Five Indian musicians, including tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia, bagged the Grammys awards at a glittering ceremony in Los Angeles.

Hussain was India’s big winner with three Grammys followed by Rakesh Chaurasia who picked up two. Singer Shankar Mahadevan, violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan and percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram, Hussain’s collaborators in the fusion group ‘Shakti’, won one Grammy each at the event held at the Crypto.com Arena Sunday night.

Shakti won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album for “This Moment”. The album features the four Indians as well as its founding member,  legendary British guitarist John McLaughlin. “This Moment”, which was released to critical acclaim in June 2023, is the group’s first studio album in more than 45 years.

Besides his award for Shakti, Hussain won two other awards — the Best Global Music Performance for “Pashto” and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for “As We Speak”.

The best global music performance category had eight nominees, including “Abundance In Millets”, a song by Falu and featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “Shadow Forces” by Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily, and “Alone” by Burna Boy.

Rakesh Chaurasia, nephew of legendary flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia, won two Grammys as part of the ensemble of American banjo player Bela Fleck and American bassist Edgar Meyer for “Pashto” and “As We Speak”.

“Without love and music we are nothing,” Hussain said in his award acceptance speech for “Pashto”.

Hussain had won Grammys across categories and in solo capacity as well as in collaborations in 1991, 1996 and 2008.

Music maestro A R Rahman won two Grammys for his composition in the film “Slumdog Millionaire” in 2008.

Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar was the first musician from India to win a Grammy Award (Best Chamber Music Performance) in 1968. Since then, several musicians from the country, including Zubin Mehta, Anoushka Shankar, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, L Shankar, and T H Vinayakram, have received Grammys in various categories.