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Arooj Aftab

Arooj Aftab is a Grammy-award winning singer, composer, and producer based in the United States. She works in various musical styles and idioms, including jazz, minimalism, and neo-Sufi.

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.

On the 75th diamond jubilee anniversary of Pakistan, President Arif Alvi awarded to Aftab, the Pride of Performance Award, the highest literary award for showing excellence in the field of art and music.

Aftab was born to Pakistani parents expatriated in Saudi Arabia. When she was about 10 years old, they returned to their native Lahore, Pakistan. She learned to play the guitar in autodidact 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.

Aftab moved to the United States at the age of 19 in 2005 and earned a degree in music production and engineering at Boston's Berklee College of Music. She moved to New York in 2010 and began working as an editor and scoring films. Since her graduation, Aftab has lived there, being part of the city's jazz and "new music" scene.


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Arooj Aftab, The Necks, The Vampires, Sara Caswell & More New Releases

Read "Arooj Aftab, The Necks, The Vampires, Sara Caswell & More New Releases" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


At a time in which the frantic pace of this world is making record executives explore the idea of one-minute songs to satisfy the swipe-crazed Instagram generation, this playlist if full of music that may feel like a welcome act of counter-culture. Extended form songs, elegant songs, strange songs... Enjoy the ride! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Brad Mehldau “I Am the Walrus" Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays ...

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