You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
One of the songs I keep coming back to is Mahabat by Aruj Afthab.
It's really special to me.
I listen to it all the time.
I've been listening to it so often that I wanted to revisit her episode about it.
In the time since the episodes come out,
she released a collaborative album with Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaili called Love in Exile,
which got two Grammy nominations.
And she has a new album that's about to come out on May 31st called Night Rain.
Here's her episode.
Aruj Afdab is a singer and composer based in Brooklyn.
She grew up in Saudi Arabia, but her family is from Pakistan,
and earlier this year, she made history by becoming the first Pakistani artist to win a Grammy.
Her song, Mahabath, won the Best Global Music Performance Grammy,
and she was nominated for Best New Artist.
Mahabath was first released on her 2021 album, Vulture Prince,
but it's been a part of Aruj's life for a long time.
In this episode,