Norah Jones doesn't consider herself Indian
The Grammy-winning singer revealed this in a 12-minute piece on CBS News' 60 Minutes, broadcast on February 11.
Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar's American daughter Norah Jones says she and her father are close today after years of estrangement, but she does not consider herself part Indian.
"I knew who my dad was," she told Katie Couric in a 12-minute piece on CBS News "60 Minutes" Sunday. "I saw him sporadically until I was nine and then I didn't see him again or talk to him until I was 18."
Shankar never married her mother - their relationship, Norah said, was complicated and it ended when she was young. Her mother, she said, didn't want her talking about him.
Jones, 27, acknowledged it was kind of a secret. "You know, when you have a father who's pretty well known but you don't see him, the last thing you want to do is start talking about him all the time to people," she said.
When Norah turned 18, she sought out her father, who was living in California with his daughter and second wife.
Asked if she was angry or sought an apology from her father when they reconnected, Jones said, "Yeah. I might have. I might have wanted that." Today, she said they are close.
"Do you consider yourself part Indian?" Couric asked. "I grew up in Texas with a white mother," Jones said. "I feel very Texan, actually a New Yorker."
Norah Jones, who has sold over 30 million albums, more than any other female artist this decade, told Couric that success makes her uncomfortable as they talked about the 2003 Grammy Awards.
That evening Norah Jones, then 23, won a total of eight Grammys with her first album of romantic, dreamy ballads named "Best New Artist," "Record of the Year," and "Album of the Year."
But Jones said she felt really bad about her sweep. "I felt like I went to somebody else's birthday party and I ate all their cake. Without anybody else getting a piece. That's how I felt."
A year later, her second album went on to sell 10 million copies, proving her success was no fluke.
Unlike her earlier albums, Norah Jones' just released third album, "Not Too Late" has all the songs written by her and as such "they're more honest, more personal and edgier."