NAME: Norah Jones

AGE: 23

NATIONALITY: American

CLAIM TO FAME: Winner of fiveGrammy awards

UNTIL the envelopes were opened on the night of the 45th annual Grammy awards, Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising looked like the sure thing to win. But the album-of-the-year honours were destined for Come Away With Me by the 23-year-old pianist and singer, Norah Jones, about 30 years younger than Springsteen, and a newcomer who plays slow-burning and jazzy ballads that haven’t reached the top of the charts for a very long time. Even her label was shocked.

Norah’s momentum was slow and steady. Her album sold a mere 10,000 copies in its first week, followed by a series of late-night talk-show performances. Even MTV didn’t play the video for her single, Don’t Know Why, until six months after it was first released.

But that is all in the past now. Norah Jones blew away the competition at the Grammys by walking away with the most number of trophies. The sultry vocalist was the only one of the nominated artists to win in every category. But her unprecedented victory would not have some as a true shock to those who are ware of the fact that Norah has had music in her blood all her life. She is the daughter of 82-year-old Indian sitar maestro, Ravi Shankar, and New York concert producer, Sue Jones.

Norah Jones saw her father a few times a year until she was nine, and then not until she was 18. It was also the time when she was introduced to her half-sister Anoushka, now a classical sitar player under Ravi’s tutelage, and who has come out with three albums so far.

But the Texas-raised New Yorker, Norah, rarely talks about her illustrious dad in public. “I try to downplay our relationship in the press,” she said in a recent interview.

What she wanted to do instead was to carve out her own identity in the music industry and to be able to stand on her own two feet, something that she has now done in style and the Grammys are but a confirmation of her talent.

Among the categories Norah won are, Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Her victory in the best album category came as a real surprise, specially when the award had been talked up as a battle between Springsteen’s 9/11-inspired The Rising and Eminem’s The Eminem Show. But it was Norah who walked away with the final credit.