GRAMMY MAMMY

Not long after the birth of her second child, sitarist Anoushka Shankar is up for a Grammy Award for the sixth time on February 12, with Land of Gold—a collaboration with artistes such as British-Sri Lankan hip hop star M.I.A., jazz bassist Larry Grenadier and actress Vanessa Redgrave. Will she break her losing streak? The tie-in to the global refugee crisis puts a bit of political weight behind the album—always a factor in a World Music category that illustrates the parochial nature of the Grammy Awards even as it attempts to show the opposite. But the album faces stiff competition from legendary septuagenarian Brazilians Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, who together have won three Grammy Awards; 17-time winner Yo-Yo Ma; fourtime winners Ladysmith Black Mambazo, from South Africa; and debutante Celtic Woman, an all-woman Irish ensemble. With such heavyweights in the field, the smart money says Shankar will once again be forced to say, “It’s an honour just to be nominated”—a truism that surely tastes more bitter every time it’s repeated.