The character arc of Arooj Aftab
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in Riyadh to expatriate Pakistani parents. Between then and now sit a guitar taught to herself, a singing style built from listening to Billie Holiday, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Mariah Carey and Begum Akhtar, a country where access to Western online platforms was difficult and the infrastructure for independent music did not exist, two of her own recordings that went viral in the early 2000s and launched the Pakistani independent scene, a move to the United States at nineteen in 2005, New York in 2010, film editing and scoring to pay for it, a first album in 2014, an album in 2021 dedicated to her late younger brother, and the first Grammy Award ever won by a Pakistani artist. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Arooj Aftab?
There was no independent music industry. She used the internet instead.
She was born in Riyadh to Pakistani parents living abroad. She taught herself the guitar, and built a singing style by listening to a shelf that had no business being on the same shelf: Billie Holiday, the Indian flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia, Mariah Carey, and the ghazal singer Begum Akhtar. That combination is the whole sound.
Then the practical problem. She was living somewhere access to Western online platforms was difficult and where the infrastructure for independent music did not exist. What she did about it was be early. She was one of the first musicians in Pakistan to promote her work on the internet in the early 2000s, and her recordings of a ghazal and of a Leonard Cohen song went viral there, which the record credits with launching the Pakistani independent music scene.
She moved to the United States at nineteen in 2005, and to New York in 2010, where she worked as an editor and scored films to pay for the music. In April 2011 she was included in a selection of a hundred composers under forty. Her first album came out independently in 2014 and got four stars in a national newspaper, her second in 2018 through a small label, and both are the kind of records that get on critics' lists and not into anybody's pocket.
Her third album arrived in April 2021 and was dedicated to the memory of her younger brother, Maher. It was named best album of the year by a Dutch newspaper, ranked sixth on Rolling Stone's staff list, twentieth by The Guardian, and a Guardian critic called her the year's biggest musical revelation. A former American president put one of its songs on his summer playlist.
In April 2022 that song won Best Global Music Performance at the Grammy Awards, and she was nominated for Best New Artist in the same year, having been recording since 2014. She was the first Pakistani artist ever to win a Grammy. On Pakistan's seventy fifth independence day she received the Pride of Performance, the country's most prestigious award for excellence in art and music.
The moments
Arooj Aftab's timeline.
The 2000s
She teaches herself guitar
Milestone, and it changed her direction. No teacher, and four singers from four different worlds.
No industry to join
Setback, and it changed everything. Not a hard industry to break into. No industry at all.
She goes viral, early
Milestone, and it changed everything. One of the first people in the country to try it, and it worked.
Stay, or go
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go to America, taken, or stay and build it there. She became the first Pakistani artist to win a Grammy Award, seventeen years later.
She moves to the United States
Milestone, and it changed everything. Nineteen years old, and a one way trip.
The 2010s
New York, and a day job
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Editing other people's work to pay for her own.
A hundred composers under forty
Milestone. Listed as a composer before she had released an album.
A first album, independent
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Released by nobody but her, and reviewed anyway.
She edits a documentary
Everyday. Still cutting film, three years after her first album.
Siren Islands
Milestone, and it changed her direction. On two lists, in two genres, for one record.
The 2020s
She scores an award-winning film
Milestone. Somebody else's prizes, with her music underneath them.
Vulture Prince
Milestone, and it changed everything. The record for her brother, and the one that changed everything.
A song on a summer playlist
Milestone, and it changed her direction. One song, on a list a great many people read.
The first Pakistani Grammy
Milestone, and it changed everything. The first one, from a country of two hundred and forty million people.
The Pride of Performance
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Her own country, on its birthday, saying thank you.
She curates a festival
Milestone. From playing the bill to choosing it.
Still collaborating
Milestone. Still working outward, into other people's records.
A woman who could barely reach a Western website in the early 2000s is the reason an independent music scene exists in her own country. What she set moving is what being early looks like from the inside: not a strategy, just the only door available, opened before anybody else thought to try it.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
Hers starts in a place with no music industry at all and gets to a Grammy. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Arooj Aftab: frequently asked questions
What people ask about her line.
What is Arooj Aftab's character arc?
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What is Arooj Aftab's album Vulture Prince about?
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What did Arooj Aftab do before music paid?
Where does this timeline of Arooj Aftab's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Arooj Aftab, English Wikipedia biography.
- Release records for Bird Under Water in 2014, Siren Islands on 12 June 2018 and Vulture Prince on 23 April 2021.
- Award records for the Grammy Award for Best Global Music Performance in April 2022 and the Pride of Performance.
- Her birth date is not published in the record this page draws on, so none is shown; the lifespan is derived from her having moved to the United States at nineteen in 2005.
- An open letter she signed in October 2023 is in the record and is deliberately not drawn here.