The 65th Annual Grammy Awards took place on February 6 (February 5 EST) and it was a memorable night. Indian music composer Ricky Kej won his third Grammy at the event to become the only Indian to win the award thrice. The Bengaluru-based musician, who just released the nine-track album, Divine Tides, alongside rock great Stewart Copeland, the drummer of the legendary British rock band The Police, received a Grammy for Best Immersive Audio Album. Ricky received a Grammy award for the same album in the Best New Age Album category the previous year.
“I am really happy to let you know that I just won my third Grammy Award for Divine Tides with Stewart Copeland. It feels absolutely surreal to win the biggest prize in music again for the third time,” The 41-year-old musician told media sources about the win.
He added, “I am extremely grateful to have had another opportunity to make my country proud by achieving this on the biggest platform in the world for music. I’d like to thank the Recording Academy (the organisation behind Grammy Awards) for this honour, my collaborators Stewart Copeland, Herbert Waltl, Eric Schilling and everyone who made this album possible.”
The musician also took to his Twitter account to share some images and announce the news, writing, “Just won my 3rd Grammy Award. Extremely grateful, am speechless! I dedicate this Award to India.”
The Recording Academy congratulated him on Twitter saying, “Congrats Best Immersive Audio Album winner - ‘Divine Tides’ Eric Schilling, immersive mix engineer; @copelandmusic, @rickykej & Herbert Waltl, immersive producers (Stewart Copeland & Ricky Kej) #GRAMMYs (sic).”
The musician won his first Grammy in 2015 in the category of Best New Age Album for Winds of Samsara. Ricky is the fourth and the youngest Indian to have won a Grammy Award.
During the time his nomination was announced, the musician told media sources, “It is an absolute honour to be nominated a second time for a Grammy Award for our album ‘Divine Tides’. Although my music is cross-cultural, it has always had strong Indian roots and I am extremely proud that Indian music has been recognized and shortlisted for this prestigious award by The Recording Academy. This nomination encourages me further and solidifies my belief to continue making music that can inspire positive social impact.”