Oscar-winning musician A R Rahman has pipped another great Ilayaraja to win the ‘Grassroot Grammy’ held in the US.
The ‘Mozart of Madras’ bagged the top prize for the soundtrack in the Tamil film Godfather in the ‘Best Indian album’ category at the ‘Just Plain Folks 2009 Music Awards’ held recently.

Bangla band ‘Krosswindz’ and Ilayaraja were among others nominated in the category.

With over 50,000 members worldwide, the ‘Just Plain Folks 2009 Music Awards’ is aimed at supporting grassroot songwriters and musicians through networking, education and promotional support.

Rahman also won the third place in the ‘Best Indian Song’ category for ‘Innisai’ (Radio Mix) from Godfather while his ‘Illamai’ was fifth in the same category.

Ilyaraja’s “Music Journey: Live in Italy” was third in the ‘Best Indian album’ category.

In ‘Indian Classical and Traditional Album’ category, Shweta Jhaveri’s “Avishkar” clinched the first position.

The awards received responses from over 163 countries

Indian youth have given the definitive verdict. Double Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman is young India’s favorite musicpersonality followed by singer Sonu Nigam and the legendary Lata Mangeshkar.

A recent twelve-nation online survey released today has suggested that while a whopping 83% Indian youth love music, this year, there has been a 23% increase in the time they spent listening to music. Overall, the Asian youth increased their time spent listening to music by 25% over last year.

Titled Music Matters, the Asia-wide survey among 8,841 respondents has been conducted by market research firm Synovate. It goes on to add that American rock band Linkin Park, singer Rihanna and Canadian artiste Avril Lavigne are some of the popular music personalities in Asian countries, that are marked by a keen interest in local music and singers who dominate their favorites list.