Arooj Aftab

Arooj Aftab is a Pakistani singer, composer and producer based in Brooklyn. Possessed of a stunningly beautiful voice, Aftab need not conform to genre boundaries to maintain attention. Aftab's early musical exposure was primarily to Hindustani classical and South Asian folk music. This influence is clear in the majority of her music, but does not define it, even when re-imagining Urdu ghazals, as she does on 2021's Vulture Prince. Instead, her unique sound could be described as a combination of neo-Classical, Jazz and neo-Sufi (like Abida Parveen, a hero of Aftab's), sometimes hewing closer to her South Asian heritage than others, such as on 2014's Bird Under Water, much of which might be described as a Qawwali (like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). Above the resulting meditative sound is that goosebump-inducing voice. Whether it's the precision inflections when singing in Urdu or the slinkiness of her more jazzy numbers, Aftab delivers on sharing her gift.