Norah Jones

Norah Jones is a multiple Grammy award winner singer and pianist. She is blessed with both beautiful voice and character. Her birth name is Geethali Norah Jones Shankar and she was born on March 30, 1979 in Brooklyn, New York. Her father was legendary Indian musician, Ravi Shankar, and her mother, Sue Jones, was a dancer.

Her 2002 debut album ‘Come away with me’ was a big hit and was sold over twenty million copies worldwide and received eight Grammy awards. This was a contemporary pop album with a sensual, plaintive soul/folk/country tinge. She also won the ‘best new artist’ award for this album.

After the huge success of her first album she released her second album ‘Feels like home’ in 2004. This album was one of the most anticipated albums of that year and it was sold over a million copies in the first week of its US release.

After the big success of her first two albums she waited for some time and took a three year long interval before she released her third album in 2007. It was called ‘not too late’ and this album was number one on the world charts. She has become one of the most successful recording artists of the decade clocking up sales of more than 35 million records worldwide.

Jones began singing in church choirs. She has always loved music which was in her blood. Her father is Ravi Shankar who is a sitar maestro. She is the half sister of Anoushka Shankar who is the daughter of Ravi Shankar from another marriage. She spent her childhood with her mother, who moved to the Fort Worth suburb of Grapevine, Texas, when Jones was four.

She had developed a strong taste for music even from her childhood days. During those days she had many musical heroes like Bill Evans and Billie Holiday. She considers Willie Nelson her idol. Her mother’s musical collection included records of all her heroes and she used to listen to those records over and over again.

She attended Interlochen Arts Camp, Grapevine High School, and Booker T Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas. While at high school, she won the Downbeat Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist (twice, in 1996 and 1997) and Best Original Composition (1996). She then attended the University of North Texas, where she majored in jazz piano and lived in the dormitory Bruce Hall.

In 2002 she made a cameo appearance for a movie called ‘Two Weeks Notice’ in which she appears singing for a charity benefit. In 2003 several sources reported that Indian veteran actor and filmmaker Dev Anand was planning to make a film on the troubled relationship between Norah and her father Ravi Shankar. But later this news was denied by both Norah and Shankar and Norah responded to the media that “he [Anand] has no idea of our story, and he's not going to represent it in a truthful way, I'm sure. It's sad because it's personal stuff and nobody's business but ours." She also appeared in the movie ‘my blueberry nights’ which was the opening film for the 2007 Cannes Film Festival as one of the 22 films in competition.

She loves to see and work with great musical personalities. She once said “that’s been the coolest thing about all this - I get to meet people that I worship!” Norah has worked with many great personalities like Ray Charles for his 2004 album, "Genius Loves Company. She also worked with many artists and bands like Foo Fighters in their 2005 album ‘in your honor’, sang a track and played piano for ‘Outkast’ for their sixth album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below entitled "Take Off your Cool and with Wyclef Jean she collaborated on the song "Any Other Day" for the Hurricane Katrina benefit album Hurricane Relief: Come Together Now. She also sang lead vocals with Ryan Adams in the song "Dear John" which is on the album "Jacksonville City Nights" by Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, released September 27th, 2005.

In 2005 she won Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals award for ‘Here We Go Again’ (with Ray Charles). This album also won record of the year award in the same year and became her second ‘record of the year’ award after ‘Don’t know why’ in 2003. Throughout 2002 and 2003 Jones appeared on stages, globally, for her first tour with the Handsome Band, traveling throughout Asia, America, Europe and Oceania. The tour was received with numerous sell-out concerts and positive critical acclaim. Her latest tour was with The Handsome Band to promote her new album named ‘Not Too Late’.

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Norah Jones’s sense of humor!!
Norah Jones, who flown into stardom with her debut album, 2002's "Come Away with Me” is winner of five Grammy awards and she is now a household name.. Read more