Pakistan just won its first Grammy, all thanks to Arooj Aftab & her soulful voice!
Arooj Aftab bagged a Grammy for her rendition of ‘Mohabbat’ in the Best Global Performance category. This makes her the first-ever Pakistani woman to win this prestigious award. She was nominated in two categories; ‘Best New Artist’ & ‘Best Global Performance’ – making her the first Pakistani woman to be nominated in the Best New Artist category as well.
She was ecstatic when accepting the Grammy & stated, “I think I’m gonna faint. Wow, thank you so much. I feel like this category in and of itself has been so insane, thank you so much to everyone who helped me make this record, all my incredible collaborators, for following me and making this music I made about everything that broke me and put me back together. Thank you for listening to it and making it yours,” she added.
‘Mohabbat’ touched many hearts and souls. Her lingering vocals even made former US President Barak Obama her fan! So much so, that Arooj Aftab’s ‘Mohabbat’ made it to the former premier’s summer playlist of 2021! See for yourself below:
About Arooj Aftab
Arooj is a Brooklyn-based artist born to Pakistani parents in Saudi Arabia where she lived there with her mother and 2 brothers until the age of 11. Arooj Aftab then moved to the US in 2005 to study music at Berklee College of Music.
Her Grammy nominations that were making waves on social media were not Arooj Aftab’s first Grammy nominations. This isn’t her first rodeo, in fact, she has previously won a Latin Grammy for Residente’s ‘Antes Que El Mundo Se Acabe’, and was one of the vocalists in the song. In addition, Arooj also wrote music for a short film named ‘Bittu’ which won a student Oscar award.
Arooj Aftab has been singing for more than two decades. However, her claim to fame was her first cover that went viral, that too, in Lahore! The cover was of Leonard Cohen’s song ‘Hallelujah.’ This was before YouTube or Twitter and it started reaching more and more people through email and file sharing sites like Limewire and Napster. (Pitchfork)She also featured on Coke Studio season 14 this year with ‘Mehram’, a song that didn’t take long to make its place in everyone’s playlist (& is on repeat to this day).
We are overjoyed by her Grammy win! Pakistanis all over the world are doing wonders in their respective fields and it makes our hearts swell with pride. Heartiest congratulations to Arooj Aftab for this huge achievement.
From Being A NFAK Fan To Singing For Bollywood – Get To Know Grammy Nominee Arooj Aftab!
Sources used in this article include Pitchfork.
