A song on millets featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been nominated for the Grammy awards under the ‘Best Global Music Performance Category’. The “Abundance in Millets” song, performed by Mumbai-born singer-songwriter Falguni Shah, popularly known by her stage name Falu, and her husband and singer Gaurav Shah, features parts of a speech by PM Modi which he gave while inaugurating the Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference in March this year.
“Today, as the world celebrates ‘International Millet Year’, India is leading this campaign,” PM Modi had said while addressing the event in Delhi. He had also added that with the efforts of the farmers and citizens, ‘Shree Anna’ will add a “new dimension to the prosperity of India and the world”. This part of the speech was included in the song by Falu and Gaurav Shah.
Earlier PM Modi, reacting to the song had said, “Excellent effort @FaluMusic! There is abundance of health and well-being in Shree Ann or millets. Through this song, creativity has blended with an important cause of food security and removing hunger.”
Six other songs were nominated in the ‘Best Global Music Performance’ category.
Others nominated are Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily for “Shadow Forces”, Burna Boy for “Alone”, Davido for “Feel”, Silvana Estrada for “Milagro Y Disastre”, B la Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain featuring Rakesh Chaurasia for “Pashto”, Ibrahim Maalouf featuring Cimafunk and Tank and the Bangas for “Todo Colores”.
The year 2023 has been designated as the “International Year of Millets”, after a proposal for it was brought forward by India and endorsed by the members of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) governing bodies as well as the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly.
“Abundance in Millets” was created to raise awareness regarding the super grain as another potential key to minimising world hunger, according to a statement on Falu’s website.
Falu, who received the Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album in 2022 for her album “A Colorful World”, had said the idea to write a song about millets came to her when she met Modi in New Delhi last year after her Grammy win.
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