Meet Ricky Kej, The Double Grammy Award Winning Musician From Bengaluru

Indian Music Composer and Environmentalist Ricky Kej bagged his second Grammy Award on April 3 for Divine Tides, an album he collaborated on with Stewart Copeland, founder and drummer of the iconic rock band The Police. They aced in the Best New Age Album category at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.

Sharing the news on Instagram with his followers, Ricky wrote, “So grateful to have won the Grammy Award for our album Divine Tides. Absolutely love this living legend standing next to me – Stewart Copeland. Love all of you too! This is my 2nd Grammy Award and Stewart’s 6^th”.

The entire Indian music fraternity was filled with pride and praised Ricky Kej showering him loads of congratulations.

The album Divine Tides featured artists from around the world and is a “tribute to the magnificence of the natural world and resilience of our species”.

“This critically acclaimed album contains 9 songs and 8 music videos that were filmed around the world from the exquisite beauty of the Indian Himalayas to the Icy forests of Spain. ‘Divine Tides’ has already won several awards at various festivals from around the world. With rich textures of transcendent music, ‘Divine Tides’ is a surreal audio-visual experience carefully pieced together by two masters who are at the top of their game,”  the nomination description read.

It was back in 2015 when Ricky won his first Grammy for his album ‘Winds of Samsara’ in the Best New Age Album category.

This second win places Kej alongside Ravi Shankar, Zubin Mehta, Zakir Hussain, AR Rahman, and other Indian winners.

About Ricky Kej

Ricky Kej was born in North Carolina in 1981 and has lived in Bengaluru since he was 8. He is a half-Punjabi, half-Marwari by birth.

Kej is a dentist. He studied at Bishop Cotton School in Bengaluru before finishing a degree in dentistry from Oxford Dental College, also in the city.  In fact, most members of his family were in the medical profession. His father and grandfather were doctors, and he was only allowed to try his hand at music after finishing his degree.

Kej’s mother Pammi believed that his artistic genes were inherited from his grandfather Janaki Das – an actor, Olympic cyclist, and freedom fighter.

The dual Grammy-winner started off as a keyboardist with progressive rock band Angel Dust before he became a full-time composer.

He is inspired by many artists but majorly influenced by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, and Peter Gabriel.

Kej has bagged a lot many awards. To be precise, he has won more than 100 music awards in over 20 countries. He was nominated for an award at Cannes for his jingle on Nike in 2010. By now, he has created music for 3000+ jingles and even gave music in Kannada films.

 “Making jingles is like a workout. One day, I get to work on a Tamil folk jingle and the next day I get to work on a Celtic jingle and an Oriental jingle on the third day. It keeps you on your toes and helps you extend your creativity. The more I work on jingles the better I get at working with new people,” he said in an interview.

A Musical Environmentalist

On 30 November 2015, his album Shanti Samsara – World Music for Environmental Consciousness was launched at COP 21, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In 2018, Kej released My Earth Songs, music for children on the environment and sustainability.

Personal Life

Kej married Varsha Gowda in March 2014. Varsha is also a musician and is credited with several of Kej’s recent compositions.