‘Sad that it took a Grammy for some people to consider my music worthwhile’, Arooj Aftab

Internationally acclaimed music sensation Arooj Aftab recently talked about the struggles she has faced during her music career.
Arooj Aftab came into the limelight when the music sensation grabbed her first Grammy Award in the category of ‘Best Global Music Performance’ for Pakistan. After this, her work started to get recognised at the national as well as international levels as well.
While talking to DW, the Pakistani vocalist stated, “When I was growing up, I felt that to dress or look different, to think differently, caused a lot of friction and made me feel like I wasn’t fully accepted. Not being able to imagine freely or be yourself is not healthy, and is like death for an artist”.
While talking about her music style the singer said, “I get irritated when my music is called a ‘cover,’ because it’s not that. When you render something, especially if it is so old that it is almost public domain, you are taking its root but building something original, something that is new and not done before; it is in the now. This generation is really bold and demands things, they want equality”.
Arooj also shed light on her struggling days in her musical journey and how her work was taken for granted. She said, “My family loves music and is quite liberal, but they did not understand what I was trying to do. It is a bit sad that it took winning a Grammy for some people to finally think that what I was doing for so many years was worthwhile”.