Anoushka Shankar: Collaborative song feels right for this year

Anoushka Shankar talks about how her upcoming performance at Grammys represents the way artistes created music throughout lockdown.

Come March 14, Anoushka Shankar will join a line-up of artistes, including Gregory Porter and Kamasi Washington, to perform at the 63rd Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony. They will kick off the global live-streamed event with a tribute performance celebrating the 50th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s classic track Mercy, mercy me.

From performing a solo set at the 2006 edition to teaming up with diverse voices for the upcoming gig, it is a refreshing change of pace for the seven-time Grammy-nominated composer. “Every now and then, I am asked to play on a song I wouldn’t normally play, and it’s a joy. This year, I’ve been asked to take part in a collaborative performance of an iconic song alongside some truly wonderful artistes. The last time I performed at the Grammy Premiere Ceremony, I had a fifteen-minute solo set, and played a piece from my nominated album. This was different as it was a collaborative song, but it feels right for this year and representative of the way we’ve all been making music,” says Shankar.

Meanwhile, her latest track, Sister Susannah, is up for release on March 22. It features her on the sitar, against spoken word poetry that draws an unidentified man’s ‘checklist’ of requirements for his partner. 

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