Norah, Anoshka accept Pt Ravi Shankar's two Grammy awards
Legendary sitar player late Pandit Ravi Shankar won two posthumous Grammy awards. This award came to the legend exactly 60 days after he passed away. He passed away on December 11, 2012 at the age of 92. Pandit Ravi Shankar is a renowned sitar player of India. He had achieved national and international fame. The sitar legend Pandit Ravi Shankar received two Grammy Awards, the Lifetime Achievement Grammy award, which was jointly accepted by his daughters, sitarist Anoushka Shankar and singer-songwriter Norah Jones and also won the Best World Music Album award for The Living Room Sessions Part 1. Interestingly, his daughter Anoushka was also nominated in the same category for her album Traveller.
Both the daughters Anoushka and Norah attended the
pre-Grammy ceremony at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre to accept the awards on
behalf of their late father. "We know he was very excited to be receiving
this award. We really miss him. He lived and breathed music. He was tapping out
rhythms on the breakfast table and making me do five over seven... I am still
trying to get it. We are very happy to accept the award for him," said
nine-time Grammy winner Norah, 33.
"It was 60 days ago today that he passed away. It's kind of difficult to
be standing up here, like Norah said, I am thrilled that he knew about this
award before he passed away at least. But I wish we weren't standing up here
for him," said Anoushka, 31, who has accompanied her father at concerts
all around the world.
"I want to say thanks to my mom... He did his last performance just a few
weeks before he died and I believe she was the reason he was able to be as
healthy and strong as he was. I am eternally grateful to her for that. "My
father always said that music could create world peace because it had the
potential to raise the consciousness of people... When I watched him play what
moved me was this incredible meditative state where he could take people,"
she added.
Anoshka recalled an incident when Pt Ravi Shankar forgot his Grammy award at his friend’s place. "She said 'What do you mean which Grammy?'. It turns out he had won two and just didn't know it. That was the kind of musician he was. He went on to win a third, and today he gets this incredible honour. Music was the be all and end all of his life and I am very grateful to the Academy for recognising that," she said.
