“India is shining in every direction”: Ricky Kej on Shankar Mahadevan’s ‘Shakti’ winning Grammy award

Los Angeles [US], February 5 (ANI): Three-time Grammy Award-winning musician Rickey Kej heaped praise on singer Shankar Mahadevan and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain’s band ‘Shakti’ for their win at this year’s Grammys.

The Jass Fusion band bagged the Best Global Music Album for their latest release ‘This Moment’ at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles, California in the US.

Taking to X, Ricky Kej shared a video and wrote, “SHAKTI wins a #GRAMMYs #GRAMMYs2024 !!! Through this album 4 brilliant Indian musicians win Grammys!! Just amazing. India is shining in every direction. Shankar Mahadevan, Selvaganesh Vinayakram, Ganesh Rajagopalan, Ustad Zakhir Hussain. Ustad Zakhir Hussain won a second Grammy along with virtuoso flute player Rakesh Chaurasia. Brilliant!!!! #IndiaWinsGrammys.”

They are nominated in the Global Music Album category alongside artists like Susana Baca, Bokante, Burna Boy and Davido.

‘This Moment’ album was released in June 2023, and is the band’s first album in 45 years. The band also kicked off their world tour

It features eight compositions and performances created by John McLaughlin (guitar, guitar synth), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Shankar Mahadevan (vocalist), V Selvaganesh (percussionist), and Ganesh Rajagopalan (violinist).

the band was first formed in 1973 by jazz guitarist John McLaughlin

Shakti’s original lineup disbanded in 1978, and for two decades, each of the musicians 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 Mandolin U Shrinivas, Shakti once again ceased to perform but in the 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.

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