Not the future- the present is female as well! Brooklyn based Pakistani artist, Arooj Aftab, made history on Sunday night as she walked on the prestigious stage at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards and claimed her shining 6lbs award for the Best Global Music Performance. The accolade hits even harder as she becomes the first-ever Pakistani musician to win a Grammy. Her rendition of Mohabbat, an Urdu verse ghazal on loss and longing, won her the historic fate.
While Sunday was a chaotic day politically for Pakistan, social media users united at the end of the day to celebrate Aftab’s historic achievement. The micro-blogging site was filled with ecstatic congratulatory messages for the Grammy winner.
Here’s how Twitter is celebrating Aftab today!
Only two Pakistanis ever got nominated for a Grammy, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Arooj Aftab.
— Asha (@Shagublah) April 4, 2022
Only one of them won a grammy,
Arooj Aftab isnt the first pakistani woman to win, she is the ONLY pakistani to win a grammy
So proud of her ❤️
big grammy win for american asian singer arooj aftab, who sings here AND there as well, yeah
— wel jorjor (@sadzzilla) April 3, 2022
How fitting that on a day that a bunch of old men worked a Sunday to bury our country, it is a young woman that rises and helps us believe we can all heal (& fly)
— Mosharraf Zaidi (@mosharrafzaidi) April 3, 2022
Thank you @arooj_aftab #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/ZNNafHROep
YAY! Congrats to the super-talented @arooj_aftab - the first Pakistani woman to win a Grammy!! So well-deserved!! 👏🏽👏🏽@RecordingAcad https://t.co/pnxN3e8yzc
— misbah (@MizNaQ) April 4, 2022
arooj aftab got pakistan a grammy i think she should be prime minister now
— mahad (@torphor) April 3, 2022
Arooj Aftab won. DAMN IT SHE WON A GRAMMY.
— Fareeha (@SabMayaHai_) April 4, 2022
"I feel like this category in and of itself has been insane… it should this be called yacht party category,” Arooj said onstage at the 64th Grammy Awards. “I made [this record] about everything that broke me and put me back together. Thank you for listening to it and making it yours."
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 music 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 favourites list.
Aftab has performed at a number of major New York venues including Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, also opening for Mitski at The Brooklyn Steel in 2018.
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