Arooj Aftab

Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer Arooj Aftab was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on March 11, 1985. Her Grammy award in 2022 for Best Global Music Performance made her the first Pakistani artist in history to win a Grammy. Born to Pakistani parents, she was born in Saudi Arabia before her family moved back to Pakistan when she was 10 years old. Influenced by Indian artists such as Hariprasad Chaurasia and Begum Akhtar as well as Western artists including Mariah Carey and Billie Holiday, she became one of the first artists in Pakistan to use the internet to promote her music in the early 2000s. Her drive and tenacity helped to establish the Pakistani indie music scene before she moved to the US in 2005. Attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, she earned a degree in music production and engineering before relocating to New York in 2010. Immersing herself in the local jazz and new music scenes, she began scoring films and working as a film editor. After gaining attention as a composer, she released her highly anticipated debut album, Bird Under Water, in 2014. Still continuing her work as a film editor, Arooj Aftab won an Emmy Award in 2018 for her work on the documentary Armed with Faith (2017). She released her second album, Siren Islands (2018), to great acclaim. The year 2020 saw her compose the soundtrack to the award-winning student film Bittu and contribute vocals to the “Antes Que El Mundo Se Acabe” single by Residente, which went on to win a Latin Grammy. Her third album, Vulture Prince, which was universally acclaimed by critics and fans alike. The album featured the song “Mohabbat” which won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Global Music Performance. Alongside being the first Pakistani to perform at the Grammy Awards ceremony, she also played shows all around the world including sets at Coachella, Glastonbury, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Newport Folk Festival, and the Montreal Jazz Festival. Arooj Aftab collaborated with American pianist Vijay Iyer and bassist Shahzad Ismally (Secret Chiefs 3) on the album Love in Exile (2023).