Ricky Kej
Ram Gyan "Ricky" Kej is an Indian music composer, environmentalist, a three-time Grammy Award winner and a four-time Grammy nominee. Kej was conferred with a Padma Shri award India's fourth highest civilian award, in 2025 by the President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu for his contributions to the Arts. He has performed at venues including at the United Nations headquarters in New York and Geneva. In October 2023, Kej was announced as a UN Goodwill Ambassador at the United Nations General Assembly by then President, Csaba Körösi.He was also awarded the Lokmat Sur Jyotsna National Music Award 2025 for his contribution to Indian music.
Kej is the Guinness World Record holder for the , achieved through the recording of 13,944 tribal children performing the Indian National Anthem. The record-setting initiative was officially recognized by Guinness World Records and stands among the largest mass-participation musical education events involving indigenous children.
Kej was also named a UNCCD Land Ambassador at the COP14 to raise public awareness about the challenges of land degradation, desertification and drought. Kej serves as a "High-Profile Supporter" of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNESCO - MGIEP Global Ambassador for Kindness, UNICEF Celebrity Supporter, and is an ambassador for the Earth Day Network. In 2020, Kej was named as a GQ Hero 2020 by GQ India magazine and in 2023, Kej was named as one of GQ India's "Man of the Year".
Kej is credited with over 3,500 placements for radio and television jingles. He composed the music for the 2011 Cricket World Cup opening ceremony, held at Dhaka on 17 February 2011. On 18 July 2016, he was awarded the Excellence and Leadership award as a global humanitarian artist at the United Nations Headquarters, New York and performed excerpts from Shanti Samsara live in the United Nations General Assembly Hall. Kej concluded his performance at the United Nations General Assembly by saying, "To end, I want to state the obvious... Climate change is real... Climate change is human induced. Climate change is affecting us all... and our actions affect countries on the other side of the world."
Early life and education
Ricky Kej was born in North Carolina on 5 August 1981. Half Punjabi and Marwari by birth, Kej grew up in North Carolina and moved to Bangalore, India when he was six years old and has lived there since. He completed his schooling at the Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore and subsequently dentistry from the Oxford Dental College in Bangalore. He did not pursue a career in the field and opted for a career in music instead. Kej holds two Doctorate Degrees from the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, Bubaneshwar and from Gitam University in Visakhapatnam, India. Kej's life and journey as a musician are now taught to 7th-grade children in India as part of the ICSE syllabus English textbooks. Kej is notably also a professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies and an Honorary Fellow at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and The Environment.While attending university he joined a progressive rock band which he says gave him a good foundation and exposure to music. In an early interview, Kej's mother, Pammi Kej, has opined that her son's artistic genes were inherited from his grandfather Janaki Das, an actor, Olympic cyclist, and freedom fighter. Kej does not look upon his degree in dentistry as an alternate career option, and notes that there are ups and downs in every occupation and there is no real need for a backup career. He has revealed that his decision to follow a career in music was not an easy one for his parents to accept.
Music career
Beginnings
Kej started off his career as the keyboardist of Bengaluru-based progressive rock band Angel Dust. Two years into the band, he moved on to become a full-time composer and set up his own studio, Raveolution, in 2003. He eventually went on to create music for over 3,000 ad jingles and Kannada films. Though Kej's work is an amalgamation of multiple genres, he has maintained that the essence of his work retains the aesthetic of his Indian roots, largely based on Hindustani classical music and a bit of Karnataka music. He has cited Pakistani qawwal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and British vocalist Peter Gabriel as inspirations to constantly challenge and push his own musical boundaries. Kej is a self-taught musician but studied classical music at around the age of 24 to overcome what he observed as a handicap at the time.''Shanti Orchestra''
Kej's 13th studio album, Shanti Orchestra, was released on 9 July 2013. The album peaked at No. 3 in November 2013 on the ZMR Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart, and was ranked No. 37 on the ZMR Top 100 Airplay Chart for 2013. The album was nominated for a 2013 ZMR Music Award and the track "Forever" from the album was also nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award in the same year.''2 Unite All''
Kej produced a benefit album, 2 Unite All, with Peter Gabriel aimed at urgent humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza. The album also features Stewart Copeland, drummer from the English rock band the Police, drummer Rick Allen of English rock band Def Leppard, American rock band System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian, and Grammy Award-winning opera singer Sasha Cooke.''Winds of Samsara''
Winds of Samsara, his 14th studio album and a collaboration with South African flautist Wouter Kellerman, was released on 15 July 2014 after being in production for two years. "The 'Samsara' in the album name has many meanings – the world around us, the world within us, family, ideals, etc. Winds was specifically chosen because of the album's flute-based style." The album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard New Age Albums Chart in August 2014, a first for a person of Indian origin and stayed in the top 10 for 12 weeks straight. The album also peaked at No. 1 on the Zone Music Reporter Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart in the month of July 2014, and was ranked No. 3 on the ZMR Top 100 Airplay Chart for 2014. The album received the Grammy award for Best New Age Album in February 2015. Kej dedicated the award to non-film music composers in India.''Shanti Samsara''
On 30 November 2015, Kej's album Shanti Samsara – World Music for Environmental Consciousness was launched on 30 November 2015 at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then French president, Francois Hollande.The prime minister personally presented French president François Hollande with a copy of the CD. In the months since its launch, Kej has traveled widely speaking about conservation and the environment, including a visit to the Republic of Kiribati, where he interviewed and created music with three-term ex-president, Anote Tong.. A video featuring music from the album was also played for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the gathering of world leaders.The album was one of several projects discussed during a meeting Prime Minister Modi had with Kej following his Grammy win. Kej found inspiration in Modi's concern for the environment and set out to specifically develop a project to express a message of environmental consciousness.
When completed, more than 300 actors, artists and musicians from around the world had contributed to the making of the album's 24 tracks and four music videos. These include:
- Indian musicians Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and famed Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan
- American singer-songwriter Gary Nicholson
- Stewart Copeland
- Patti Austin
- Philip Lawrence from Bruno Mars
- Regular collaborator Wouter Kellerman
- The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
- Christopher Tin
- Darlene Koldenhoven
- Peter Yarrow
- Ladysmith Black Mambazo
- the Soweto Gospel Choir
- the Monks of Sherab Ling
- Canadian vocalist Jennifer Gasoi
- the "Singing Nun of Nepal" Ani Choying Drolma
- Chinese zither virtuoso Mei Han
- Taiwanese erhu player Lan Tung
- Azeri singer Ilhama Gasimova
- artists and soloists from Vietnam, Korea and Senegal
- the voice talents of Frances Fisher, Rosanna Arquette, Lindsay Wagner and a special message spoken by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe
Also in attendance were many state and national officials and an audience of nearly 13,000 people.
In 2016 "Samsara" from Shanti Samsara received the December 2015 Global Music Awards Gold Medal for World Music – India, and the International Acoustic Music Awards for Best Open/Acoustic Open Genre and on 1 March 2016, he was named as a finalist in the 2015 in the World Music category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.