ISLAMABAD: Arooj Aftab made history on Sunday when she became the first Pakistani artist to perform at the prestigious Grammy awards in Los Angeles, when the singer teamed up with British-American artist Anoushka Shankar to perform their song "Udhero Na."
The Brooklyn-based vocalist became the first Pakistani artist to win a Grammy award when she bagged the Best Global Performance award for her song "Mohabbat" in April 2022.
In November last year, the critically acclaimed "Udhero Na" received a Grammy nomination for the same category. Aftab earlier said she wrote the song when she was 15 years old. She recorded it with Shankar, who was nominated this year in the Best Global Music Performance and Best Global Music Album categories.
"Soundcheck, it's todayyy, live.grammy.com," Aftab wrote along with a picture she shared on her Instagram Stories. She can be seen performing live on the Grammys stage as Shankar strums a sitar beside her.
The 37-year-old, who has lived in New York for some 15 years, has been steadily gaining global attention for her work that fuses ancient Sufi traditions with inflections of folk, jazz and minimalism.
Born to Pakistani parents in Saudi Arabia, Aftab spent her teenage years in Lahore before relocating to Boston’s prestigious Berklee School of Music to study musical production and engineering.
She released her third studio album “Vulture Prince” to critical acclaim, and gained even more attention after former US president Barack Obama included the track “Mohabbat” on his 2021 summer favorites list.
