10 Indian Musicians Who Gained International Recognition

India has produced a myriad of talents in music, and therefore the nation is legendary for its serious music, its melody, and its uniqueness. There are numerous musicians in India who have illustrious musical oeuvre and have won several accolades. a number of them even went on to win the very best civilian awards. they need to contribute to Indian music with their unparalleled compositions. Many fans literally worship a number of musicians in India. However, there are some musicians of Indian origin who gained international recognition.

Here’s the list of 10 such musicians who are acclaimed internationally –

1. Pandit Shankar –

Pandit Shankar may be a Bengali Indian musician, who is revered because of the most esteemed ambassador of music in Indian. His renditions were mainly Hindustani serious music. He had gained mastery in Sitar playing, something which has remained unrivaled in the Indian music scene. He had pioneered Sitar compositions in India and West also.

His most remarkable work is Pather Panchali, which was a movie by Satyajit Ray. The eminent musician has also toured Europe and America for his Indian Classical rendition. He had become even more famous for his association with violinist, Menuhin, and therefore the Beatles lead guitarist, Harrison – who also learned Sitar with Pandit Shankar and implemented it in a number of the songs like ‘Norwegian Wood’, ‘Love You Too’ and ‘Within You Without You’. He had also received the very best Civilian award – Bharat Ratna in 1999.

2. Zakir Hussain –

Zakir Hussain may be a Tabla player in Hindustani serious music. From a really young age, he started playing Tabla with greats like Pandit Shankar, Pandit Bheemsen Joshi, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, and Pandit Jasraj. Before the emergence of this maestro, people wont to attend serious music shows for its melody, but Zakir Hussain created his own niche and set precedence for the approaching generations of Tabla players together with his Tabla solos.

In his career as a Tabla player, he has gained international recognition and has toured the US and Europe and has collaborated with various other artists like John McLaughlin, John Handy, Jan Garbarek, and Pat Martino to call a couple of. He has played Tabla for the soundtracks of films like Francis Ford Copolla’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ and also Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha. In 2002, Zakir Hussain was also awarded Padma Bhushan.

3. Ustad Bismillah Khan –

Ustad Bismillah Khan was an Indian musician who popularized the Shehnai instrument together with his renditions and brought it to the concert stage. he’s well-known to possess performed live at the Red Fort in Delhi when India’s first Prime Minister invited him to return and perform. The eminent musician didn’t limit himself to only Indian audience but performed for a global audience at Cannes Art Festival, Osaka Trade Fair, and World Exposition in Montreal. aside from that, he has also played Shehnai for music in Indian films like Goonj Uthi Shehnai and Swades (which happened to be his last offering in films). Dr. Soma Ghosh has carried forward his legacy. She may be a vocalist and his student S. Ballesh who played Shehnai in 2011 film Rockstar. He had also received a gift – Bharat Ratna in 2002.

4. Ilaiyaraaja –

Ilaiyaraaja is an Indian film composer and lyricist, who predominantly composes songs in Tamil. He merges the essence of western music within the Indian mainstream music. he’s celebrated internationally as his scores are often performed by Budapest symphony. His compositions were also a part of the 2012 London Olympics playlist. he’s an elusive musician and infrequently performs live. However, his introduction in North America gained him tons of praise and over the years, the famous conductor has offered live performances in Toronto, HP Pavilion San Jose, and therefore the O2 Arena in London. He has also performed in Italy at the ‘Teatro Comunale di Modena’. The musician has won several accolades for his compositions in films. He also recently received the award – Padma Vibhushan in 2018.

5. Anoushka Shankar –

Anoushka Shankar may be a musician and daughter of legendary Indian musician Pandit Shankar, and half-sister of Norah Jones. She started accompanying her father in world tours at a young age of 14.

She gained prominence as a solo music concert performer very early in her music career and toured worldwide with a mean of over 50 concerts during a year. She had also performed within the “Concert of George”, which was a tribute to Harrison in Royal Albert Hall, London. Robert Gere and Philip Glass had also invited her to perform during a concert at the Avery Fisher Hall in 2003 which was a concert for peace. Grammy awards had nominated Anoushka Shankar in 2003. She also became the youngest ever nominee and also first woman nominee within the world music category for the third album, ‘Live At Carnegie Hall’.

6. M.S. Subbulakshmi –

She was a Carnatic music legend. Subbulakshmi had started performing in concerts at the age of 17 and gained International fame. a number of her best concerts are at Edinburg International Festival of Music and Drama, Carnegie Hall Concert, Royal Albert Hall and also Festival of India in Moscow. Her best musical offering was when she was invited by the United Nations to perform live and her performance was unanimously lauded by one and everyone. She was also revered as “Queen of Music” by Nehru. Moreover, Subbulakshmi was the primary musician to be awarded India’s highest civilian award – Bharat Ratna. She is additionally the primary Indian to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award. it’s also considered an Asian Nobel prize award.

7. Zubin Mehta –

Zubin Mehta, who hails from Mumbai, Maharashtra is an Indian Conductor of Western serious music, and therefore the conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He started winning international competitions soon in his career and conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at the age of 21. He has been the conductor of l. a. Philharmonic. In his career spanning almost 60 years now, the musician has conducted a myriad of orchestras around the globe. He also conducted a concert in Vienna which is named the “Capital of Western Music”, where he received 20 minutes of ovation and fourteen curtain calls. Mehta has been awarded many accolades, a number of which are Premium Imperiale (Japan), Hollywood Walk of Fame, Echo Klassic (Berlin), and also Tagore Award for his enormous contribution towards cultural music.

8. Shankar-Jaikishan –

Shankar-Jaikishan is a conductor duo who gave music to Hindi Cinema. They were known for his or her melodious composition and were staple music composers for nearly all Raj Kapoor’s Films that were made under RK Productions. Their major contribution to the Indian Music Scene is Raaga-Jazz. They also composed Jazz in Indian style resulting in a replacement genre called Indo-Jazz. due to the very fact that Raj Kapoor’s films were famous among Soviet Union audience, it’s interesting to notice Shankar Jaikishan’s songs are still famous among music lovers in Russia. Also, their most famous song Awaara Hoon was performed during a live performance in Uzbekistan. that they had also got the award of Padmashree in 1968.

9. A. R. Rahman –

A.R. Rahman lives Indian film music doyen who has composed music for Hindi and Tamil films alongside his personal albums. he’s perhaps the foremost prolific of up to date Indian musicians who have gained world recognition and travels abroad for concerts. Much of that’s credit has gone to his composition for Danny Boyle’s film, Slumdog Millionaire. However, he was famous internationally even before that. Since 2004, Rahman has successfully toured the planet and performed in Singapore, Dubai, Malaysia, UK , Canada, and therefore us of America. He was also one among the artists who contributed to “We are the planet 25 for Haiti” in 2010. Rahman has several international accolades to his name like Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and two Academy Awards at the 81st Academy Awards for best song – Jai Ho and also the simplest Music Original Score for Slumdog Millionaire.

10. Freddie Mercury –

Mercury – the lead vocalist of the band Queen is revered together of the simplest vocalists that the world has ever witnessed. He was born as Forrokh Bulsara and spent many parts of his childhood in Dadar Parsi Colony, Mumbai (then Bombay), and Panchgani private school. At the age of 17, he moved to England, and therefore the rest is history. He has over 200 songs to his name as a lead vocalist and traveled to the planet for live concerts. Freddie, alongside his band, had received a Brit Award for outstanding contribution in British music. he’s also within the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame.

With time moving towards frivolous music in remixes and rehashes of old Bollywood songs, the important musicians are fading. this is often a depressing vista for Indian Music Scene. However, India does have great music composers and vocalists who join hand to supply some outstanding original music, and it’s quite evident within the music TV Shows that became the talk about the town with numerous artists performing sleep in them.