Arooj Aftab
Arooj Aftab (Urdu: عروج آفتاب; born March 11, 1985) is a Pakistani singer, composer, and producer. A Grammy Award-winning artist, she has worked in various musical styles and idioms, including jazz and minimalism.
Arooj Aftabعروج آفتاب
Aftab was nominated for the Best New Artist award and won the Best Global Music Performance award for her song "Mohabbat" at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in April 2022. She became the first-ever Pakistani artist to win a Grammy Award.[1]
On the 75th diamond jubilee anniversary of Pakistan, President Arif Alvi awarded Aftab the Pride of Performance Award, Pakistan's most prestigious award for excellence in the field of art and music.[2]
Early life and education[edit]
Aftab was born to Pakistani parents expatriated in Saudi Arabia. When she was about 10 years old, they returned to their native Lahore, Pakistan.[3] She taught herself the guitar and gradually acquired her singing style while listening to Billie Holiday, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Mariah Carey, and Begum Akhtar. At that time, Aftab lived in a country where access to Western online platforms was difficult, and the infrastructure for independent music was lacking. In this context, however, she promoted her music in Pakistan, being one of the first musicians to use the Internet in the early 2000s; her renditions of "Mera Pyaar" and "Hallelujah" went viral and launched the Pakistani indie scene.[4]
Aftab moved to the United States at the age of 19 in 2005[3] and earned a degree in music production and engineering at Boston's Berklee College of Music.[5] She moved to New York in 2010 and began working as an editor and scoring films.[4] Since her graduation in 2010,[6] Aftab has lived there, being part of the city's jazz and "new music" scene.[3][7]
Musical style and influences[edit]
Aftab's music has been described as a blend of jazz fusion,[22] jazz, electronica,[50] neo-Sufi,[9] folk, Hindustani classical,[20] classical music, indie pop, minimalism,[5] and acoustic music. Aftab told the Los Angeles Times that she had aspired that Vulture Prince would "transcend boundaries".[3]
She has mentioned Abbey Lincoln, Abida Parveen, Anoushka Shankar, Begum Akhtar, Esperanza Spalding, Jeff Buckley, Julius Eastman, Meshell Ndegeocello, Morton Feldman, and Terry Riley as her influences.[5] Aftab also expressed her admiration for Billie Eilish. Lyrically, Aftab has cited Asian poets as influences such as Rumi, Mirza Ghalib, and Hafeez Hoshiarpuri[3] and uses Urdu Ghazal. Her vocals have been described as "meditative".[28] Vulture Prince revolves around themes of grief and longing.[51]
Personal life[edit]
In an interview with Pitchfork, Aftab hinted at being queer.[52]
In October 2023, Aftab signed the Artists4Ceasefire open letter to Joe Biden, President of the United States, calling for a ceasefire of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.[53]
Current backing members[63]