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 Herway.

Arujavthab 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 Mahabuth won the best global music performance Grammy, and she was nominated for

best new artist.

Mahabuth was first released on her 2021 album, Vulture Prince, but it's been a part of

Arujavth's life for a long time.

In this episode, she tells a story of how the song was first born and how it lived with

her and evolved over the years before she finally recorded it.

My name is Arujavthab.

Mahabuth Garnivali is this poem written by this guy, Hafiz Hoshyar Puri.

He was born in 1912, and he wrote this beautiful poem of which I've taken some lines and

adapted them into my song Mahabuth.

Many, many different singers from South Asia have rendered this poem to song over the course

of time.

This is legendary Pakistani singer, Medihiz San.

I would consider it a South Asian standard.

There are some pieces that are literally handed down and treated exactly the same way as

jazz standards, and so I would say Mahabuth is one of them.

...