Shankar Thrilled With Jones’ Grammy Wins
NEW DELHI, India – While Norah Jones’ music is little known in most of India, her sweep at the Grammys brought a wave of pride and cheer to a home in southern New Delhi, where her father sat watching the awards ceremony.
Jones is the daughter of Ravi Shankar, the 82-year-old sitarist who’s India’s best known musician.
“It was such a joy seeing Norah getting so many Grammy Awards. I knew even as a child how talented she was and it makes me so happy to see how she has charmed everyone to such an extent with her singing,” Shankar said in a written statement to The Associated Press.
Shankar is a three-time Grammy winner. His other daughter, Anoushka Shankar, also had a nomination Sunday night for best world music album.
“Norah is my daughter but she grew up in America … I cannot take any credit for the music that she has excelled in,” Shankar told the Star News television channel. “Her base is Western, jazz and country music.”
Beating crowd favorite Bruce Springsteen, the 23-year-old Jones earned five Grammys, including album and record of the year, and her disc “Come Away With Me” was responsible for eight trophies overall. Her disc has sold more than 6 million copies worldwide and become the talk of the music business.
“I am absolutely thrilled. I can’t tell you how happy I am,” he said. “I was fully confident that she would win at least five or six. But when she won eight, I was surprised and very happy.”
Shankar said in a newspaper interview last month that he’d thought of composing a piece for both daughters to perform together.
“But I don’t want to force it upon them,” he told The Hindustan Times. “It would be wonderful if it happened.”
Shankar has had an estranged relationship with his daughter and her mother, New York concert producer Sue Jones. For 10 years, Norah Jones had no contact with her father, but the two since have made peace. Shankar recently saw his daughter perform.
“We sort of reconnected before all this happened,” Jones said in May. “Truth be told, I wouldn’t have wanted him to come see me in a little bar where everyone was talking. I’m over everything, I don’t resent him. I just don’t want him to be the focus of all my press.”
Virgin Records, which released Jones’ album in India, said it was preparing for a sharp increase in sales after the Grammys sweep.
“We have been selling a good amount of her CDs and cassettes even before she won the Grammys. It has been among our top five albums last year,” said T.V.N. Sridhar, who handles sales and marketing for Virgin in northern India. “But now the big boom has started.”
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