What is Chant Album Category, Where 4 Indian Musicians Are Nominated??

The Grammy Nominations are out, and Indian musicians are ready to shine again. Indian musicians are making history with the most nominees from India in the Grammys. Out of the six nominees this year, most are in the Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album Category, which raises the question of what this category is and what kind of music it represents in Grammys.

At Grammys, all kinds of music are represented, or at least tried to, whether traditional or pop. One such category is the Best in New Age, Ambient, Chant Album, which portrays new age music. It is quite difficult to define what new age music is, but a description by journalist Steven Rea is accepted widely and used to sort music and albums in this category.

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According to Steven, New Age music is something that incorporates acoustic, electronic, jazzy, and folky music, along with classical and pop elements. It has Eastern and Latin influences with exotic instrumentation and environmental sound effects. This category is widely instrumental-based and focuses on sound and production, and hence, the term Ambient.

The category has gone through many title changes, it used to be called the Grammy Award in New Age Recording, which then changed to Best in New Age Performance in 1988. In 1991, the title was changed again to Best in New Age Album, which remained unchanged until 2023, when it changed again, and the terms Ambient and Chant were added to it.

In the 2025 Grammy Nominations, there are six nominees from India, out of which four are in this category, including Ricky Kej, Anoushka Shankar, Varijashree Venugopal, Radhika Vekaria, Chandrika Tandon and Noshir Mody. The winners will be announced and awarded on 2 February 2025.