The first-ever Grammy winning Pakistani singer, Arooj Aftab, has enthusiastically shared her quest to find her childhood home in Saudi Arabia.
The Diya Hai singer shared interesting pictures and videos of her childhood home on Instagram and asked her millions of fans to tag along.
For the unversed, the Brooklyn-based vocalist was born to Pakistani parents in the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia. The Mohabbat singer then pursued a degree in music production and engineering in Boston and settled down in New York.
Taking to Instagram, the Last Night singer wrote, “Searching for my childhood home in Riyadh with no address, just a couple of landmarks from memory – a park, a mosque, a hill and a hotel. I think I found it. Almost 30 years later, the once sweet neighborhood full of villas and elegant apartments, home to well offish and up coming young immigrant families – is now just a few abandoned villas, empty squares of demolished house, sleepy old apartment buildings, and construction sites as the city is packing in affordable apartment housing into the area. The vibe of this place is unmistakable though. These are the streets.”
Aftab continued, “These are definitely the streets.
1. The back gate of my villa maybe
2. The streets
3. Insanely beautifully sad abandoned villa that looks like my house a lot
4. A structure I remember vaguely
5. Maybe my 8 year old friend and neighbor’s building
6. This woman just chilling alone drinking qahwa til we heard the azaan. After which she got up and got into a car aline and drove away (!!)”
“This space between memory and sadness, between the past and the excitement to return to it, between seeing change and the relief it brings …. this space is perfect,” concluded the 37-year-old artist.
Aftab’s Instagram post featured an image of a back gate of her villa with the streets surrounding her childhood residence along with an abandoned building structure where she once lived.
View this post on Instagram
On the work front, Aftab’s recent works include Siren Islands and Vulture Prince.
