Anoushka Shankar (born 9 June 1981)is an Indian sitar player and composer. She is the daughter of Ravi Shankar and the half-sister of Norah Jones.
Shankar was born in London and her childhood was divided between London and Delhi. She is the daughter of Sukanya Shankar and Indian sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, who was 61 when she was born. Through her father, she is also a half-sister of American singer Norah Jones (born Geetali Norah Shankar), and Shubhendra “Shubho” Shankar, who died in 1992.
As a teenager, Shankar lived in Encinitas, California, and attended San Dieguito High School Academy. A 1999 honors graduate and Homecoming Queen, Shankar decided to pursue a career in music rather than attend college.
Awards
British House of Commons Shield, 1998
Woman of the Year awarded on International Women’s Day 2003 in India
Named as one of 20 Asian Heroes by the Asia edition of Time in 2004
Nominated for a Grammy award in 2003 in the World Music category for her third-album, Live at Carnegie Hall. She was the youngest-ever and first woman nominee in this category.
In 2005 she was nominated for another Grammy, in the Best Contemporary World Music category for her fourth album RISE.
In 2013 she was nominated for her third Grammy, in the Best World Music category for her album Traveller.
In 2014 she was nominated for a fourth Grammy in the Best World Music category for her album Traces of You.
In 2012 she won Best Artist in the Songlines Music Award for her album Traveller.
Activism
Shankar is a supporter of animal rights. She and her father appeared in a thirty-second public-service announcement against animal suffering for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).Anoushka is also the spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Programme in India.
In 2013, responding to the horrific gang-rape of Jyoti Singh Pandey in Delhi, whom the Indian media referred to as Nirbhaya, Shankar threw her weight behind an online campaign One Billion Rising on Change.org,demanding an end to crime against women.As part of the campaign, she released a video in which she revealed she had been sexually abused for many years as a child.
(Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoushka_Shankar & www.allaboutjazz.com)