The tributes play on...
It’s appropriate that Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar maestro who took Indian music to the world, should be recognised so warmly, if sadly posthumously. It’s also touching that even after the ragas ran out on his life, his album could win a Grammy in competition. Also, his daughters Anoushka and Norah Jones, both awesomely talented in different genres of music, were united in accepting their dad’s lifetime achievement award.
Indian musicians’ presence in world music, including in Hollywood, symbolises how talent has so many avenues now unlike the times before Ravi Shankar’s tryst with the Beatles. The Grammys, more a celebration of music than strictly an awards event, has been known to spread its net far and wide. As a splendidly choreographed event, the Grammys, encompassing a range of music from jazz to hip hop, has no parallel, but then no one needs to teach Hollywood how to put on a show.
Unlike the Oscars and other awards, the Grammys are not just about the nominees. It also offers a space for performers and musical tributes, with one on Bob Marley’s enchanting reggae being a particularly sentimental episode with Bruno Mars, Rihanna and Damien Marley starring. As a prime-time event tailored for television, the Grammys are a spectacle well worth emulating in the rest of the musical world. The divas also paid their own kind of tribute by being disciplined enough to follow the dress code that said not too much flesh please! The show’s all about music, not lust.
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