopalan accepting the award (Photo: X/ @@RecordingAcad)
Indian musicians Shankar Mahadevan and Zakir Hussain won the Grammys award for “Best Global Music Album” on Monday with their fusion band “Shakti”. The award was given to the album “This Moment”.
The album “This Moment” was released in June 2023 and is the band’s first album in 45 years.
It features eight compositions and performances by John McLaughlin (guitar, guitar synth), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Shankar Mahadevan (vocalist), V Selvaganesh (percussionist), and Ganesh Rajagopalan (violinist).
Taking to social media platform X, Grammys shared the post and wrote, “Congrats Best Global Music Album winner – ‘This Moment’ Shakti. #GRAMMYs.”
They were nominated in the Global Music Album category alongside artists like Susana Baca, Bokante, Burna Boy and Davido.
The “Shakti” band was first formed in 1973 by jazz guitarist John McLaughlin. Its original lineup disbanded in 1978, and for two decades, each musician pursued their own careers.
In the late 90s, the band reformed with Shankar Mahadevan on vocals, U Srinivas on mandolin and Selvaganesh Vinayakram replacing his father Vikku alongside McLaughlin and Hussain – bringing another creative dimension to an ensemble that was already considered one of the best groups in the emerging world music genre.
After the 2014 demise of Shrinivas, Shakti once again ceased to perform, but in early 2020, the group once again reconstituted itself, convening with violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan for two sold-out concerts – the first one in Kolkata on January 14, 2020, and the second one in Singapore on January 16, 2020.
In his acceptance speech, Mahadevan said, “Thank you boys. Thank you, God, family, friends and India. India, we are proud of you…Last but not least, I would like to dedicate this award to my wife whom every note of my music is dedicated to.”
Zakir Hussain also secured the “Best Global Music Performance” Grammy for “Pashto” with Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer, featuring the flute virtuoso Rakesh Chaurasia.
The 66th Annual Grammy Awards 2024 are being held in Los Angeles.
(With agency inputs)
First Published: Feb 05 2024 | 9:48 AM IST
