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Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and producer Arooj Aftab was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 11, 1985. The Grammy Award she received in 2022 for Best World Music Performance made her the first Pakistani artist in history to win the award. Born of Pakistani parents, she was born in Saudi Arabia before her family returned to Pakistan at the age of 10. Influenced by Indian artists such as Hariprasad Chaurasia and Begum Akhtar, as well as Western artists such as Mariah Carey and Billie Holiday, she became one of the first Pakistani artists to use the Internet to promote her music in the early 2000s. Her drive and tenacity helped establish Pakistan's independent music scene before she moved to the USA in 2005. At the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, she obtained a degree in music production and engineering before moving to New York in 2010. Immersing herself in the local jazz and new music scenes, she began composing film scores and working as an editor. After gaining attention as a composer, she released her highly anticipated debut album, Bird Under Water, in 2014. 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 releases her second album, Siren Islands (2018), to great acclaim. In 2020, she composed the soundtrack for the award-winning student film Bittu and contributed to the Latin Grammy Award-winning track "Antes Que El Mundo Se Acabe" by Puerto Rican rapper Residente. His third album Vulture Prince was unanimously acclaimed by critics and audiences alike in 2021. It includes the song "Mohabbat", which won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Performance in the World Music category in 2022. As well as being the first Pakistani to perform at the Grammy Awards ceremony, she has also given concerts around the world, including at Coachella, Glastonbury, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Newport Folk Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival. After collaborating with American pianist Vijay Iyer and bassist Shahzad Ismally (Secret Chiefs 3) on the album Love in Exile (2023), Arooj Aftab records Night Reign (2024), featuring among other guest musicians Gyan Riley, Elvis Costello, James Francies, Vijay Yyer, Cautious Clay, Kaki King and Chocolate Genius. This fifth album is released at No. 8 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.
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