Grammy win

It took a 36-year-old female artist to provide some hope and light on an otherwise dark day for Pakistan. On Sunday, Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab became the first person from the country to win the prestigious Grammy Award in the category of Best Global Musical Performance for her interpretation of Hafeez Hoshiarpuri’s ‘Mohabbat’ – originally immortalized by the likes of Mehdi Hasan and Farida Khanum. The song is from her 2021 album, ‘Vulture Prince’, which she dedicated to her late younger brother. The Brooklyn-based star moved to the US in 2005 and studied at the renowned Berklee College of Music. Within a decade, in 2015, she released her first album. While Arooj’s music has not gone unnoticed over the years by music journalists, producers and fans, she was truly ‘discovered’ when she found herself in Barack Obama’s 2021 Summer Playlist.

Arooj has in interviews said that her music ‘has gone beyond a tradition’ and ‘is singular’ to her. Those listening to her art for the first time can understand that better when struck by the haunting but almost therapeutic voice, complemented by a unique experiment with fusion – ghazal, jazz, but with violin or the harp. While not having worked much in Pakistan, Arooj was in the country for a Coke Studio appearance when she got news of her Grammy nomination.

The Grammy win, an immensely prestigious nod to a musician, should ideally encourage Pakistan to invest in the performing arts (music, dance, theatre, art), probably one of the most neglected areas and in danger of completely being subsumed by the rising right-wing thinking in society. The fact that young Pakistanis are succeeding in different fields is something to be proud of no doubt. But the fact that our artists have virtually no support from the state as they try to prove their genius must change. For too long has the country rejoiced at accolades its artists get from the world, without the country’s managers ever having done a thing to support them. For the moment, though, Pakistanis can celebrate the fact that we have a Grammy-winning musician – a woman at that.