ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's first Grammy-winning music artist Arooj Aftab shared her quest to find her childhood home in Saudi Arabia with her fans on Instagram along with interesting pictures and videos of the place.
The Brooklyn-based vocalist, who bagged the most prestigious international music award for her song "Mohabbat" in April, was born to Pakistani parents in the kingdom where she spent the first few years of her life.
Aftab pursued a degree in music production and engineering in Boston before settling down in New York where she became part of the city's "new music" scene.
"Searching for my childhood home in Riyadh with no address, just a couple of landmarks from memory - a park, a mosque, a hill and a hotel," she wrote on Instagram last week along with a bunch of photographs and videos documenting her experience.
"I think I found it," she continued. "Almost 30 years later, the once sweet neighborhood full of villas and elegant apartments, home to well offish and upcoming young immigrant families - is now just a few abandoned villas, empty squares of demolished house, sleepy old apartment buildings, and construction sites as the city is packing in affordable apartment housing into the area. The vibe of this place is unmistakable though. These are the streets. These are definitely the streets."
Aftab shared the image of the back gate of her villa, showed the streets surrounding her childhood residence along with an abandoned building structure which she said looked like the place where she once lived.
"This space between memory and sadness, between the past and the excitement to return to it, between seeing change and the relief it brings …. this space is perfect," she added.
The Pakistani singer, who has gained international recognition through fusion music, got over 8,850 likes on the post which clearly captivated her Instagram fanbase.
Apart from becoming the first and only Grammy winner for her country, Aftab also debuted at the prestigious Coachella music festival this year.
