Aroon Aftab - Singer, songwriter, and composer

For striking a chord with ancient poetry

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Singing sorrowful songs mostly in Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, 37-year-old singer and composer Arooj Aftab isn't your typical Grammy winner. Her boundary-defying compositions pay homage to a traditional Middle Eastern and South Asian poetic form, called the ghazal, and nod to classical, jazz, American folk, and reggae. Raised in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and trained at Boston's Berklee College of Music, the Brooklyn-based Aftab is garnering fans for her historically-and geographically-fluid sound. Her third album, Vulture Prince, earned best-of-year nods in 2021 from the likes of Pitchfork and BrooklynVegan; Barack Obama put the song "Mohabbat" (which was inspired by the loss of Aftab's younger brother) on his summer 2022 playlist. During April's Grammy Awards, she found herself up against Olivia Rodrigo in the Best New Artist category, and beat out Yo-Yo Ma for Best Global Music Performance. Last December, Aftab signed with Verve Records, a division of Universal Music Group, and record