ISLAMABAD: Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab has once again secured Grammy nominations for the upcoming 2025 awards ceremony, with the singing sensation expressing her delight over the recognition.
Aftab’s song ‘Raat Ki Rani’ has earned the nomination in the Best Global Music Performance category. The song is part of her album ‘Night Reign’ that has received recognition in the Best Alternative Jazz Album category, which awards vocal or instrumental albums containing greater than 75 percent playing time of new alternative jazz recordings.
“OMG [oh moy God] YES!!! This will be the fourth year in a row that the @recordingacademy and industry peers have celebrated my music with these accolades and IT FEELS SO GOOD,” the singer wrote on Instagram on Friday.
“Thank you thank you thank youuuuu and keep spinning Night Reign we are just getting started,” she added.
In 2022, Aftab became the first Pakistani singer to win a Grammy for her song ‘Mohabbat’ in the Best Global Music Performance category. She had been nominated in two categories for the 2024 Grammy Awards, the highest honors in the music industry.
The 39-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 folk and jazz music. After growing up in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, Aftab moved to the US at age 19 to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston.
The now Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter first gained critical acclaim for Bird Under Water and Siren Islands in the mid-2010s, but it was 2021’s Vulture Prince — a delicate, seven-track project dedicated to the memory of her late brother — that propelled Aftab to stardom.
Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab secures Grammy nominations for fourth year in a row
https://arab.news/chytb
Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab secures Grammy nominations for fourth year in a row
- Aftab’s song ‘Raat Ki Rani’ has earned the nomination in the Best Global Music Performance category
- The song is part of her album ‘Night Reign,’ nominated in the Best Alternative Jazz Album category
Pakistan, other Muslim states raise alarm over Gaza situation after heavy flooding
- Cold winter rains have repeatedly lashed the sprawling tent cities, turning Gaza’s dirt roads into mud and causing damaged buildings to collapse
- The situation has been compounded by lack of sufficient humanitarian access, acute shortages of essential life-saving supplies and materials
ISLAMABAD: Foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations on Friday voiced concern over the situation in Gaza, following severe flooding triggered by heavy rains in the territory.
As 2026 begins, the shaky 12-week-old ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has largely ended large-scale Israeli bombardment of Gaza. But Palestinians are still being killed almost daily by Israeli fire, and the humanitarian crisis shows no signs of abating.
Cold winter rains have repeatedly lashed the sprawling tent cities over past weeks, turning Gaza’s dirt roads into mud and causing buildings damaged in Israeli bombardment to collapse. UNICEF says at least six children have now died of weather-related causes.
In a joint message, foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Qatar, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, expressed their “deepest concern” over the situation, compounded by lack of sufficient humanitarian access, acute shortages of essential life-saving supplies, and the slow pace of the entry of essential materials required for the rehabilitation of basic services.
“The ministers highlighted that the severe weather has laid bare the fragility of existing humanitarian conditions, particularly for almost 1.9 million people and displaced families living in inadequate shelters,” the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a joint statement.
“Flooded camps, damaged tents, the collapse of damaged buildings, and exposure to cold temperatures coupled with malnutrition, have significantly heightened risks to civilian lives, including due to disease outbreaks, especially among children, women, the elderly, and individuals with medical vulnerabilities.”
The statement came a day after UNICEF said a 7-year-old, Ata Mai, had drowned Saturday in severe flooding that engulfed his tent camp in Gaza City. Mai had been living with his younger siblings and family in a camp of around 40 tents.
They lost their mother earlier in the war, according to the UN agency.
Video from Civil Defense teams, shown on Al Jazeera, showed rescue workers trying to get Mai’s body out of what appeared to be a pit filled with muddy water surrounded by wreckage of bombed buildings. The men waded into the water, pulling at the boy’s ankle, the only part of his body visible. Later, the body is shown wrapped in a muddy cloth being loaded into an ambulance.
Foreign minister of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other states appreciated the efforts of all United Nations (UN) organizations and agencies as well as non-government organizations (NGOs) in continuing to assist Palestinian civilians and deliver humanitarian assistance under extremely difficult and complex circumstances.
“They demanded that Israel ensure the UN and international NGOs are able to operate in Gaza and the West Bank in a sustained, predictable, and unrestricted manner, given their integral role in the humanitarian response in the Strip. Any attempt to impede their ability to operate is unacceptable,” the statement read.
The foreign ministers reaffirmed support to President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, with a view to ensuring the sustainability of the ceasefire, bringing an end to the war in Gaza, to secure a dignified life for the Palestinian people who have endured prolonged humanitarian suffering, and leading to a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.
“In this context, they stressed the urgent need to immediately initiate and scale up early recovery efforts, including the provision of durable and dignified shelter to protect the population from the severe winter conditions,” the statement read further.
“The ministers called on the international community to uphold its legal and moral responsibilities and to pressure Israel, as the occupying power, to immediately lift constraints on the entry and distribution of essential supplies including tents, shelter materials, medical assistance, clean water, fuel, and sanitation support.”
