Meet Arooj Aftab, Pakistan’s first female Grammy nominee – her song Mohabbat made it to Barack Obama’s 2021 Summer Playlist on Instagram, and her new album ‘Vulture Prince’ is making waves
- The singer is also the first Pakistani to be nominated for best new artist; Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was previously nominated for best world music album
- Aftab, who blends minimalist, jazz and neo-Sufi genres, has three albums under her belt and her cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah went viral when she was a teen
When Arooj Aftab was announced as a nominee for best new artist at the 64th Grammy Awards, it marked the first time that a Pakistani woman was recognised by the recording academy, making history for Pakistan and South Asia.
The 36-year-old genre-blending vocalist is also the first Pakistani to be nominated in the best new artist category. Musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was nominated in 1996 for best traditional folk album and best world music album.
While her name may not be familiar to many yet, she is actually an established singer in her home country, with a music career dating back to 2014 and three albums to her name.
Here are a few things you should know about her.
Music has been a large part of her life since she was young
Aftab comes from a family of music-lovers, and many of her earliest memories involve music: her family and friends would host evenings where they talked about their love of music and played songs together. As a result, she felt a deep connection to the art form.
“I think I felt very connected to it from a very early age – the desire to kind of integrate it into my life was becoming stronger and stronger, and I think I do remember being in school and listening to music and using it almost like a friend,” Aftab told Our Culture magazine.
She went viral for a cover of Hallelujah that she sang as a teenager
Due to her passion for music, Aftab decided that she wanted to pursue a degree in it. However, as a young teenager in Pakistan, nobody understood her dream.