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Arooj Aftab's curation at LGW24 by Juri Hiensch

Thursday Jan 16th 2025

Three years after her last Le Guess Who? showcase, Brooklyn-based, Pakistani singer and composer, Arooj Aftab returned to the festival in 2024 both as a curator and performer.

"Aftab’s voice and her band’s musicianship are breathtaking on their own, but there’s an intimacy, a warmth, an un-self-seriousness that makes the whole experience shimmer that bit more." - Crack Magazine

Each year, Le Guess Who? invites trailblazing creatives to curate their own dedicated programs. Our resident photographer, Juri Hiensch, tagged along with the artists curated by Arooj Aftab to capture a series of portraits.

Curated by Arooj Aftab Photo

In addition to her own performance, Arooj Aftab curated performances by, amongst others, American composer, vocalist and gifted storyteller Sheherazaad, who is at the crest of the wave of South Asian diasporic soundscapes; and Zsela, who, with her raw, vulnerable and forceful music, established herself as a singer-songwriter of cavernous depth.

These are two portraits. The first photo shows Sheherazaad. She is leaning on a table with her arms. She holds her hands just in front of her face, making it only partly visible. In the second photo, you see Zsela. She is lying in a round window and looking directly into the camera.

"aja monet proved to be a crown jewel in Arooj Aftab's curated line-up. From behind a beautifully flower-adorned microphone and lectern, she unleashed the most beautiful streams of words on the Grand Hall of TivoliVredenburg, in a deep, rhythmically flowing, dark cadence." - OOR

Furthermore, performing as part of the curation were surrealist blues poet aja monet, whose poems are centered around themes of Black resistance, love and the inexhaustible quest for joy; and Egyptian singer, composer, and music producer Dina El Wedidi.