PESHAWAR: For the first time, 36-year-old Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab has been nominated for the prestigious Grammy Awards.
Nominations for the 64th Grammy Awards have been announced on Wednesday. The winners of the Grammys will be announced on January 31, 2022 at a colourful ceremony in Los Angeles. Arooj Aftab, who received accolades from around the world for her mesmerizing music, has now been nominated for the 2022 Grammy Awards.
The Recording Academy has nominated Arooj Aftab for two awards -‘Best New Artist’ and her song “Mohabbat” has been nominated for ‘Best Global Music Performance’. The Pakistan singer has been nominated for the highest music award for the first time.
Arooj Aftab is 36-year-old singer who started her music career from Lahore, studied at Berkeley College of Music, USA and has released three solo albums so far. Born in Saudi Arabia, she started her music career as a cover artist when she shifted to Lahore with her parents. In early 2000, at the age of 18, she sang Canadian singer Leonard Cohen’s song “Halloween” which went viral on YouTube and social media.
In May this year, Arooj Aftab released an album titled ‘Vulture Prince’ which include seven songs.
Arooj admits that she has been greatly influenced by Urdu poetry. She describe her music ‘New Sufi Semi-Pakistani Classical’. Former US President Barack Obama added her song “Mohabbat” to his official Summer 2021 playlist. This song, based on a ghazal of Hafeez Hoshiarpuri, is one of her hit songs which was first sung by late Mehdi Hassan.
Reuters quoted reported that American rapper and singer Jon Battist, 35, had the most nominations for the 64th edition. Battist also received two Grammy nominations in three major categories: Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year. In all, Battist received 11 nominations, while other leading singers received 8 and 7 nominations. According to the Associated Press, Canadian-born singer Justin Bieber and singer Doja Cat have received eight nominations each.
American singers Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo received seven nominations, respectively and the South Korean band BTS received only one nomination. Surprisingly, singers like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift failed to get nominations. Also, singers like Cardi B, Demi Lovato, Dua Lipa and Ariana Grande did not get nominations.
The winners of the Grammy Awards will be announced at the end of January next year.