Arooj Aftab became an overnight sensation when the 2022 Grammy nominations were announced. The Pakistani musician is in the running for two Grammys which will be held next year in January.
Who is Arooj Aftab?
Arooj Aftab is a singer whose work is based on Sufi-infused jazz sounds. Born in Saudia Arabia, the artist taught herself how to play guitar and learned to sing by listening to everyone from Billie Holiday and Mariah Carey to the late Indian singer Begum Akhtar.
Career
Arooj Aftab became one of the first artists in Pakistan to promote herself using the Internet after she started making her own music. Her covers on Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ and Amir Zaki’s ‘Mera Pyar’ helped her establish the name in the music industry.
Aftab and her third album
Aftab released her latest album titled ‘Vulture Prince’ earlier this year in May. The seven-track LP is rooted in a form of Arabic poetry known as the ghazal and contains acclaimed tracks such as ‘Mohabbat’ and ‘Last Night’.
Bagging nominations
As she recently bagged the highest honours in the music industry that will be held in Los Angeles on 31st January next year is no stranger to the awards nominations.
Last year, Aftab picked up her first Latin Grammy in the best rap/hip-hop category for contributing to Residente’s ‘Antes Que El Mundo Se Acabe’ as a backing vocalist and also took home a Student Academy Award in 2020 for composing the music to Karishma Dev Dube’s short movie ‘Bittu’, which also made the shortlist that year at the Oscars in the live action short film category.
Praised by Barrack Obama
She was once praised by former US President Barack Obama in July after Obama listed the artist’s song ‘Mohabbat’ as one of his favorite tracks on his official summer 2021 playlist.
