I am still pinching myself to see if this is real: Falu on win
MUMBAI: “It was magical… like nothing I could have imagined,” musician Falguni Shah aka Falu told HT, hours after she won the award for Best Children’s Album at the 64th annual Grammy Awards in Las Vegas. Falu’s winning album, ‘A Colorful World’, encourages children to celebrate differences and find wonder and joy even in the pandemic.
The awards ceremony was held on Monday morning. Falu also performed at the event.
“I’m ecstatic and still pinching myself,” she said, after the win. “I take this as a blessing from my teachers, my father who passed away last year, and my wellwishers.”
A trained musician from a family of musicians, Falu studied under the likes of sarangi maestro Sultan Khan and the legend of the Jaipur-atrauli gharana, Kishori Amonkar, while growing up in Mumbai. She moved to the US in 2000, toured with her Boston-based husband Gaurav Shah on the fusion band Karyshma (Hindi for miracle), and released a self-titled solo album in the US in 2007, blending elements of folk from across south-east Asia with Western music. She also performed and collaborated with artists such as AR Rahman and Yo Yo Ma at venues that included the White House.
Her journey into children’s music began in 2017, when her son Nishaad Shah started preschool. When he came home asking why he looked different, why his food was yellow, she says she felt handcuffed at first. Then she realised she could use music to help him and his friends understand and celebrate their differences.
‘A Colorful World’ celebrates diversity through songs such as Rainbow, which is about how each person contains different shades, and represents a different shade, and how the shades can all coexist happily. Another song on the album, ‘Crayons Are Wonderful’, dwells on how each crayon has its own unique characteristics, and how it is the different hues that make a crayon box spark joy.
Falu’s first children’s album, ‘Falu’s Bazaar’ (2019), was also nominated for a Grammy in the same category. This time, she walked away with the prize, adding to India’s tally at the event. Other winners Monday included the Indian composer Ricky Kej, who won Best New-age Album with Stewart Copeland for the album ‘Divine Tides’. “Any wins and nominations always feel good,” Falu told HT. “Music can be such a positive force in what is a difficult time for all of us. This is a reminder that human beings need music and will always continue to do so.”