Instagram: Arooj Aftab
Doha: Arooj Aftab, Pakistan-born Brooklyn based artist, won her first GRAMMYs in the Best Global Music Performance category for the rendition of 'Mohabbat' from the album Vulture Prince, which has been also sung by famous Pakistani singers like Mehdi Hassan and Iqbal Bano.
She won in the category along with other musicians Angelique Kidjo & Burna Boy, Femi Kuti, Yo-Yo Ma, and WizKid Featuring Tems.
Arooj was also nominated in the Best New Artist category at GRAMMYs which was won by Olivia Rodrigo.
In her acceptance speech, Aftab said, “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.”
After the release of her album Vulture Prince in April 2021, Former US president Barack Obama added her song Mohabbat to his summer playlist for 2021.
Later, Mohabbat was named the best song of 2021 by Time and The New York Times.
Following the win, celebrities from all around, from Mahirah Khan to Frieda Pinto, Saba Qamar, Ali Zafar, Riz Ahmed, and more took to their social media to celebrate and wished Arooj Aftab for the GRAMMYs.
Arooj creates renditions of ghazals and songs by incorporating jazz, classical, minimalism, Sufi, and other styles. Her songs have a haunting quality with atmospheric sounds that have an almost otherworldly feel to them.
Other songs by Arooj that had garnered a great following are Mehram from Coke Studio, Udhero Na in collaboration with Anoushka Shankar, daughter of maestro Ravi Shankar, Suroor and Baghon Main.
Arooj Aftab had also won the News & Documentary Award at the 2018 Emmy Awards.
