Sheherazaad shares new single "Pakeezah" ahead of November album

The single is the latest preview of Khudgarzi, which is due 20 November via London-based indie label Erased Tapes (Penguin Cafe, Nils Frahm). The album was announced alongside a single called "Andhera", and details of UK and European tour dates. Sheherazaad’s debut follows 2024’s Qasr EP, produced by Arooj Aftab. Khudgarzi is entirely self-produced and was recorded between Brooklyn, London, and the San Francisco Bay Area, with fragments from Istanbul, Islamabad, and Trivandrum. It is mostly sung in Urdu, with passages in English and Tamil, and features around 30 guest musicians. "Pakeezah" translates as "Pure One". Sheherazaad says she wrote it while wandering old Mughal ruins in Lucknow, India, and staying at the historic Clarks Avadh. She says: “I was trying to conjure up the ghost of the track: a woman who thinks herself pure before she realises her own inner monstrosity. ‘Pakeezah’ specifically is about my relationship to purity culture, having grown up in a caste/oppressor background.” The Vincent Moon-directed video features Sheherazaad and her ensemble performing a live arrangement of the track. Upcoming tour dates include Liverpool Royal Philharmonic on 20 January, Edinburg...