Spotlight On: AROOJ AFTAB
ABOUT THIS WEEK’S SHERO IN THE SPOTLIGHT:
The GRAMMYs were originally supposed to happen a few days ago, on January 31st, but for the second year in a row, were postponed due to the pandemic. So at the time of this interview, we still don’t know the winners, but I wanted to spotlight one nominee I am rooting for this year: Arooj Aftab. Her critically hailed third album Vulture Prince not only earned her two nominations, but nabbed top billing on every 2021 year end best-of list, and even a song on President Obama’s summer playlist last year. One of the GRAMMYs Arooj is nominated for is one of the big ones: Best New Artist, an accolade she now shares with her old Berklee College of Music friend (and SHEROES alum) Esperanza Spalding. While both studied jazz at Berklee, Arooj's music has evolved into songs that fuse a huge range of musical influences from her life, paired with an ancient form of Islamic poetry, sung mostly in Urdu, the national language of Pakistan where she is from. Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents, Arooj spent her teenage years in Lahore, Pakistan, and became obsessed with jazz, folk music, and the guitar, which she taught herself. That led to her unstoppable drive to come to the states to study at Berklee. Now based in New York City, her first album, Bird Under Water, was independently released in 2014, followed by her critically hailed electronic album Siren Islands in 2018, and Vulture Prince, in 2021. Arooj has now been signed by the legendary jazz label, Verve Records, who will reissue Vulture Prince in a deluxe edition this year. It's an exciting moment to have Arooj Aftab as this week’s SHERO in the Spotlight.
Our playlist includes new music from MICHELLE, Tank and The Bangas, and a brand new one called “Champion” from Warpaint.
SHERO BIRTHDAYS: We celebrate the milestone birthday of SHERO icon Carole King who turns 80 on Wednesday, 2/9!
This week’s Radio SHERO: Nilufer Arsala of KXT in Dallas, Texas joins us to share the track “Anticipating” from Coco Jones.