Arooj Aftab

Episode notes

Photo: Shreya Dev Dube

This week on Bullseye, we talk to Grammy-winning songwriter, composer, and musician: Arooj Aftab.

When she was 18, Arooj Aftab was living with her parents in Lahore, Pakistan. She recorded a bare bones, lo-fi interpretation of one of the most covered songs in history: Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. The recording went viral, kickstarted her career, and a year later she moved to the US to get a degree at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. There, she focused on music production and engineering.

In 2021, she became the first Pakistani to win a Grammy. It was a Best Global Music Performance for her single “Mohabbat” off of her 2021 album Vulture Prince. Her latest album is called Night Reign. Like Vulture Prince, It’s ethereal and beautiful and kind of haunting, but it pushes the boundaries of her songwriting even further: encompassing jazz, trip-hop, spoken word and much, much more.

In this conversation, Arooj Aftab talks about talks about the influence of Meshell Ndegeocello on her work, being a recording gear nerd in addition to being an artist, and how great the Urdu language is for metaphorical writing.