Who is Ricky Kej, the Indian musician who won his second Grammy today?

Indian musician and Bengaluru boy Ricky Kej won his second Grammy in the Best New Age Album category at the 64th Grammy Awards held at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Marquee Ballroom on April 4.

He won the award for the album Divine Tides, an album he collaborated on with Stewart Copeland, founder and drummer of the iconic rock band, The Police. In a post on social media, Ricky Kej shared a picture of himself along with Stewart Copeland, and said, “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 sixth.” 

Ricky Kej won his first Grammy in 2015 at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards for his album Winds of Samsara in the Best New Age Album category.

Congratulatory messages poured in for him from across the Indian industry including Benny Dayal and Shreya Ghoshal.

With his second win, Ricky Kej joins a rare group of musicians such as Ravi Shankar, Zubin Mehta, Zakir Hussain, and AR Rahman. 

Born in North Carolina in 1981, Kej is half-Punjabi, half-Marwari, and has lived in Bengaluru since he was 8. 
He studied in Bishop Cotton School in Bengaluru before finishing a degree in dentistry from Oxford Dental College.

He first started off as a keyboardist with progressive rock band Angel Dust before he became a full-time composer.

In 2015, after he won a Grammy, the first person to congratulate him was Hans Zimmer who also posed for a selfie with him. In 2010, he was nominated for an award at Cannes for his jingle on Nike. He has created music for over 3,000 jingles and even Kannada films.

The album for which he won this year's Grammy featured artists from around the world and is a “tribute to the magnificence of the natural world and resilience of our species”. The nomination description read: “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. 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.”