‘Divine Tides’ earns Ricky Kej his second Grammy

Lahari Velu

Bengaluru’s Ricky Kej and American composer Stewart Copeland emerged winners at the 64th Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Monday.

The duo triumphed in the ‘Best New Album’ category for their work ‘Divine Tides’.

“I grew up with his music and I had his posters on my wall. Today, I won a Grammy with him. It’s absolutely amazing,” said Ricky about Copeland at the acceptance speech. Copeland, a rock legend, made waves as the drummer of the British rock band The Police.

While it’s the sixth Grammy honour for Copeland, this is Ricky’s second triumph at the popular music awards. His maiden Grammy win came in 2015 for ‘Winds of Samsara’ in the Best New Age Album Category.

Also Read | After Oscars, Grammys leave out Lata Mangeshkar from 'In Memoriam' section

‘Divine Tides’, which consists of nine songs and eight music videos, is produced by Karnataka’s Lahari Music, one of South India’s largest music companies.

“The album is about co-existence,” said Kej at the speech.

“In India we have a phrase called ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, which means the ‘world is one family’. We must think of living in peace not just within human beings but also with all entities of nature such as land, water, and animals,” said the 40-year-old.

Lahari Velu, one of the associate producers of the album, told DH, “The beauty of ‘Divine Tides’ is that it talks about Indian culture. We are proud to release it from Karnataka.”

He added that Kej gave his all for the album.

“It is a very personal project for Ricky. The work began during the Covid-19 break and he deserves the prize for his immense hard work,” said Velu.

Shot in the Himalayas, Spanish forests and many other picturesque locations, the album is streaming on Lahari YouTube channels.

Kej, the US-born musician, has performed in over 30 countries and composed music for these three Kannada feature films, all starring Ramesh Aravind: ‘Accident’ (2008), ‘Venkata In Sankata’ (2009), and ‘Crazy Kutumba’ (2010).

Meanwhile, Falguni Shah, popularly known as Falu, won her maiden Grammy for ‘A Colorful World’ in the Best Children’s Music Album category. The New York-based musician, who trained in music in Mumbai, has worked with legendary composer AR Rahman.

Watch the latest DH Videos here: