This year, musician Arooj Aftab broke records by becoming the first Pakistani artist to win a Grammy. She won Best Global Performance. But a girl can never have too many Grammys, so the singer is nominating a brand-new song for an award.
She joyfully stated, “‘UDHERO NA’ FEATURING ANOUSHKA SHANKAR for your Grammy voting consideration in the Best Global Music Performance category” in the caption of a song clip she released on Tuesday. She mentioned that the song was about getting over your ex, quoting a lyric from it. She said, “Must win for sure since we’ve finally beaten them.
On April 3, the Brooklyn-based vocalist won her first Grammy for her song “Mohabbat” in the category of Best Global Performance. She was also a nominee in the Best New Artist category.
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. She has released three albums — Bird Under Water (2014), Siren Islands (2018), and Vulture Prince (2021) which gained even more attention after former US president Barack Obama included ‘Mohabbat’ on his 2021 summer favorites list.
Aftab has performed at several notable New York locations, such as the Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. In 2018, he also served as Mitski’s opener at The Brooklyn Steel. In order to support her music, she has worked on her profession as a musician, collaborating with other musicians while holding down a full-time job as an audio engineer.
The Grammys will be held in Los Angeles on February 5. On November 15, the nominations will be made public.
