Song · Arooj Aftab
“Mohabbat” by Arooj Aftab
From the album Vulture Prince (2021)
“Mohabbat” by Arooj Aftab appears on 1 radio countdown from 1 station in 2025. It was first released in 2021 on the album Vulture Prince. Its best result is #592 on the 893 Essential Songs of The Current: 2005 to Now. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #6,233 indie & aaa song of all time.
On Vulture Prince, her 2021 album, Arooj Aftab takes up "Mohabbat", an Urdu ghazal by the poet Hafeez Hoshiarpuri whose title means love. It's a song about the ache of separation, built on the raga Khamaj, and a long line of singers has had a turn with it, from Mehdi Hassan, whose version first made it popular, to Farida Khanum and Jagjit Singh. Aftab has said it could be heard as a love song, a breakup song, a political statement or a nostalgic memory.
She produced it herself and set it among a spare, glowing ensemble: Maeve Gilchrist on harp, Gyan Riley on guitar, Darian Donovan Thomas on violin, Nadje Noordhuis on flugelhorn, Shahzad Ismaily on synthesizer and Jamey Haddad on percussion, with Joshua Valleau engineering and mixing. Her version won the Grammy for Best Global Music Performance.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 592 | The Current | 893 Essential Songs of The Current: 2005 to Now | 893 |
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