Press Trust Of India
Los Angeles, Feb 9: Indian artists Ricky Kej and Neela Vaswani won two trophies at the 57th Grammy Awards here, where British crooner Sam Smith bagged four gongs, including song of the year and record of the year for his mega hit ‘Stay With Me’.
Bangalore-based Kej, 33, won the golden gramophone for his collaborative album ‘Winds of Samsara’ in the New Age Album category while Indian origin Vaswani, who is an author, won the trophy in the Best Children’s Album category for her narration in ‘I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up For Education And Changed The World (Malala Yousafzai)’.
The big winner of the evening was the 22-year-old Smith, who also bagged the best newcomer and best pop vocal album awards for his debut ‘In the Lonely Hour’. Smith, however, failed to make a hat-trick with Beck emerging as the dark horse of the Sunday night ceremony by bagging the album of the year trophy for his critically-lauded ‘Morning Phase’.
Beck, 44, also a winner for best rock album, was presented the award by Prince, who referenced killings of black people by police with a short speech. “Like books and black lives, albums still matter,” he said.
The other big winners of the musical extravaganza were Beyonce and Pharrell Williams as they both scored three gongs.
Williams, who performed on ‘Happy’ won best music video and best pop solo performance, while his ‘G I R L’ won best urban contemporary album.
Beyonce, another major performer of the night, took home best R&B performance and R&B song for ‘Drunk in Love’ and best surround sound album for self-titled ‘Beyonce’.
Both Williams and Beyonce subtly referred to the Ferguson killing by including ‘hands up don’t shoot’ gesture in their performances.