Sitarist Anoushka Shankar, daughter of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, is on cloud nine. Reason: She has been nominated for the 2025 Grammys. Ahead of the much-awaited gala, Anoushka sat for an interview with NDTV’s Abira Dhar.
In one segment, Anoushka Shankar recounted an interesting anecdote about her father. FYI: Ravi Shankar is a four-time Grammy winner. But do you know he lost two of his awards once?
Elaborating on the topic, Anoushka Shankar said, “Sometime in my teenage, my mum realised she couldn’t find his (Ravi Shankar’s) Grammys. This became a talking point… how do you lose a Grammy? He didn’t know where it was. He said he left it in a suitcase at some friend’s house.”
Anoushka Shankar added that her mother called up the Grammy Foundation requesting them make another award for Ravi Shankar. “She called them and they said, ‘Yeah we can do that no problem. Which is the one that he has lost?’ She said, ‘What do you mean?’ They said, ‘He got two Grammys, so which one?’” said the sitarist.
Ravi Shankar was oblivious to winning two Grammys.
To conclude, Anoushka Shankar said, “He didn’t even know he had two Grammys. He thought he had just one. He lost two but he didn’t even know he had two. That was my Grammy experience of growing up. It was not just what he cared about. It was about the music. In a way, it is such a beautiful reminder of what’s actually important. By the time I was born, he already had those two.”
Ravi Shankar took home his first Grammy in the Best Chamber Music Performance category for West Meets East in 1967. It was a remarkable collaboration with violinist Yehudi Menuhin. He died in 2012. A year later, the legendary sitarist was honoured with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Meanwhile, Anoushka Shankar is nominated for the 67th Grammy Awards, alongside Indian artists Ricky Kej, Radhika Vekaria, Chandrika Tandon and Varijashree Venugopal. She collaborated with British multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier on the song A Rock Somewhere. The track is eyeing a win in the Best Global Music Performance category.
This year, the Grammys will take place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 2.
