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Tabla player Sandeep Das collaborates with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble and wins!
Indian tabla player Sandeep Das, who was a part of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble Sing Me Home, won the Grammy in the World Music category.
The category also included sitarist Anoushka Shankar's Land of Gold. It was sixth time unlucky for Shankar as she is yet to register a win despite multiple nominations in the category over the years.
Yo-Yo Ma's Sing Me Home features tunes composed or arranged by different global artists as it examines the ever-changing idea of home.
The album was released to accompany a documentary on Ma's project entitled The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble.
Apart from Ma and Das, musicians on the album include the New York-based Syrian clarinet player Kinan Azmeh, who was recently stranded overseas when US President Donald Trump imposed a ban on travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries. Azmeh could return to the country after a court rejected Trump's travel ban order.
Das, who was dressed in a red kurta, said the ensemble sent a powerful message of unity and respect for each other's cultures.
"When things like this happen, it impacts us directly because a lot of us come from a lot of those countries," Das told reporters after accepting the award. "In the current situation, I think we'll keep playing more music and sharing more love."
Anoushka Shankar's Land of Gold is about the global refugee crisis. The 35-year-old Indian musician was accompanied by her husband, British director Joe Wright.
'Very excited that this man is my date to the #grammys today! It's the first time he's been free to join me. #husband #JoeWright #love,' she had tweeted ahead of the ceremony. For the event, the musician chose a red, high-slit velvet Sabyasachi Mukherjee gown.
Shankar, the daughter of famous sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, received her first ever Grammy nomination at the age of 20 but she is yet to bag an award despite multiple nominations. Her late father won two individual Grammys as well as two in collaborations.