A R Rahman bags two trophies at the Grammy Awards

Los Angeles, Feb 1 (PTI) Indian music maestro A R Rahman struck gold once again, bagging two trophies at the 52nd Grammy Awards here for his music in ''Slumdog Millionaire''. The composer, who has already won a Golden Globe and two Academy awards, registered win in both the categories he was nominated for.

Rahman, 44, was the earliest winner in the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture category and picked up another trophy for his song "Jai Ho" in the best motion picture song category moments later. "This is insane, God is great again," an elated Rahman said while accepting the golden gramophones.

Rahman beat Steve Jordan for "Cadillac Records," Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds", the producers of "Twilight" and "True Blood" to bag the award in the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture category. In the best song category Rahman''s rivals included Bruce Springsteen for his song "The Wrestler," from the Oscar-nominated movie of the same name.

Rahman''s Grammy win was similar to his triumph at the Oscars last year where he picked up the best original score statuette before winning the Oscar for ''Jai Ho'', which has become an international anthem. It is Rahman''s first Grammy.

The other Indians who have won the award, known as the Oscars in music, include Pandit Ravi Shankar and Zakir Hussain.

Rahman's Tamil album gets global premiere

Rahman's Tamil album gets global premiere
January 07, 2010 14:15 IST
Tags: Rahman, Sony Music Entertainment India, VTV, Trisha Krishnan, Gautham Menon
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CommentSony Music India's [ Images ] foray into the Tamil movie industry kicked off in style with the announcement of the world premiere of A R Rahman's [ Images ] Tamil album, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (VTV).

Interestingly, this is the first Tamil album from Rahman after his double Academy Award win and just before the Grammy [ Images ] Awards scheduled for February12.

VTV directed by Gowtham Menon stars Silambarasan (Simbhu) and Trisha Krishnan [ Images ] in the lead roles. The songs of Menon's last film Vaaranam Aayiram composed by Harris Jayaraj were also released by Sony Music. The album was a critical and commercial blockbuster.

Coming back to Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, a sneak preview of its music was held in London [ Images ] on December 19. The entire cast and crew including Rahman, Gautham Menon, Simbhu, Trisha and all the singers were present.

"London was a great experience. We had a live unplugged performance of all the songs by the singers who have sung in the album. The audience, mostly English, loved the music. Everybody felt it sounded very international which was hardly surprising considering the music is by Rahman. The intention was to reach out to an international audience but we achieved more than that. We plan to do a road show with all the singers now. This show was a first of it's kind. Now the expectation about the film is tremendous and the pressure is on me," says Gautham Menon.

VTV's music CDs and cassettes will be released across the world via Amazon's online retail store. The music will also be available digitally on iTunes, Nokia Store, and iPhone application.

This unique activity for VTV will be executed through an iPhone music application (app) which will allow the users to stream and listen to the full-length songs from the film, download the songs, wallpapers and other movie related information.

This initiative is a first for an iPhone application that is entirely based on movie OST by Sony Music. It is the result of the joint efforts by Sony Music Entertainment India and Dot Com Infoway (DCI) Mobile Studios, a Chennai based Software and Mobile applications developer.

The service will be available to any registered user of iPhone apps across the world. A user will be charged $1.99 for downloading the application facilitating unlimited streaming of the songs from the album and $2.99 to download the whole album.

Jai Ho wins again in Belgium

CommentOscar winner musician A R Rahman's Jai Ho has again won laurels at the World Soundtrack Academy awards in Ghent, Belgium.

The song from Slumdog Millionaire won in "best original song written for film" category at the ninth World Soundtrack Awards announced at Ghent, and the ceremony, in addition to Rahman, was reportedly attended by world film music personalities like Alexandre Desplat, Marvin Hamlisch, Reinhold Heil, Johhny Klimek, Alti Ovarsson, Jerome Lemmonier and Andrew Lockington.

Music for Jai Ho was provided by Rahman; lyrics by Gulzar and Tanvi Shah; and performed by Rahman, Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaksmi Iyver, and Vijay Prakash.

The World Soundtrack Awards are distributed annually for outstanding achievement in scoring music for motion pictures and other achievements in five categories. Academy is aimed at organising and overseeing the educational, cultural and professional aspects of the art of film music, including the preservation of the history of the soundtrack and its worldwide promotion.

Image: A scene from Slumdog Millionaire