Norwich Cathedral has dominated the centre of this fine city for over 925 years and in its time it’s played host to all manner of singers and musicians. On the opening night of the 2025 Norfolk and Norwich Festival the venerable place of worship welcomed Grammy-winning Arooj Aftab, who gave a stunning performance to kick off this year’s festival in fine style.
Wooly Aziz (the performance name of Lahore-born vocalist and songwriter Jannat Sohail, previously known as Wooly and the Uke) opened the evening’s proceedings. Aziz was accompanied solely by Wolle, on a Nord keyboard and effects. The duo crafted a striking on-stage presence, both wearing sunglasses, Aziz in a shimmering silver-white suit and Wolle clad in black from head to toe, neither one of them smiling until the end of the set, when Wolle joined Aziz centre-stage as they thanked the audience. They performed the thirty-minute set without a break, Aziz’s strong, resonant, voice reaching every corner of the vast auditorium while Wolle’s musicianship, subtle and understated, complemented the vocals throughout.
Arooj Aftab is one of the biggest names to appear at this year’s festival, an artist with seven Grammy nominations, including two in 2025 for the album Night Reign and the song “Raat Ki Rani.” Success in 2022’s Best Global Music Performance category for the single “Mohabbat” made her the first Pakistani woman to win a Grammy. For this concert Aftab was with the trio of Perry Smith on acoustic guitar, Zwelakhe-Duma Bell Le Pere on double bass and Engin Kaan Gunaydin on drums, with a set based on her solo albums, Night Reign and Vulture Prince.
Aftab is an engaging performer, with a self-deprecating sense of humour and a voice that conveys every ounce of her passion and emotion. Early on, after asking the audience if we were all old, “really old” — an accurate assessment, most of us, I suspect, much older than Aftab’s usual fanbase — she explained that some of the music would be depressing, but a lot of it would be fun. That wasn’t such an accurate assessment: a lot of it was fun, but rather than being depressing, the sadder songs were characterised by great beauty, uplifting in their humanity. Aftab sings mostly in Urdu, with occasional English lyrics on songs such as “Last Night,” with its gentle reggae-like rhythm and words that tell of a lover “even brighter than the sun,” and “Whiskey.” Like all great singers she communicates the spirit and emotion of the songs without needing to explain the underlying stories, which are often about universal themes such as relationships — good and bad — love, longing and heartbreak.
This was a mesmerising performance, of consistently excellent quality, from all four artists. There was even a spot of heavy metal, courtesy of the brooding “Bolo Na,” a song Aftab wrote as a teenager: congratulations should go here to Smith and Bell Le Pere for making the acoustic guitar and bass sound like Metallica. Of the many high points, “Last Night” stood out in the first half of the set, the exquisite “Raat Ki Rani” came towards the end of the show and the band encored with Aftab’s Grammy winning “Mohabbat,” a beautiful, delicate and delightful song that brought the evening to a close.
Arooj Aftab and Ibrahim Malouf are playing the BBC Proms on 29 July with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
