Delhi girl in race for the 60th Grammy Awards

Hailing from Delhi, Shruti Dhasmana never imagined that the song in which she plays female vocals would be considered for nomination in the 60th Grammy Awards – to be held in January 2018.

"When I was informed about the acceptance for consideration for the nomination, I was speechless and excited at the same time. It is a matter of great pride and honour for me to be a part of such a huge project that is going for the world's most prestigious award in music," says the 21-year-old Gargi college graduate.

Sung by the living legend of tabla, Pt. Anindo Chatterjee, his son Anubrata Chatterjee and Siddhant Bhatia, 'Guru Govinda Govinda' is a part of the music album 'Ananta Volume 1 – Maestros of India' and the official submission of The Art of Living foundation accepted for consideration for nomination in the 60th Grammy awards. Talking about the track, Shruti says that this particular track is a purely classical rendition with a hint of western vocals in the background.

"The track is a composition of Siddhant Bhatia and is a very innovative, new rendition of an Indian Classical tabla duet performance. In conventional tabla solo performances, we have a sarangi or a harmonium accompanying the tabla. In this case, however, we have voices acting as a lehra and an accompanying background track sung by me."

Shruti is by far the youngest amongst some of the legendary and senior-most maestros of India. And she says that the most important lesson she has learnt from all of them is that of humility and honesty.

The young prodigy recounts how challenging it was to share the space with legends. "I was guided into the track. I did not perform classical music, so I did not require much training. However, it was difficult to catch the rhythms sometimes because we are literally performing with the living legend of Tabla, Pt. Anindo Chatterjee. It has taken me years of practice in both Indian and Western style. I truly thank both my parents to have introduced me to the world of music," she said.

As far as the future is concerned, the vivacious singer will be out with her first single in February and plans to take one step at a time and work with distinct musicians to be a part of more such recordings and performances.