Indian winners at the Grammy Awards

India-based Ricky Kej's collaborated album Winds Of Samsara won the Best New Age Album trophy at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. Ricky teamed up with South African musician Wouter Kellerman for the album, which symbolises peace and harmony.The website of the album describes the project as a "truly global effort", which draws inspiration from two cultures. The music of the album blends in the creative influences of the cultures to generate a sound of calmness and positivity.

Another Indian artist to make it big at the awards this year was Neela Vaswani. She won the trophy in the Best Children's Album category for I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up For Education And Changed The World (Malala Yousafzai). Vaswani narrated the audio version of the book.

Have a look at some other Indians who have won the prestigious Grammy Award in the past...

A R Rahman: He is not just an ace musician, but is considered as the God of music in India. We have been listening to his tunes for many years now but the magic that Rahman creates with his music is everlasting. Having made India proud globally, winning two Grammy Awards in the year 2010 added another feather to his hat. For Slumdog Millionaire, the Chennai composer bagged one Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album (shared with sound engineers H Sridhar & P A Deepak) and the other one for ‘Jai Ho..’ in the Best Song Written for Motion Picture category (shared with singers Sukhwinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaxmi Iyer & Vijay Prakash and songwriter Gulzar).

Zakir Hussain: Zakir is the first name to strike your mind if one is talking about the tabla. The tabla maestro was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award in 2002 before a Grammy came in 2009 to approve of his talent on the world map. It was for Contemporary World Music Album ‘Global Drum Project’ on which he worked alongside Mickey Hart, Sikiru Adepoju & Giovanni Hidalgo. Having done musical concerts all around the globe, Zakir indeed is a master of percussion.

Pandit Ravi Shankar: He is one of those rare names who have made India proud internationally. Known as one of the best exponents of the sitar in the 20th century, Pt. Ravi Shankar has been honoured with four Grammy Awards including one Lifetime Achievement Grammy (posthumous). A 1967 performance at Monterey Film Festival named ‘West Meets East’ brought Shankar a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance. The album of a charity concert called ‘Concert for Bangladesh’ happened in August 1971. This won the ace musician his second Grammy. His third Grammy came in 2000 for his album ‘Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000’. The Lifetime achievement Grammy came only a few days after he passed away due to some heart ailment.

T H Vinayakram: He is the man who is accredited for popularizing the ghatam, an earthen pot, to be used as an instrument. Also known as Vikku Vinayakram, T H Vinayakram is a percussionist from Chennai who plays Carnatic music with the ghatam and the morsing. He became the first ever South Indian to win a Grammy when the same was awarded to him for his participation in Mickey Hart’s ‘Planet Drum’. Reportedly, the musician went on to donate all the proceedings from the award to a charity group.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt: Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is an instrumentalist from Jaipur known for playing Mohan Veena (slide guitar). Recognized for his fusion and pan-cultural collaborations with many western artists, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is proudly featured on the list of Indian winners of the coveted Grammy Award. He won it in the year 1993 for his album ‘A Meeting by the River’ with Ry Cooder.