Arooj Aftab becomes first female Pakistani to win Grammy

The Recording Academy’s 64th Annual Grammy Awards took place in Las Vegas on Sunday night. Arooj Aftab, a Pakistani singer based in Brooklyn, made history on Sunday by becoming the first Pakistani woman to be nominated for and win a Grammy award. For her song Mohabbat, the artist took home the award for Best Global Performance. 

Arooj turned to Instagram to commemorate the occasion, sharing photos with fellow winners and artists such as Jon Batiste, who won Album of the Year, and BTS, the global K-pop hit. 

She received the coveted gramophone for recreating a ghazal by Punjabi poet Hafeez Hoshiyarpuri, which he read in Lahore’s Government College (now Government College University) in 1929 with poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz in attendance. 

A neo-Sufi rendition of Hoshiyarpuri’s ghazal, ‘Mohabbat karne wale kam na honge, teri mehfil mein lekin hum na honge,’ won the 37-year-old Pakistani singer the award for Best Global Music Performance, a category added by the Recording Academy for the first time this year. 

She won the prize for Best Global Performance over ‘Do yourself’ by Beninese singer-songwriter Angelique Kidjo and Nigerian singer Burna Boy, ‘Pa Pa Pa’ by Nigerian musician Femi Kuti, ‘Essense’ by Nigerians Wizkid and Tems, and ‘Blewu’ by Kidjo and cello great Yo-Yo Ma. 

https://twitter.com/arooj_aftab/status/1511417564580048896?s=20&t=A5eu4qYNZD4LAdaHgkwlKA

She was also nominated for Best New Artiste, which was won by Olivia Rodrigo, a 19-year-old who had a breakthrough in 2021 with songs like ‘Driver’s License,’ the first single from her debut studio album, ‘Sour,’ among others. 

Mahira Khan, a Pakistani actress, said she was “proud” of the Grammy-winning singer. “Shine brightly, baby! Keep shining, “As she uploaded Aftab’s snapshot on Instagram Stories, Khan commented. 

“You’re the boss! What a fantastic achievement, Arooj Aftab “On Instagram, the well-known designer posted a photo.

He then went on to say, “Team Hussain Rehar congratulates you on becoming the first Pakistani musician to win a Grammy Award. I can’t tell you how happy I was to design this classic sherwani for her, which took over 350 hours to create and was inspired by her own record ‘Vulture Prince.'” 

Who is Arooj Aftab?

Aftab was born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents. When she was about ten years old, her family relocated to Lahore and opted to stay in Pakistan. Aftab’s parents hosted musical evenings at their Lahore house on a regular basis, but she was not allowed to take music lessons because she feared it would interfere with her schoolwork. 

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ustad Zakir Hussain, and American jazz diva Billie Holiday, among others, inspired Aftab to learn how to play the guitar. She also enrolled in an online music class. 

While living in Pakistan, Aftab gained fame for her YouTube versions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and Pakistani vocalist Ami Zaki’s “Mera Pyar.” Many Pakistani musicians followed her, realizing that they didn’t need production labels if they could make music and post it online. 

She travelled to Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of 19 to pursue music production and engineering at the Berklee School of Music. She subsequently relocated to New York, a melting pot of musical cultures, and discovered that she could sing in Urdu and be accepted. 

Aftab worked on film score and editing as she continued to make her own songs. In 2013, she composed the score for Cary Mcclelland’s film ‘Without Shepherds,’ which tells the story of six brave Pakistanis in the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s killing.

Aftab also composed the score for director Karishma Dev Dube’s ‘Bittu’ (2020), which was nominated for the 93rd Academy Awards for Best Live Action Short Film. 

Aftab previously worked for MTV and Vice in New York, where she oversaw the music and video departments. Aftab became attracted by Begum Akhtar’s thumris while working here.

She was eventually introduced to Sufi poetry and music by the thumris. In 2014, Aftab published her debut album, “Bird Under Water,” on her own independent label. 

When Aftab’s brother Maher Aftab died, she was writing music for Vulture Prince in Brooklyn. Annie Ali Khan, a friend, model, and writer, died around the same time.

“Thank you for helping me write the album that broke me and put me back together,” she said during her acceptance speech at the Grammys Premiere ceremony, which was held hours before the main event. 

 Published By: Manan Khurana

Edited By: Khushi Thakur