Cat Stevens
Encyclopedia
Yusuf Islam commonly known by his former stage name
Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter
, multi-instrumentalist
, educator, philanthropist
, and prominent convert
to Islam
.
His early 1970s record albums Tea for the Tillerman
and Teaser and the Firecat
were both certified triple platinum
in the United States by the RIAA. His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four
sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release alone and was Billboard's number-one LP for three consecutive weeks. He has also earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in consecutive years for "The First Cut Is the Deepest
", which has been a hit single for four different artists.
Stevens converted to Islam in December 1977 and adopted his Muslim name, Yusuf Islam, the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars for charity and left his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2003 World Award
, the 2004 Man for Peace Award, and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. In 2006, he returned to pop music with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup
. He now goes professionally by the single name Yusuf. His most recent album, Roadsinger
, was released on 5 May 2009.
, London
, England, was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou (b. 1900), and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (b. 1915). He has an older sister, Anita, and brother, David. The family lived above the Moulin Rouge, a restaurant that his parents operated on the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue
which was a short walk from Piccadilly Circus
in the Soho
theatre district
of London. All family members worked in the restaurant. His parents divorced when he was about 8 years old, but they continued to maintain the family restaurant and live above it.
Although his father was Greek Orthodox
and his mother a Swedish Baptist
, Georgiou was sent to a Catholic
school, St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School in Macklin Street, which was closer to his father's business on Drury Lane
. Georgiou developed an interest in piano
at a fairly young age, eventually using the family baby grand piano to work out the chords, since no one else there played well enough to teach him. Inspired by the popularity of The Beatles
, at age 15 he extended his interest to the guitar
, convinced his father to pay £8 for his first instrument, and began playing it and writing songs. He would escape at times from his family responsibilities to the rooftop above their home, and listen to the tunes of the musicals drifting from just around the corner from Denmark Street
, which was then the centre of the British music industry. Later, Stevens has emphasized that the advent of West Side Story in particular affected him, giving him a "different view of life", he said in 2000, on a VH1
Behind the Music
programme. With interests in both art and music, he and his mother moved to Gävle
, Sweden, where he attended primary school (Solängsskolan) and started developing his drawing skills after being influenced by his uncle Hugo Wickman, a painter. They subsequently returned to England.
He attended other local West End
schools, where he says he was constantly in trouble, and did poorly in everything but art. He was called "the artist boy" and mentions that "I was beat up, but I was noticed". He went on to take a one-year course of study at Hammersmith School of Art, as he considered a career as a cartoon
ist. Though he enjoyed art (his later record albums would feature his original artwork on his album covers), he wanted to establish a musical career and began to perform originally under the stage name
"Steve Adams" in 1965 while at Hammersmith.
Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou, 21 July 1948), commonly known by his former stage name
Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter
, multi-instrumentalist
, educator, philanthropist
, and prominent convert
to Islam
.
His early 1970s record albums Tea for the Tillerman
and Teaser and the Firecat
were both certified triple platinum
in the United States by the RIAA. His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four
sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release alone and was Billboard's number-one LP for three consecutive weeks. He has also earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in consecutive years for "The First Cut Is the Deepest
", which has been a hit single for four different artists.
Stevens converted to Islam in December 1977 and adopted his Muslim name, Yusuf Islam, the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars for charity This story originally aired on 3 December 2006. and left his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2003 World Award
, the 2004 Man for Peace Award, and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. In 2006, he returned to pop music with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup
. He now goes professionally by the single name Yusuf. His most recent album, Roadsinger
, was released on 5 May 2009.
, London
, England, was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou (b. 1900), and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (b. 1915). He has an older sister, Anita, and brother, David. The family lived above the Moulin Rouge, a restaurant that his parents operated on the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue
which was a short walk from Piccadilly Circus
in the Soho
theatre district
of London. All family members worked in the restaurant. His parents divorced when he was about 8 years old, but they continued to maintain the family restaurant and live above it.
Although his father was Greek Orthodox
and his mother a Swedish Baptist
, Georgiou was sent to a Catholic
school, St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School in Macklin Street, which was closer to his father's business on Drury Lane
. Georgiou developed an interest in piano
at a fairly young age, eventually using the family baby grand piano to work out the chords, since no one else there played well enough to teach him. Inspired by the popularity of The Beatles
, at age 15 he extended his interest to the guitar
, convinced his father to pay £8 for his first instrument, and began playing it and writing songs. He would escape at times from his family responsibilities to the rooftop above their home, and listen to the tunes of the musicals drifting from just around the corner from Denmark Street
, which was then the centre of the British music industry. Later, Stevens has emphasized that the advent of West Side Story in particular affected him, giving him a "different view of life", he said in 2000, on a VH1
Behind the Music
programme. With interests in both art and music, he and his mother moved to Gävle
, Sweden, where he attended primary school (Solängsskolan) and started developing his drawing skills after being influenced by his uncle Hugo Wickman, a painter. They subsequently returned to England.
He attended other local West End
schools, where he says he was constantly in trouble, and did poorly in everything but art. He was called "the artist boy" and mentions that "I was beat up, but I was noticed". He went on to take a one-year course of study at Hammersmith School of Art, as he considered a career as a cartoon
ist. Though he enjoyed art (his later record albums would feature his original artwork on his album covers), he wanted to establish a musical career and began to perform originally under the stage name
"Steve Adams" in 1965 while at Hammersmith.
Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou, 21 July 1948), commonly known by his former stage name
Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter
, multi-instrumentalist
, educator, philanthropist
, and prominent convert
to Islam
.
His early 1970s record albums Tea for the Tillerman
and Teaser and the Firecat
were both certified triple platinum
in the United States by the RIAA. His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four
sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release alone and was Billboard's number-one LP for three consecutive weeks. He has also earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in consecutive years for "The First Cut Is the Deepest
", which has been a hit single for four different artists.
Stevens converted to Islam in December 1977 and adopted his Muslim name, Yusuf Islam, the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars for charity This story originally aired on 3 December 2006. and left his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2003 World Award
, the 2004 Man for Peace Award, and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. In 2006, he returned to pop music with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup
. He now goes professionally by the single name Yusuf. His most recent album, Roadsinger
, was released on 5 May 2009.
, London
, England, was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou (b. 1900), and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (b. 1915). He has an older sister, Anita, and brother, David. The family lived above the Moulin Rouge, a restaurant that his parents operated on the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue
which was a short walk from Piccadilly Circus
in the Soho
theatre district
of London. All family members worked in the restaurant. His parents divorced when he was about 8 years old, but they continued to maintain the family restaurant and live above it.
Although his father was Greek Orthodox
and his mother a Swedish Baptist
, Georgiou was sent to a Catholic
school, St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School in Macklin Street, which was closer to his father's business on Drury Lane
. Georgiou developed an interest in piano
at a fairly young age, eventually using the family baby grand piano to work out the chords, since no one else there played well enough to teach him. Inspired by the popularity of The Beatles
, at age 15 he extended his interest to the guitar
, convinced his father to pay £8 for his first instrument, and began playing it and writing songs. He would escape at times from his family responsibilities to the rooftop above their home, and listen to the tunes of the musicals drifting from just around the corner from Denmark Street
, which was then the centre of the British music industry. Later, Stevens has emphasized that the advent of West Side Story in particular affected him, giving him a "different view of life", he said in 2000, on a VH1
Behind the Music
programme. With interests in both art and music, he and his mother moved to Gävle
, Sweden, where he attended primary school (Solängsskolan) and started developing his drawing skills after being influenced by his uncle Hugo Wickman, a painter. They subsequently returned to England.
He attended other local West End
schools, where he says he was constantly in trouble, and did poorly in everything but art. He was called "the artist boy" and mentions that "I was beat up, but I was noticed". He went on to take a one-year course of study at Hammersmith School of Art, as he considered a career as a cartoon
ist. Though he enjoyed art (his later record albums would feature his original artwork on his album covers), he wanted to establish a musical career and began to perform originally under the stage name
"Steve Adams" in 1965 while at Hammersmith. At that point, his goal was to become a songwriter. Among the musicians who influenced him were Bob Dylan
, Nina Simone
, blues artists Lead Belly and Muddy Waters
, John Lennon
, Biff Rose
(who played on his first album), Leo Kottke
, and Paul Simon
. He also wanted to emulate composers who wrote musicals, like Ira Gershwin
and Leonard Bernstein
. In 1965 he signed a publishing deal with Ardmore & Beechwood and cut several demos
, including "The First Cut Is the Deepest
".
Cat Stevens, in part because a girlfriend said he had eyes like a cat, but mainly because he said, "I couldn't imagine anyone going to the record store and asking for 'that Steven Demetre Georgiou album'. And in England, and I was sure in America, they loved animals." In 1966, at age 18, he impressed manager/producer Mike Hurst
, formerly of British vocal group The Springfields
, with his songs and Hurst arranged for him to record a demo and then helped him get a record deal. The first singles were hits. "I Love My Dog
" charted at #28, and "Matthew and Son
", the title song from his debut album, went to #2. "I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun
" reached Britain's Top 10, and the album Matthew and Son itself began charting. The original version of the The Tremeloes
cover hit, "Here Comes My Baby", was written and recorded by Stevens.
Over the next two years, Stevens recorded and toured with an eclectic group of artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix
to Engelbert Humperdinck
. Stevens was considered a fresh-faced teen star, placing several single releases in the British pop music charts
. Some of that success was attributed to the pirate radio
station Wonderful Radio London
, which gained him fans by playing his records. In August 1967, he went on the air with other recording artists who had benefited from the station to mourn its closure.
His December 1967 album New Masters
failed to chart in the United Kingdom. The album is now most notable for his song "The First Cut Is the Deepest
", a song he sold for £30 to P.P. Arnold that was to become a massive hit for her, and an international hit for Keith Hampshire
, Rod Stewart
, James Morrison
, and Sheryl Crow
. Forty years after he recorded the first demo of the song, it earned him two back-to-back ASCAP "Songwriter of the Year" awards, in 2005 and 2006.
, Midhurst
; he spent months recuperating in hospital and a year of convalescence
. During this time Stevens began to question aspects of his life, and spirituality. He later said, "to go from the show business environment and find you are in hospital, getting injections day in and day out, and people around you are dying, it certainly changes your perspective. I got down to thinking about myself. It seemed almost as if I had my eyes shut."
He took up meditation
, yoga
, and metaphysics
; read about other religions; and became a vegetarian. As a result of his serious illness and long convalescence, and as a part of his spiritual awakening and questioning, he wrote as many as forty songs, many of which would appear on his albums in years to come.
, and over-production, rather than the folk rock
sound Stevens was attempting to produce. He admits having purposefully sabotaged his own contract with Hurst, making outlandishly expensive orchestral demands and threatening legal action, which resulted in his goal: release from his contract with Deram Records
, a sub-label of major Decca Records
. Upon regaining his health at home after his release from the hospital, Stevens recorded some of his newly written songs on his tape recorder, and played his changing sound for a few new record executives. After hiring agent Barry Krost, who had arranged for an audition with Chris Blackwell
of Island Records
, Blackwell offered him a "chance to record [his songs] whenever and with whomever he liked, and more importantly to Cat, however he liked". With Krost's recommendation, Stevens signed with Paul Samwell-Smith
, previously the bassist
of the Yardbirds, to be his new producer
.
in 1970, an American distribution deal was arranged with A&M Records
' Jerry Moss
in North America. Stevens began work on Mona Bone Jakon
, a folk-rock
based album that was quite different from his earlier "pop" style records, drawing on his new, introspective work.
Producer Paul Samwell-Smith paired guitarist Alun Davies
, who was currently working as a session musician
, with Stevens. Alun was the more experienced veteran of two albums which already had begun to explore the emerging genres of skiffle
and folk rock music
. Davies was also thought a perfect fit in particular for his "fingerwork" on the guitar, harmonizing
and contributing backing vocals with Stevens. They originally met just to record Mona Bone Jakon, but developed a fast friendship; Davies, like Stevens, was a perfectionist, appearing after all the sound checks had been completed, just to be sure that all the equipment and sound were prepared for each concert. He recorded on all but two of the succeeding pop music albums Stevens released, and continued performing and recording with him until Stevens' retirement. The two remained friends, however, and years later, when Stevens re-emerged as Yusuf Islam after 27 years, Davies appeared again performing at his side, and has remained there.
The first single released from Mona Bone Jakon was "Lady D'Arbanville
", which Stevens wrote about his young American girlfriend Patti D'Arbanville
. The record, with a madrigal
sound unlike most music played on pop radio, with sounds of djembe
s and bass in addition to Stevens' and Davies' guitars, reached #8 in the UK. It was the first of his hits to get real airplay in the United States. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold record
in 1971. Other songs written for her included "Maybe You're Right", and "Just Another Night". In addition, the song, "Pop Star", about his experience as a teen star, and "Katmandu", featuring Genesis
frontman Peter Gabriel
playing flute
, were featured. Mona Bone Jakon was an early example of the solo singer-songwriter
album format that was becoming popular for other artists as well. Rolling Stone
magazine compared its popularity with that of Elton John
's Tumbleweed Connection
, saying it was played "across the board, across radio formats".
Mona Bone Jakon was the precursor for Stevens' international breakthrough album, Tea for the Tillerman
, which became a top-10 Billboard hit. Within six months of its release, it had sold over 500,000 copies, attaining gold record status in the United States and in Britain. The combination of Stevens' new folk-rock style and accessible lyrics which spoke of everyday situations and problems, mixed with the beginning of spiritual questions about life, would remain in his music from then on. The album features the top 20 single "Wild World
"; a parting song after D'Arbanville moved on. "Wild World" has been credited as the song that gave Tea for the Tillerman 'enough kick' to get it played on FM radio; and the head of Island Records, Chris Blackwell, was quoted as calling it "the best album we’ve ever released". Other album cuts include "Hard-Headed Woman", and "Father and Son", a song sung both in baritone and tenor, about the struggle between fathers and their sons who are faced with their own personal choices in life. In 2001, this album was certified by the RIAA as a Multi-Platinum record, having sold 3 million copies in the United States at that time. It is ranked at #206 in Rolling Stone Magazine's 2003
list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time
".
After the end of his relationship with D'Arbanville, Stevens noted the effect it had on writing his music, saying,
Having established a signature sound, Stevens enjoyed a string of successes over the following years. 1971's Teaser and the Firecat
album reached number two and achieved gold record status within three weeks of its release in the United States. It yielded several hits, including "Peace Train
", "Morning Has Broken
" (a Christian hymn with lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon
), and "Moon Shadow". This album was also certified by the RIAA as a Multi-Platinum record in 2001, with over three million US sales through that time. When interviewed on a Boston radio station, Stevens said about Teaser and the Firecat:
For seven months from 1971 to 1972 Stevens was romantically linked to popular singer Carly Simon
while both were produced by Samwell-Smith. During that time both wrote songs for and about one another. Simon wrote and recorded at least two top 50 songs, "Legend in Your Own Time" and "Anticipation
" about Stevens. He reciprocated in his song to her, after their romance, entitled, "Sweet Scarlet".
His next album, Catch Bull at Four
, released in 1972, was his most rapidly successful album in the United States, reaching gold record status in 15 days, and holding the number-one position on the Billboard charts for three weeks. This album continued the introspective and spiritual lyrics that he was known for, combined with a rougher-edged voice and a less acoustic sound than his previous records, utilizing synthesizers and other instruments. Although the sales of the album indicated Stevens' popularity, the album did not produce any real hits, with the exception of the single "Sitting", which charted at #16. Catch Bull at Four was Platinum certified in 2001.
film Deep End
. In 1971, Stevens provided nine songs to the soundtrack of the black comedy
Harold and Maude
which became a popular cult movie celebrating the free spirit, and brought Stevens' music to a wider audience, continuing to do so long after he stopped recording in the late 1970s. Among the songs were "Where Do the Children Play?
," "Trouble
," and "I Think I See the Light." Two of the songs, "Don't Be Shy" and "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out
," were not released on any album until their inclusion in 1984 on a second "greatest hits" collection: Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
.
After his religious conversion in the late 1970s, Stevens stopped granting permission for his songs to be used in films. However, almost twenty years later, in 1997, the movie Rushmore
was allowed to use his songs "Here Comes My Baby" and "The Wind", showing a new willingness on his part to release his music from his Western "pop star" days. This was followed in 2000 by the inclusion of "Peace Train
" in the movie Remember the Titans
, in 2000 by the use in Almost Famous
of the song "The Wind", and in 2006 the inclusion of "Peace Train
" on the soundtrack to We Are Marshall
. In 2007, an excerpt of "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out" is sung by characters in Charlie Bartlett
whose title character resembles the character of Harold in Harold and Maude, where the song first appeared. In 2009, the song "Father and Son" was in the soundtrack of the movie The Boat That Rocked
(known as Pirate Radio in the U.S.).
from the United Kingdom, (however, he later donated the money to UNESCO
). During that time he created the album Foreigner
, which was a departure from the music that had brought him to the height of his fame. It differed in several respects: entirely written by Stevens, he dropped his band and produced the record without the assistance of Samwell-Smith, who had played a large role in catapulting him to fame, and instead of guitar, he played keyboard instrument
s throughout the album. It was intended to show a funk/soul element rising in popularity that Stevens had come to appreciate. One side of Foreigner was continuous, much different from the radio-friendly pop tunes fans had come to expect. In November 1973 he performed side two of the album at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood, with a pre-arranged uninterrupted quadraphonic simulcast on the ABC network
titled the "Moon and Star" concert; this performance included his band, but they were all but overshadowed by an orchestra
. The album produced a couple of singles including "The Hurt", but did not reach the heights he had once enjoyed.
The follow-up to Foreigner was Buddha and the Chocolate Box
, largely a return to the instrumentation and styles employed in Teaser and the Firecat and Tea for the Tillerman. Featuring the return of Alun Davies and best known for "Oh Very Young", Buddha and the Chocolate Box reached platinum status in 2001. Stevens' next album was the concept album
Numbers
, a less successful departure for him.
The 1977 Izitso
included his last chart hit, "(Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard", a duet with fellow UK singer Elkie Brooks
. Linda Lewis
appears in the song's video, with Cat Stevens singing to her, as they portray former schoolmates, singing to each other on a schoolyard merry-go-round. This is one of few videos that Stevens made, other than simple videos of concert performances. The album is also notable for "Was Dog a Doughnut", a precursor to the electro music genre of the 1980s.
His final original album under the name Cat Stevens was Back to Earth
, released in late 1978, which was also the first album produced by Samwell-Smith since his peak in single album sales in the early 1970s.
Several compilation albums were released before and after he stopped recording. After Stevens left Decca Records they bundled his first two albums together as a set, hoping to ride the commercial tide of his early success; later his newer labels did the same, and he himself released compilations. The most successful of the compilation albums was the 1975 Greatest Hits
which has sold over 4 million copies in the United States. In May 2003 he received his first Platinum Europe Award from the IFPI
for Remember Cat Stevens, The Ultimate Collection, indicating over one million European sales.
, the Islamic ritual call to prayer, which was explained to him as "music for God". Stevens said, "I thought, music for God? I’d never heard that before – I’d heard of music for money, music for fame, music for personal power, but music for God!"
In 1976 Stevens nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu, California, USA and said he shouted: “Oh God! If you save me I will work for you.” He related that right afterward a wave appeared and carried him back to shore. This brush with death intensified his long-held quest for spiritual truth. He had looked into "Buddhism
, Zen
, I Ching
, Numerology
, tarot cards and Astrology
". Stevens' brother David Gordon brought him a copy of the Qur'an
as a birthday gift from a trip to Jerusalem. Stevens took to it right away, and began his transition to Islam
.
During the time he was studying the Qur'an, he began to identify more and more with the name of Joseph
, a man bought and sold in the market place, which is how he says he had increasingly felt within the music business. Regarding his conversion, in his 2006 interview with Alan Yentob
, he stated, "to some people, it may have seemed like an enormous jump, but for me, it was a gradual move to this." And, in a Rolling Stone
magazine interview, he reaffirmed this, saying, "I had found the spiritual home I'd been seeking for most of my life. And if you listen to my music and lyrics, like "Peace Train" and "On The Road To Find Out", it clearly shows my yearning for direction and the spiritual path I was travelling."
Stevens formally converted to the Islamic religion on 23 December 1977, taking the name Yusuf Islam in 1978. Yusuf is the Arabic rendition of the name Joseph. He stated that he "always loved the name Joseph" and was particularly drawn to the story of Joseph in the Qur'an. Although he discontinued his pop career, he was persuaded to perform one last time before what would become his twenty-five year musical hiatus. Appearing with his hair freshly shorn and an untrimmed beard, he headlined a charity concert on 22 November 1979 in Wembley Stadium to benefit UNICEF's International Year of the Child
. The concert closed with a performance by Stevens, David Essex
, Alun Davies, and Stevens' brother, David, who wrote the song that was the finale, "Child for a Day".
Yusuf married Fauzia Mubarak Ali on 7 September 1979, at Regent's Park Mosque
in London. They have five children and three grandchildren and currently live in London, spending part of each year in Dubai
.
at the mosque was told that he was a pop
star, and he told Yusuf that it was fine to continue as a musician, so long as the songs were morally acceptable. But Yusuf says he knew there were aspects of the music business, such as vanity and temptations, that did go against the teachings of the Qur'an, and this was the primary reason he gave for retreating from the spotlight. But in his first performance on the television show Later... with Jools Holland, 27 years after leaving the music business, and in other interviews, he gave different reasons for leaving: "A lot of people would have loved me to keep singing," he said. "You come to a point where you have sung, more or less ... your whole repertoire and you want to get down to the job of living. You know, up until that point, I hadn't had a life. I'd been searching, been on the road."
Estimating in January 2007 that he continues to earn approximately $1.5 million USD a year from his Cat Stevens music, he decided to use his accumulated wealth and ongoing earnings from his music career on philanthropic and educational causes in the Muslim community of London and elsewhere. In 1981, he founded the Islamia Primary School
in Salusbury Road in the north London
area of Kilburn and, soon after, founded several Muslim secondary schools; in 1992, Yusuf set up The Association of Muslim Schools
(AMS-UK), a charity that brought together all the Muslim schools in the UK, and served as chairman. He is also the founder and chairman of the Small Kindness
charity, which initially assisted famine victims in Africa and now supports thousands of orphans and families in the Balkans
, Indonesia
, and Iraq
. He served as chairman of the charity Muslim Aid
from 1985 to 1993.
In 1985, Yusuf decided to return to the public spotlight for the first time since his religious conversion, at the historic Live Aid
concert, concerned with the famine threatening Ethiopia
. Though he had written a song especially for the occasion, his appearance was skipped when Elton John
's set ran too long.
, where he was asked about the fatwa
calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie. The media interpreted his response as support for the fatwa. Yusuf released a statement the following day denying that he supported vigilantism
, and claiming that he had merely recounted the legal Islamic punishment
for blasphemy. In a BBC interview, he displayed a newspaper clipping from that period, with quotes from his statement. Subsequent comments made by him in 1989 on a British television programme were also seen as being in support of the fatwa. In a statement in the FAQ section of one of his Web sites, Yusuf asserted that while he regretted the comments, he was joking and that the show was improperly edited. In the years since these comments, he has repeatedly denied ever calling for the death of Rushdie or supporting the fatwa.
He appeared on videotape on a VH1
pre-show for the October 2001 Concert for New York City
, condemning the attacks and singing his song "Peace Train" for the first time in public in more than 20 years, as an a cappella
version. He also donated a portion of his box-set royalties to the Fund for victims' families, and the rest to orphans in underdeveloped countries. During the same year, Yusuf Islam dedicated time and effort in joining the Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism
, an organization that worked towards battling misperceptions and acts against others because of their religious beliefs and/or racial identity, after many Muslims reported a backlash against them due in part to the grief caused by the events in the United States on 9-11.
flight from London to Washington
, travelling to a meeting with U.S. entertainer Dolly Parton
, who had recorded "Peace Train" several years earlier and was planning to include another Cat Stevens song on an upcoming album. While the plane was in flight, his name was flagged as being on a no fly list
. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers alerted the United States Transportation Security Administration, which then diverted his flight to Bangor
, Maine
, where he was detained by officers from the Department of Homeland Security
.
The following day, Yusuf was denied entry and flown back to the United Kingdom. A spokesman for Homeland Security claimed there were "concerns of ties he may have to potential terrorist-related activities". The Israeli government had deported Yusuf in 2000 over allegations that he provided funding to the Palestinian
organisation Hamas
; he denied doing so knowingly. "I have never knowingly supported or given money to Hamas," says Yusuf, who repeatedly has condemned terrorism and Islamic extremism
. "At the time I was reported to have done it, I didn't know such a group existed. Some people give a political interpretation to charity. We were horrified at how people were suffering in the Holy Land." However, the United States Department of Homeland Security added him to a "watch list". The US removal provoked a small international controversy, and led British Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw
to complain personally to US Secretary of State
Colin Powell
at the United Nations
. Powell responded by stating that the watchlist was under review, adding, "I think we have that obligation to review these matters to see if we are right".
Yusuf believed his inclusion on a "watch list" may have simply been an error: a mistaken identification of him for a man with the same name, but different spelling. On 1 October 2004 Yusuf requested the removal of his name, "I remain bewildered by the decision of the US authorities to refuse me entry to the United States". According to a statement by Yusuf, the man on the list was named "Youssef Islam", indicating that Yusuf himself was not the suspected terrorism supporter. Romanization of Arabic names can easily result in different spellings: the transliteration
of the Islamic name for Joseph (Yusuf's chosen name) lists a dozen spellings.
Two years later, in December 2006 Yusuf was admitted without incident into the United States for several radio concert performances and interviews to promote his new record. Yusuf said of the incident at the time, that, "No reason was ever given, but being asked to repeat the spelling of my name again and again, made me think it was a fairly simple mistake of identity. Rumors which circulated after made me imagine otherwise."
Yusuf has written a song about the 2004 exclusion from the U.S., entitled "Boots and Sand
", recorded in the summer of 2008 and featuring Paul McCartney
, Alison Krauss
, Dolly Parton, and Terry Sylvester
.
and The Sunday Times
voiced their support for Yusuf's exclusion from the U.S., claiming that he had supported terrorism. Yusuf successfully sued for libel and received a substantial out-of-court financial settlement and apologies from the newspapers stating that he had never supported terrorism and acknowledging that he had recently been given a Man of Peace
award from the private Nobel Peace Prize
Laureates Committee. However The Sunday Times managing editor Richard Caseby said that while there was an "agreed settlement", they "always denied liability" and "disagreed with Cat Stevens' lawyers interpretation", but took a "pragmatic view" of the lawsuit.
Yusuf responded that he was "delighted by the settlement [which] helps vindicate my character and good name. ... It seems to be the easiest thing in the world these days to make scurrilous accusations against Muslims, and in my case it directly impacts on my relief work and damages my reputation as an artist. The harm done is often difficult to repair", and added that he intended to donate the financial award given to him by the court to help orphans of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean
.
Yusuf wrote about the experience in a newspaper article titled "A Cat in a Wild World".
following their distribution of the false rumour that the singer did not speak to unveiled women. The allegations first surfaced in German newspaper
B.Z.
after Yusuf's trip to Berlin in March 2007 to collect the Echo music award for "life achievements as musician and ambassador between cultures". Once again he was awarded damages after the World Entertainment News Network allowed an article to be published on Contactmusic.com
, a "website said to have 2.2 million page views a month", alleging that Yusuf would not speak to unveiled women with the exception of his wife. His solicitor
was reported as having said that "he was made out to be 'so sexist and bigoted that he refused at an awards ceremony to speak to or even acknowledge any women who were not wearing a veil'". The offending news agency apologized, admitting that Yusuf has never had any problem in working with women and, contrary to the article in question, never has required a third party as an intermediary to function at work. The money from this lawsuit will go to Yusuf's Small Kindness Charity.
Yusuf himself discusses this topic on his website, saying, "It’s true that I have asked my manager to respectfully request lady presenters refrain from embracing me when giving awards or during public appearances, but that has nothing to do with my feelings or respect for them. Islam simply requires me to honour the dignity of ladies or young girls who are not closely related to me, and avoid physical intimacy, however innocent it may be." He adds, "My four daughters all follow the basic wearing of clothes which modestly cover their God-given beauty. They’re extremely well educated; they do not cover their faces and interact perfectly well with friends and society."
. In addition, he invited and collaborated with other Muslim singers, including Canadian artist Dawud Wharnsby. After Yusuf's friend, Irfan Ljubijankic
, the Foreign Minister
of Bosnia and Herzegovina
, was killed by a Serbian rocket attack, Yusuf appeared at a 1997 benefit concert in Sarajevo
and recorded a benefit album named after a song written by Ljubijankic, I Have No Cannons That Roar.
Realizing there were few educational resources designed to teach children about the Islamic religion, Yusuf wrote and produced a children's album, A Is for Allah
, in 2000 with the assistance of South African singer-songwriter
Zain Bhikha
. The title song was one Yusuf had written years before to introduce his first child to both the religion and the Arabic alphabet. He also established his own record label, "Jamal Records", and Mountain of Light Productions, and he donates a percentage of his projects' proceeds to his Small Kindness
charity, whose name is taken from the Qur'an.
On the occasion of the 2000 re-release of his Cat Stevens albums, he explained that he had stopped performing in English due to his misunderstanding of the Islamic faith. "This issue of music in Islam is not as cut-and-dried as I was led to believe ... I relied on heresy [sic], that was perhaps my mistake."
Yusuf has reflected that his decision to leave the Western pop music business was perhaps too quick with too little communication for his fans. For most, it was a surprise, and even his guitarist, Alun Davies said in later interviews that he hadn't believed that Stevens would actually go through with it, after his many forays into other religions throughout their relationship. Yusuf himself has said the "cut" between his former life and his life as a Muslim might have been too quick, too severe, and that more people might have been better informed about Islam, and given an opportunity to better understand it, and himself, if he had simply removed those items that were considered harām
, in his performances, allowing him to express himself musically and educate listeners through his music without violating any religious constraints.
In 2003, after repeated encouragement from within the Muslim world, Yusuf once again recorded "Peace Train
" for a compilation CD, which also included performances by David Bowie
and Paul McCartney. He performed "Wild World
" in Nelson Mandela
's 46664 concert with his former session player Peter Gabriel
, the first time he had publicly performed in English in 25 years. In December 2004, he and Ronan Keating
released a new version of "Father and Son": the song entered the charts at number two, behind Band Aid 20's "Do They Know It's Christmas?
". They also produced a video of the pair walking between photographs of fathers and sons, while singing the song. The proceeds of "Father and Son" were donated to the Band Aid charity
. Keating's former group, Boyzone
, had a hit with the song a decade earlier. As he had been persuaded before, Yusuf contributed to the song, because the proceeds were marked for charity. However, this marked a point in his artistic career where he entertained the concept of using more than simply voice and drums.
On 21 April 2005 Yusuf gave a short talk before a scheduled musical performance in Abu Dhabi
, United Arab Emirates
, on the anniversary of Muhammad
's birthday. He said, "There is a great deal of ignorance in the world about Islam today, and we hope to communicate with the help of something more refined than lectures and talks. Our recordings are particularly appealing to the young, having used songs as well as Qur'an verses with pleasing sound effects..." Yusuf observed that there are no real guidelines about instruments and no references about the business of music in the Qur'an, and that Muslim travellers first brought the guitar to Moorish Spain. He noted that Muhammad was fond of celebrations, as in the case of the birth of a child, or a traveller arriving after a long journey. Thus, Yusuf concluded that healthy entertainment was acceptable within limitations, and that he now felt that it was no sin to perform with the guitar. Music, he now felt, is uplifting to the soul; something sorely needed in troubled times. At that point, he was joined by several young male singers who sang backing vocals and played a drum, with Yusuf as lead singer and guitarist. They performed two songs, both half in Arabic, and half in English; "Tala'a Al-Badru Alayna
", an old song in Arabic which Yusuf recorded with a folk sound to it, and another song, "The Wind East and West", which was newly written by Yusuf and featured a distinct R&B sound.
With this performance, Yusuf began slowly to integrate instruments into both older material from his Cat Stevens era (some with slight lyrical changes) and new songs, both those known to the Muslim communities around the world and some that have the same Western flair from before with a focus on new topics and another generation of listeners.
In a 2005 press release, he explained his revived recording career:
In early 2005, Yusuf released a new song entitled "Indian Ocean" about the 2004 tsunami
disaster. The song featured Indian composer/producer A. R. Rahman
, a-ha
keyboard player Magne Furuholmen
and Travis
drummer Neil Primrose. Proceeds of the single went to help orphans in Banda Aceh
, one of the areas worst affected by the tsunami
, through Yusuf's Small Kindness charity. At first, the single was released only through several online music store
s but later featured on the compilation album Cat Stevens: Gold
. "I had to learn my faith and look after my family, and I had to make priorities. But now I've done it all and there's a little space for me to fill in the universe of music again."
On 28 May 2005, Yusuf delivered a keynote speech and performed at the Adopt-A-Minefield
Gala in Düsseldorf
. The Adopt-A-Minefield charity, under the patronage of Paul McCartney, works internationally to raise awareness and funds to clear landmines and rehabilitate landmine survivors. Yusuf attended as part of an honorary committee which also included George Martin
, Richard Branson
, Boutros Boutros-Ghali
, Klaus Voormann
, Christopher Lee
and others.
In mid-2005
, Yusuf played guitar for the Dolly Parton album, Those Were the Days
, on her version of his "Where Do the Children Play?". (Parton had also covered "Peace Train" a few years earlier.)
In May 2006, in anticipation of his forthcoming new pop album, the BBC1 programme "Imagine" aired a 49-minute documentary with Alan Yentob
called Yusuf: The Artist formerly Known as Cat Stevens. This documentary film features rare audio and video clips from the late 1960s and 1970s, as well as an extensive interview with Yusuf, his brother David Gordon, several record executives, Bob Geldof
, Dolly Parton
, and others outlining his career as Cat Stevens, his conversion and emergence as Yusuf Islam, and his return to music in 2006. There are clips of him singing in the studio when he was recording An Other Cup as well as a few 2006 excerpts of him on guitar singing a few verses of Cat Stevens songs including "The Wind" and "On the Road to Find Out".
Yusuf has credited his then 21-year-old son Muhammad Islam, also a musician and artist, for his return to secular music, when the son brought a guitar back into the house, which Yusuf began playing. Muhammad's professional name is Yoriyos and his debut album was released in February 2007. Yoriyos created the art on Yusuf's album An Other Cup, something that Cat Stevens did for his albums in the 1970s.
Starting in 2006, the Cat Stevens song "Tea for The Tillerman" was used as the theme tune for the Ricky Gervais
BBC
-HBO sitcom Extras
. A Christmas-season television commercial for gift-giving by the diamond industry aired in 2006 with Cat Power
's cover of "How Can I Tell You". That song is also covered by John Frusciante
of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
frequently in concert.
In December 2006, Yusuf was one of the artists who performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert
in Oslo
, Norway, in honour of the prize winners, Muhammad Yunus
and Grameen Bank
. He performed the songs "Midday (Avoid City After Dark)", "Peace Train", and "Heaven/Where True Love Goes". He also gave a concert in New York City that month as a Jazz at Lincoln Center
event, recorded and broadcast by KCRW-FM radio, along with an interview by Nic Harcourt
. Accompanying him, as in the Cat Stevens days, was Alun Davies
, on guitar and vocals.
In April 2007, BBC1 broadcast a concert given at the Porchester Hall by Yusuf as part of BBC Sessions, his first live performance in London in 28 years (the previous one being the UNICEF "Year of the Child" concert in 1979). He played several new songs along with some old ones like "Father and Son", "The Wind", "Where Do the Children Play?", "Don't Be Shy", "Wild World", and "Peace Train".
In July 2007, he performed at a concert in Bochum
, Germany, in benefit of Archbishop Desmond Tutu
's Peace Centre in South Africa and the Milagro Foundation of Deborah and Carlos Santana
. The audience included Nobel Laureates Mikhail Gorbachev
, Desmond Tutu and other prominent global figures. He later appeared as the final act in the German leg
of Live Earth
in Hamburg
performing some classic Cat Stevens songs and more recent compositions reflecting his concern for peace and child welfare. His set included Stevie Wonder
's "Saturn", "Peace Train", "Where Do the Children Play?", "Ruins", and "Wild World". He performed at the Peace One Day
concert at the Royal Albert Hall
on 21 September 2007.
In 2008 Yusuf contributed the song "Edge of Existence" to the charity album Songs for Survival
, in support of the indigenous rights organization Survival International
.
In January 2009, Yusuf released a charity song in aid of children in Gaza
. He recorded a rendition of the George Harrison
song "The Day the World Gets Round", along with the German bassist and former Beatles collaborator Klaus Voorman. Yusuf said that all proceeds from the song will be donated to the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and to the nonprofit group Save the Children
to be directed to aiding Gaza residents. Israeli Consul
David Saranga
criticized Yusuf for not dedicating the song to all the children who are victims of the violence, including Israel
i children.Israeli Official Blasts Cat Stevens' Song for Gaza Children, Joshua Rhett Miller, Fox News, 26 January 2009.
, was released internationally in November 2006 on his own label, Ya Records (distributed by Polydor Records
in the UK and internationally by Atlantic Records
) — the 40th anniversary of his first album, Matthew and Son. A single, called Heaven/Where True Love Goes, was simultaneously released. The album was produced with Rick Nowels
, who has worked with Dido
and Rod Stewart
. The performer is noted as "Yusuf", with a cover label identifying him as "the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens". The art on the album is credited to Yoriyos. Yusuf wrote all of the songs except "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
", and recorded it in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Yusuf actively promoted this album, appearing on radio, television and in print interviews. In November, 2006, he told the BBC, "It's me, so it's going to sound like that of course ... This is the real thing.... When my son brought the guitar back into the house, you know, that was the turning point. It opened a flood of, of new ideas and music which I think a lot of people would connect with."
Originally, Yusuf began to return only to his acoustic guitar as he had in the past, but his son encouraged him to "experiment", which resulted in the purchase of a Stevie Ray Vaughan
Fender Stratocaster
in 2007.
Also in November 2006, Billboard magazine was curious as to why the artist is credited as just his first name, "Yusuf" rather than "Yusuf Islam". His response was "Because 'Islam' doesn't have to be slogan
ized. The second name is like the official tag, but you call a friend by their first name. It's more intimate, and to me that's the message of this record." As for why the album sleeve says "the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens", he responded, "That's the tag with which most people are familiar; for recognition purposes I'm not averse to that. For a lot of people, it reminds them of something they want to hold on to. That name is part of my history and a lot of the things I dreamt about as Cat Stevens have come true as Yusuf Islam."
Yusuf was asked by the Swiss periodical
Das Magazin
why the title of the album was An Other Cup, rather than "Another Cup". The answer was that his breakthrough album, Tea for the Tillerman in 1970, was decorated with Yusuf's painting of a peasant sitting down to a cup of steaming drink on the land. Yusuf commented that the two worlds "then, and now, are very different". His new album shows a steaming cup alone on this cover. His answer was that this was actually an other cup; something different; a bridge between the East and West, which Yusuf explained was his own perceived role. He added that, through him, "Westerners might get a glimpse of the East, and Easterners, some understanding of the West. The cup, too, is important; it's a meeting place, a thing meant to be shared."
On CBS Sunday Morning in December 2006, he said, "You know, the cup is there to be filled ... with whatever you want to fill it with. For those people looking for Cat Stevens, they'll probably find him in this record. If you want to find [Yusuf] Islam, go a bit deeper, you'll find him."
Yusuf has since described the album as being too "over-produced" and refers to An Other Cup as being a necessary hurdle he had to overcome before he could release his new album, Roadsinger. Yusuf compares the relationship between An Other Cup and Roadsinger to the relationship between the Cat Stevens albums Mona Bone Jakon and the landmark Tea for the Tillerman with the latter being superior in quality to the former.
song, "The Day the World Gets Round", collaborating with Klaus Voormann
. Proceeds from the single were donated to a charity to help the people of war-torn Gaza
. To promote the new single, Voormann re-designed his famous Beatles Revolver
album cover
, drawing a picture of a young Cat Stevens along with himself and George Harrison.
A new pop album, Roadsinger
, was released on 5 May 2009. The lead track, "Thinking 'Bout You", received its debut radio play on a BBC programme on 23 March 2009. Unlike An Other Cup
, Yusuf promoted the new album with appearances on American television as well as in the U.K. He appeared on the Chris Isaak Hour on the A&E
network in April 2009, performing live versions of his new songs, "World O'Darkness", "Boots and Sand", and "Roadsinger". On 13 May he appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Los Angeles, and on 14 May, on The Colbert Report in New York City, performing the title song from the Roadsinger album. On 15 May, he appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
, performing "Boots and Sand" and "Father and Son". On 24 May he appeared on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show, where he was interviewed and performed the title track of Roadsinger
. On 15 August, he was one of many guests at Fairport Convention
's annual Fairport's Cropredy Convention where he performed five songs accompanied by Alun Davies, with Fairport Convention as his backing band.
A world tour was announced on his web site to promote the new album. He was scheduled to perform at an invitation-only concert at New York City's Highline Ballroom on 3 May and to go on to Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto, as well as some to-be-announced European venues. However, the New York appearance was postponed due to issues regarding his work visa. He appeared in May 2009 at Island Records' 50th Anniversary concert in London. In November and December 2009 Yusuf undertook his "Guess I'll Take My Time Tour" which also showcased his musical play Moonshadow. The tour took him to Dublin, where he had a mixed reception; subsequently he was well received in Birmingham and Liverpool, culminating in an emotional performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In June 2010 he toured Australia for the first time in 36 years, and New Zealand
for the first time ever.
On October 30, 2010 Yusuf appeared at Jon Stewart
and Stephen Colbert's
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, DC, singing alongside Ozzy Osbourne
. Yusuf performed "Peace Train
" and Ozzy performed "Crazy Train
" at the same time, followed by The O'Jays
performance of "Love Train
".
On March 2, 2011, Yusuf released his latest song, "My People", as a free download available through his official website, as well as numerous other online outlets. Said to have been recorded at a studio located within a hundred yards of the site of the Berlin Wall, the song is inspired by a series of popular uprisings in the Arab world
.
On April 1, 2011, Yusuf launched a new tour website (yusufinconcert.com) to commemorate his first European tour in over 36 years scheduled from May 7 to June 2, 2011. The ten-date tour will visit Germany
, France
, the Netherlands
, Austria
, Belgium
, and cities such as Stockholm
, Hamburg
, Oberhausen
, Berlin
, Munich
, Rotterdam
, Paris
, Mannheim
, Vienna
and Brussels
.
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
, educator, philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
, and prominent convert
Religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
.
His early 1970s record albums Tea for the Tillerman
Tea for the Tillerman
Tea for the Tillerman is an album by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. This album, Stevens' second during 1970, includes many of Stevens' best-known songs including "Where Do the Children Play?", "Hard Headed Woman", "Wild World", "Sad Lisa", "Into White" and "Father and Son"...
and Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser and the Firecat is an album released by Cat Stevens in 1971. It contains 10 songs including hits such as "Morning Has Broken," "Moonshadow," and "Peace Train." It is also the title of a children's book written and illustrated by Stevens...
were both certified triple platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
in the United States by the RIAA. His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four
Catch Bull at Four
Catch Bull at Four is an album by Cat Stevens. It was Stevens' most successful album in the United States, holding the top spot on Billboards chart for three consecutive weeks...
sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release alone and was Billboard's number-one LP for three consecutive weeks. He has also earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in consecutive years for "The First Cut Is the Deepest
The First Cut Is the Deepest
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" is a 1967 song written by Cat Stevens, originally released by P. P. Arnold in the spring of 1967. Stevens' own version of the song is technically a cover, and originally appeared on his album New Masters in December 1967....
", which has been a hit single for four different artists.
Stevens converted to Islam in December 1977 and adopted his Muslim name, Yusuf Islam, the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars for charity and left his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2003 World Award
World Award
The World Awards were founded by writer Georg Kindel; Mikhail Gorbachev is their president. An international jury selects extraordinary individuals for their achievements in a variety of areas such as acting, arts, business, media, health and others....
, the 2004 Man for Peace Award, and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. In 2006, he returned to pop music with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup
An Other Cup
An Other Cup is an album by Yusuf Islam . It was released on November 10, 2006 in Germany, November 13 in the UK and in the U.S. and worldwide on November 14. An Other Cup is Islam's first Western pop album since Back to Earth, which was released in 1978 under the name Cat Stevens...
. He now goes professionally by the single name Yusuf. His most recent album, Roadsinger
Roadsinger
Roadsinger is a studio album by Yusuf . Roadsinger is Yusuf's second mainstream release since his return to music. The album made its debut on the Billboard 200 at position #41 and on the UK charts at #10.The album was released by Island Records in the UK...
, was released on 5 May 2009.
Early life (1948–1965)
Steven Georgiou, born in MaryleboneMarylebone
Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England, was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou (b. 1900), and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (b. 1915). He has an older sister, Anita, and brother, David. The family lived above the Moulin Rouge, a restaurant that his parents operated on the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue
Shaftesbury Avenue
Shaftesbury Avenue is a major street in central London, England, named after Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, that runs in a north-easterly direction from Piccadilly Circus to New Oxford Street, crossing Charing Cross Road at Cambridge Circus....
which was a short walk from Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly...
in the Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
theatre district
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
of London. All family members worked in the restaurant. His parents divorced when he was about 8 years old, but they continued to maintain the family restaurant and live above it.
Although his father was Greek Orthodox
Church of Greece
The Church of Greece , part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the autocephalous churches which make up the communion of Orthodox Christianity...
and his mother a Swedish Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
, Georgiou was sent to a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
school, St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School in Macklin Street, which was closer to his father's business on Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
. Georgiou developed an interest in piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
at a fairly young age, eventually using the family baby grand piano to work out the chords, since no one else there played well enough to teach him. Inspired by the popularity of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, at age 15 he extended his interest to the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, convinced his father to pay £8 for his first instrument, and began playing it and writing songs. He would escape at times from his family responsibilities to the rooftop above their home, and listen to the tunes of the musicals drifting from just around the corner from Denmark Street
Denmark Street
Denmark Street is a short narrow road in central London, notable for its connections with British popular music, and is known as the British Tin Pan Alley. The road connects Charing Cross Road at its western end with St Giles High Street at its eastern end. Denmark Street is in the London Borough...
, which was then the centre of the British music industry. Later, Stevens has emphasized that the advent of West Side Story in particular affected him, giving him a "different view of life", he said in 2000, on a VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
Behind the Music
Behind the Music
Behind the Music is a television series on VH1. It originally ran from 1997 to 2006, before it was stopped and only aired new episodes sporadically. The series places its generality on documentation of musical artists or groups who are interviewed and profiled, and discuss how their careers became...
programme. With interests in both art and music, he and his mother moved to Gävle
Gävle
Gävle is a city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 71,033 inhabitants in 12/31 2010. It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland , having received its charter in 1446 from Christopher of Bavaria.-History:It is believed that the name Gävle...
, Sweden, where he attended primary school (Solängsskolan) and started developing his drawing skills after being influenced by his uncle Hugo Wickman, a painter. They subsequently returned to England.
He attended other local West End
West End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
schools, where he says he was constantly in trouble, and did poorly in everything but art. He was called "the artist boy" and mentions that "I was beat up, but I was noticed". He went on to take a one-year course of study at Hammersmith School of Art, as he considered a career as a cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
ist. Though he enjoyed art (his later record albums would feature his original artwork on his album covers), he wanted to establish a musical career and began to perform originally under the stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
"Steve Adams" in 1965 while at Hammersmith.
Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou, 21 July 1948), commonly known by his former stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
, educator, philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
, and prominent convert
Religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
.
His early 1970s record albums Tea for the Tillerman
Tea for the Tillerman
Tea for the Tillerman is an album by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. This album, Stevens' second during 1970, includes many of Stevens' best-known songs including "Where Do the Children Play?", "Hard Headed Woman", "Wild World", "Sad Lisa", "Into White" and "Father and Son"...
and Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser and the Firecat is an album released by Cat Stevens in 1971. It contains 10 songs including hits such as "Morning Has Broken," "Moonshadow," and "Peace Train." It is also the title of a children's book written and illustrated by Stevens...
were both certified triple platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
in the United States by the RIAA. His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four
Catch Bull at Four
Catch Bull at Four is an album by Cat Stevens. It was Stevens' most successful album in the United States, holding the top spot on Billboards chart for three consecutive weeks...
sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release alone and was Billboard's number-one LP for three consecutive weeks. He has also earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in consecutive years for "The First Cut Is the Deepest
The First Cut Is the Deepest
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" is a 1967 song written by Cat Stevens, originally released by P. P. Arnold in the spring of 1967. Stevens' own version of the song is technically a cover, and originally appeared on his album New Masters in December 1967....
", which has been a hit single for four different artists.
Stevens converted to Islam in December 1977 and adopted his Muslim name, Yusuf Islam, the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars for charity This story originally aired on 3 December 2006. and left his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2003 World Award
World Award
The World Awards were founded by writer Georg Kindel; Mikhail Gorbachev is their president. An international jury selects extraordinary individuals for their achievements in a variety of areas such as acting, arts, business, media, health and others....
, the 2004 Man for Peace Award, and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. In 2006, he returned to pop music with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup
An Other Cup
An Other Cup is an album by Yusuf Islam . It was released on November 10, 2006 in Germany, November 13 in the UK and in the U.S. and worldwide on November 14. An Other Cup is Islam's first Western pop album since Back to Earth, which was released in 1978 under the name Cat Stevens...
. He now goes professionally by the single name Yusuf. His most recent album, Roadsinger
Roadsinger
Roadsinger is a studio album by Yusuf . Roadsinger is Yusuf's second mainstream release since his return to music. The album made its debut on the Billboard 200 at position #41 and on the UK charts at #10.The album was released by Island Records in the UK...
, was released on 5 May 2009.
Early life (1948–1965)
Steven Georgiou, born in MaryleboneMarylebone
Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England, was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou (b. 1900), and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (b. 1915). He has an older sister, Anita, and brother, David. The family lived above the Moulin Rouge, a restaurant that his parents operated on the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue
Shaftesbury Avenue
Shaftesbury Avenue is a major street in central London, England, named after Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, that runs in a north-easterly direction from Piccadilly Circus to New Oxford Street, crossing Charing Cross Road at Cambridge Circus....
which was a short walk from Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly...
in the Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
theatre district
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
of London. All family members worked in the restaurant. His parents divorced when he was about 8 years old, but they continued to maintain the family restaurant and live above it.
Although his father was Greek Orthodox
Church of Greece
The Church of Greece , part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the autocephalous churches which make up the communion of Orthodox Christianity...
and his mother a Swedish Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
, Georgiou was sent to a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
school, St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School in Macklin Street, which was closer to his father's business on Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
. Georgiou developed an interest in piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
at a fairly young age, eventually using the family baby grand piano to work out the chords, since no one else there played well enough to teach him. Inspired by the popularity of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, at age 15 he extended his interest to the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, convinced his father to pay £8 for his first instrument, and began playing it and writing songs. He would escape at times from his family responsibilities to the rooftop above their home, and listen to the tunes of the musicals drifting from just around the corner from Denmark Street
Denmark Street
Denmark Street is a short narrow road in central London, notable for its connections with British popular music, and is known as the British Tin Pan Alley. The road connects Charing Cross Road at its western end with St Giles High Street at its eastern end. Denmark Street is in the London Borough...
, which was then the centre of the British music industry. Later, Stevens has emphasized that the advent of West Side Story in particular affected him, giving him a "different view of life", he said in 2000, on a VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
Behind the Music
Behind the Music
Behind the Music is a television series on VH1. It originally ran from 1997 to 2006, before it was stopped and only aired new episodes sporadically. The series places its generality on documentation of musical artists or groups who are interviewed and profiled, and discuss how their careers became...
programme. With interests in both art and music, he and his mother moved to Gävle
Gävle
Gävle is a city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 71,033 inhabitants in 12/31 2010. It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland , having received its charter in 1446 from Christopher of Bavaria.-History:It is believed that the name Gävle...
, Sweden, where he attended primary school (Solängsskolan) and started developing his drawing skills after being influenced by his uncle Hugo Wickman, a painter. They subsequently returned to England.
He attended other local West End
West End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
schools, where he says he was constantly in trouble, and did poorly in everything but art. He was called "the artist boy" and mentions that "I was beat up, but I was noticed". He went on to take a one-year course of study at Hammersmith School of Art, as he considered a career as a cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
ist. Though he enjoyed art (his later record albums would feature his original artwork on his album covers), he wanted to establish a musical career and began to perform originally under the stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
"Steve Adams" in 1965 while at Hammersmith.
Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou, 21 July 1948), commonly known by his former stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
, educator, philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
, and prominent convert
Religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
.
His early 1970s record albums Tea for the Tillerman
Tea for the Tillerman
Tea for the Tillerman is an album by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. This album, Stevens' second during 1970, includes many of Stevens' best-known songs including "Where Do the Children Play?", "Hard Headed Woman", "Wild World", "Sad Lisa", "Into White" and "Father and Son"...
and Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser and the Firecat is an album released by Cat Stevens in 1971. It contains 10 songs including hits such as "Morning Has Broken," "Moonshadow," and "Peace Train." It is also the title of a children's book written and illustrated by Stevens...
were both certified triple platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
in the United States by the RIAA. His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four
Catch Bull at Four
Catch Bull at Four is an album by Cat Stevens. It was Stevens' most successful album in the United States, holding the top spot on Billboards chart for three consecutive weeks...
sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release alone and was Billboard's number-one LP for three consecutive weeks. He has also earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in consecutive years for "The First Cut Is the Deepest
The First Cut Is the Deepest
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" is a 1967 song written by Cat Stevens, originally released by P. P. Arnold in the spring of 1967. Stevens' own version of the song is technically a cover, and originally appeared on his album New Masters in December 1967....
", which has been a hit single for four different artists.
Stevens converted to Islam in December 1977 and adopted his Muslim name, Yusuf Islam, the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars for charity This story originally aired on 3 December 2006. and left his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2003 World Award
World Award
The World Awards were founded by writer Georg Kindel; Mikhail Gorbachev is their president. An international jury selects extraordinary individuals for their achievements in a variety of areas such as acting, arts, business, media, health and others....
, the 2004 Man for Peace Award, and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. In 2006, he returned to pop music with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup
An Other Cup
An Other Cup is an album by Yusuf Islam . It was released on November 10, 2006 in Germany, November 13 in the UK and in the U.S. and worldwide on November 14. An Other Cup is Islam's first Western pop album since Back to Earth, which was released in 1978 under the name Cat Stevens...
. He now goes professionally by the single name Yusuf. His most recent album, Roadsinger
Roadsinger
Roadsinger is a studio album by Yusuf . Roadsinger is Yusuf's second mainstream release since his return to music. The album made its debut on the Billboard 200 at position #41 and on the UK charts at #10.The album was released by Island Records in the UK...
, was released on 5 May 2009.
Early life (1948–1965)
Steven Georgiou, born in MaryleboneMarylebone
Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England, was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou (b. 1900), and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (b. 1915). He has an older sister, Anita, and brother, David. The family lived above the Moulin Rouge, a restaurant that his parents operated on the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue
Shaftesbury Avenue
Shaftesbury Avenue is a major street in central London, England, named after Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, that runs in a north-easterly direction from Piccadilly Circus to New Oxford Street, crossing Charing Cross Road at Cambridge Circus....
which was a short walk from Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly...
in the Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
theatre district
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
of London. All family members worked in the restaurant. His parents divorced when he was about 8 years old, but they continued to maintain the family restaurant and live above it.
Although his father was Greek Orthodox
Church of Greece
The Church of Greece , part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the autocephalous churches which make up the communion of Orthodox Christianity...
and his mother a Swedish Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
, Georgiou was sent to a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
school, St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School in Macklin Street, which was closer to his father's business on Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
. Georgiou developed an interest in piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
at a fairly young age, eventually using the family baby grand piano to work out the chords, since no one else there played well enough to teach him. Inspired by the popularity of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, at age 15 he extended his interest to the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, convinced his father to pay £8 for his first instrument, and began playing it and writing songs. He would escape at times from his family responsibilities to the rooftop above their home, and listen to the tunes of the musicals drifting from just around the corner from Denmark Street
Denmark Street
Denmark Street is a short narrow road in central London, notable for its connections with British popular music, and is known as the British Tin Pan Alley. The road connects Charing Cross Road at its western end with St Giles High Street at its eastern end. Denmark Street is in the London Borough...
, which was then the centre of the British music industry. Later, Stevens has emphasized that the advent of West Side Story in particular affected him, giving him a "different view of life", he said in 2000, on a VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
Behind the Music
Behind the Music
Behind the Music is a television series on VH1. It originally ran from 1997 to 2006, before it was stopped and only aired new episodes sporadically. The series places its generality on documentation of musical artists or groups who are interviewed and profiled, and discuss how their careers became...
programme. With interests in both art and music, he and his mother moved to Gävle
Gävle
Gävle is a city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 71,033 inhabitants in 12/31 2010. It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland , having received its charter in 1446 from Christopher of Bavaria.-History:It is believed that the name Gävle...
, Sweden, where he attended primary school (Solängsskolan) and started developing his drawing skills after being influenced by his uncle Hugo Wickman, a painter. They subsequently returned to England.
He attended other local West End
West End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
schools, where he says he was constantly in trouble, and did poorly in everything but art. He was called "the artist boy" and mentions that "I was beat up, but I was noticed". He went on to take a one-year course of study at Hammersmith School of Art, as he considered a career as a cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
ist. Though he enjoyed art (his later record albums would feature his original artwork on his album covers), he wanted to establish a musical career and began to perform originally under the stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
"Steve Adams" in 1965 while at Hammersmith. At that point, his goal was to become a songwriter. Among the musicians who influenced him were Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Nina Simone
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
, blues artists Lead Belly and Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, Biff Rose
Biff Rose
Paul "Biff" Rose is an American comedian and singer-songwriter.Born in New Orleans, Rose first came to prominence as a banjo-toting standup comedian, profiled in Time magazine in 1965. By 1966 he moved to Hollywood, working as a comedy sketch writer with George Carlin for a host of television...
(who played on his first album), Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...
, and Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
. He also wanted to emulate composers who wrote musicals, like Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
and Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
. In 1965 he signed a publishing deal with Ardmore & Beechwood and cut several demos
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
, including "The First Cut Is the Deepest
The First Cut Is the Deepest
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" is a 1967 song written by Cat Stevens, originally released by P. P. Arnold in the spring of 1967. Stevens' own version of the song is technically a cover, and originally appeared on his album New Masters in December 1967....
".
Early musical career
Georgiou began to perform his songs in coffee houses and pubs. At first he tried forming a band, but soon realised he preferred performing solo. Thinking that his given name might not be memorable to prospective fans, he chose a stage nameStage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
Cat Stevens, in part because a girlfriend said he had eyes like a cat, but mainly because he said, "I couldn't imagine anyone going to the record store and asking for 'that Steven Demetre Georgiou album'. And in England, and I was sure in America, they loved animals." In 1966, at age 18, he impressed manager/producer Mike Hurst
Mike Hurst (producer)
Mike Hurst is an English musician and record producer.-Biography:...
, formerly of British vocal group The Springfields
The Springfields
The Springfields were a British pop-folk vocal trio who had success in the early 1960s in the UK, US and Ireland and included singer Dusty Springfield and her brother, record producer Tom Springfield, along with Tim Feild, later a noted Sufi writer, who was latterly replaced by Mike Hurst, who...
, with his songs and Hurst arranged for him to record a demo and then helped him get a record deal. The first singles were hits. "I Love My Dog
I Love My Dog
I Love My Dog is a song written by Cat Stevens, and it was his first single , showing up on his debut album, Matthew and Son...
" charted at #28, and "Matthew and Son
Matthew and Son
- American LP release :- Personnel :* Cat Stevens: guitars, Piano, Hammond organ, vocals.* John Paul Jones, Bass guitar * All instruments arranged by Alan Tew.* Mike Hurst: Producer, engineer, liner notes....
", the title song from his debut album, went to #2. "I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun
I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun
"I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun" is a Cat Stevens song from his debut album Matthew and Son. The single was released in 1967, produced by Mike Hurst of Decca Records' recently added Deram Records.- Charts :Song...
" reached Britain's Top 10, and the album Matthew and Son itself began charting. The original version of the The Tremeloes
The Tremeloes
The Tremeloes are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, Essex, and still active today.-Career:They formed as Brian Poole and the Tremoloes influenced by Buddy Holly and The Crickets...
cover hit, "Here Comes My Baby", was written and recorded by Stevens.
Over the next two years, Stevens recorded and toured with an eclectic group of artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
to Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck (singer)
Engelbert Humperdinck is a British pop singer, best known for his hits including "Release Me " and "After the Lovin'" as well as "The Last Waltz" .-Early life:...
. Stevens was considered a fresh-faced teen star, placing several single releases in the British pop music charts
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. Some of that success was attributed to the pirate radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
station Wonderful Radio London
Wonderful Radio London
Radio London, also known as Big L and Wonderful Radio London, was a top 40 offshore commercial station that operated from 16 December 1964 to 14 August 1967, from a ship anchored in the North Sea, three and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England...
, which gained him fans by playing his records. In August 1967, he went on the air with other recording artists who had benefited from the station to mourn its closure.
His December 1967 album New Masters
New Masters
New Masters is an album by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. The album was released in December 1967 by Deram Records, a new subsidiary of Decca Recordsas a follow up to the highly successful "Matthew and Son". The label was disappointed by the album's poor sales, after the success of Matthew and Son,...
failed to chart in the United Kingdom. The album is now most notable for his song "The First Cut Is the Deepest
The First Cut Is the Deepest
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" is a 1967 song written by Cat Stevens, originally released by P. P. Arnold in the spring of 1967. Stevens' own version of the song is technically a cover, and originally appeared on his album New Masters in December 1967....
", a song he sold for £30 to P.P. Arnold that was to become a massive hit for her, and an international hit for Keith Hampshire
Keith Hampshire
Keith Hampshire is an English-born Canadian popular singer of the 1970s, famous in Canada for three top ten hits , and the successful television show Music Machine...
, Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
, James Morrison
James Morrison (singer)
James Morrison is a BRIT Award-winning English singer-songwriter and guitarist from Rugby, Warwickshire. In 2006, his debut single "You Give Me Something" became a hit in Europe, Australia, and Japan, peaking in the top five in the UK and New Zealand. His debut album, Undiscovered, debuted at the...
, and Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...
. Forty years after he recorded the first demo of the song, it earned him two back-to-back ASCAP "Songwriter of the Year" awards, in 2005 and 2006.
Tuberculosis
Stevens contracted tuberculosis in 1969 and was close to death at the time of his admittance to the King Edward VII HospitalKing Edward VII Hospital
-England:*King Edward VII Orthopaedic Hospital, Sheffield *King Edward VII Hospital, London*King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst *King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor-Bermuda:*King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, Bermuda...
, Midhurst
Midhurst
Midhurst is a market town and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, with a population of 4,889 in 2001. The town is situated on the River Rother and is home to the ruin of the Tudor Cowdray House and the stately Victorian Cowdray Park...
; he spent months recuperating in hospital and a year of convalescence
Convalescence
Convalescence is the gradual recovery and of health and strength after illness. It refers to the later stage of an infectious disease or illness when the patient recovers and returns to normal, but may continue to be a source of infection even if feeling better...
. During this time Stevens began to question aspects of his life, and spirituality. He later said, "to go from the show business environment and find you are in hospital, getting injections day in and day out, and people around you are dying, it certainly changes your perspective. I got down to thinking about myself. It seemed almost as if I had my eyes shut."
He took up meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
, yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
, and metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
; read about other religions; and became a vegetarian. As a result of his serious illness and long convalescence, and as a part of his spiritual awakening and questioning, he wrote as many as forty songs, many of which would appear on his albums in years to come.
Changes in musical sound after illness
The lack of success of Stevens' second album mirrored a difference of personal tastes in musical direction, and a growing resentment at producer Mike Hurst's attempts to re-create another album like that of his debut, with heavy-handed orchestrationOrchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
, and over-production, rather than the folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
sound Stevens was attempting to produce. He admits having purposefully sabotaged his own contract with Hurst, making outlandishly expensive orchestral demands and threatening legal action, which resulted in his goal: release from his contract with Deram Records
Deram Records
Deram Records was a subsidiary record label established in 1966 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom. At this time U.K. Decca was a completely different company than the Decca label in the United States, which was then owned by MCA Inc. Deram recordings were also distributed in the U.S. through...
, a sub-label of major Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
. Upon regaining his health at home after his release from the hospital, Stevens recorded some of his newly written songs on his tape recorder, and played his changing sound for a few new record executives. After hiring agent Barry Krost, who had arranged for an audition with Chris Blackwell
Chris Blackwell
Christopher Percy Gordon "Chris" Blackwell is a British record producer and businessman, who was the founder of Island Records, acknowledged as the most successful and groundbreaking independent record company in history. Blackwell has been a music industry mogul for over fifty years...
of Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
, Blackwell offered him a "chance to record [his songs] whenever and with whomever he liked, and more importantly to Cat, however he liked". With Krost's recommendation, Stevens signed with Paul Samwell-Smith
Paul Samwell-Smith
Paul Samwell-Smith is best known as a founding member and bassist of the 1960s English band, The Yardbirds, a group that spawned such noteworthy musicians as Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page...
, previously the bassist
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
of the Yardbirds, to be his new producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
.
Height of popularity
Healthy and sporting a new beard, Stevens was armed with a catalogue of new songs that reflected his new perspective on what he wanted to bring to the world with his music. His previous work had sold in the United Kingdom, but Stevens was still relatively unknown by the public across the Atlantic. To rectify this, after signing with Island RecordsIsland Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
in 1970, an American distribution deal was arranged with A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
' Jerry Moss
Jerry Moss
Jerome S. "Jerry" Moss is an American recording executive, best known for being the co-founder of A&M Records, along with trumpeter and bandleader Herb Alpert....
in North America. Stevens began work on Mona Bone Jakon
Mona Bone Jakon
Mona Bone Jakon is the third album released by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. The album was released In July, 1970 on the Island Records label in the United Kingdom, and A&M record label in the United States and Canada...
, a folk-rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
based album that was quite different from his earlier "pop" style records, drawing on his new, introspective work.
Producer Paul Samwell-Smith paired guitarist Alun Davies
Alun Davies (guitarist)
Alun Davies is a Welsh guitarist, studio musician, recording artist, and composer who rose to fame primarily with his supporting guitar work and backing vocals as accompanist for English musician Cat Stevens, from early 1970 to 1977...
, who was currently working as a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
, with Stevens. Alun was the more experienced veteran of two albums which already had begun to explore the emerging genres of skiffle
Skiffle
Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly...
and folk rock music
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
. Davies was also thought a perfect fit in particular for his "fingerwork" on the guitar, harmonizing
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
and contributing backing vocals with Stevens. They originally met just to record Mona Bone Jakon, but developed a fast friendship; Davies, like Stevens, was a perfectionist, appearing after all the sound checks had been completed, just to be sure that all the equipment and sound were prepared for each concert. He recorded on all but two of the succeeding pop music albums Stevens released, and continued performing and recording with him until Stevens' retirement. The two remained friends, however, and years later, when Stevens re-emerged as Yusuf Islam after 27 years, Davies appeared again performing at his side, and has remained there.
The first single released from Mona Bone Jakon was "Lady D'Arbanville
Lady D'Arbanville
"Lady D'Arbanville" is a song written and recorded by Cat Stevens, and released in April, 1970. He was already a successful songwriter, and this was his first single released upon signing a contract with Island Records, with the encouragement of his new producer, Paul Samwell-Smith, fostering a...
", which Stevens wrote about his young American girlfriend Patti D'Arbanville
Patti D'Arbanville
Patricia "Patti" D'Arbanville is an American actress and former model.-Early life:D'Arbanville, born May 25, 1951 in New York City, New York, is the daughter of Jean , an artist, and George D'Arbanville, a bartender, and attended PS 41 on Eleventh Street...
. The record, with a madrigal
Madrigal (music)
A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six....
sound unlike most music played on pop radio, with sounds of djembe
Djembe
A djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....
s and bass in addition to Stevens' and Davies' guitars, reached #8 in the UK. It was the first of his hits to get real airplay in the United States. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold record
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
in 1971. Other songs written for her included "Maybe You're Right", and "Just Another Night". In addition, the song, "Pop Star", about his experience as a teen star, and "Katmandu", featuring Genesis
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
frontman Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
playing flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, were featured. Mona Bone Jakon was an early example of the solo singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
album format that was becoming popular for other artists as well. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine compared its popularity with that of Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
's Tumbleweed Connection
Tumbleweed Connection
Tumbleweed Connection is the third album by English international recording artist Elton John. It is a concept album based on the Country and Western/Americana themes. All songs are written by Bernie Taupin and Elton John with the exception of "Love Song" by Lesley Duncan. It was recorded at...
, saying it was played "across the board, across radio formats".
Mona Bone Jakon was the precursor for Stevens' international breakthrough album, Tea for the Tillerman
Tea for the Tillerman
Tea for the Tillerman is an album by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. This album, Stevens' second during 1970, includes many of Stevens' best-known songs including "Where Do the Children Play?", "Hard Headed Woman", "Wild World", "Sad Lisa", "Into White" and "Father and Son"...
, which became a top-10 Billboard hit. Within six months of its release, it had sold over 500,000 copies, attaining gold record status in the United States and in Britain. The combination of Stevens' new folk-rock style and accessible lyrics which spoke of everyday situations and problems, mixed with the beginning of spiritual questions about life, would remain in his music from then on. The album features the top 20 single "Wild World
Wild World
"Wild World" is a song written and recorded by English singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. It first appeared on his fourth album, Tea for the Tillerman, recorded and released in 1970 and, continuing the change in Stevens' sound, after leaving Deram Records and signing with Island Records...
"; a parting song after D'Arbanville moved on. "Wild World" has been credited as the song that gave Tea for the Tillerman 'enough kick' to get it played on FM radio; and the head of Island Records, Chris Blackwell, was quoted as calling it "the best album we’ve ever released". Other album cuts include "Hard-Headed Woman", and "Father and Son", a song sung both in baritone and tenor, about the struggle between fathers and their sons who are faced with their own personal choices in life. In 2001, this album was certified by the RIAA as a Multi-Platinum record, having sold 3 million copies in the United States at that time. It is ranked at #206 in Rolling Stone Magazine's 2003
2003 in music
-January:* January – following an investigation by The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in England and the Netherlands recover nearly 500 original Beatles studio tapes, recorded during the Let It Be sessions. Five people are arrested...
list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
".
After the end of his relationship with D'Arbanville, Stevens noted the effect it had on writing his music, saying,
"Everything I wrote while I was away was in a transitional period and reflects that. Like Patti. A year ago we split; I had been with her for two years. What I write about Patti and my family... when I sing the songs now, I learn strange things. I learn the meanings of my songs late..."
Having established a signature sound, Stevens enjoyed a string of successes over the following years. 1971's Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser and the Firecat is an album released by Cat Stevens in 1971. It contains 10 songs including hits such as "Morning Has Broken," "Moonshadow," and "Peace Train." It is also the title of a children's book written and illustrated by Stevens...
album reached number two and achieved gold record status within three weeks of its release in the United States. It yielded several hits, including "Peace Train
Peace Train
"Peace Train" is the title of a 1971 hit song by Cat Stevens, taken from his album Teaser and the Firecat. The song climbed to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week of October 9, 1971, becoming Stevens' first US Top 10 hit. The song also spent three weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary...
", "Morning Has Broken
Morning Has Broken
"Morning Has Broken" is a popular and well-known Christian hymn first published in 1931. It has words by English author Eleanor Farjeon and is set to a traditional Gaelic tune known as "Bunessan" . It is often sung in children's services...
" (a Christian hymn with lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon was an English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. Many of her works had charming illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Some of her correspondence has also been published...
), and "Moon Shadow". This album was also certified by the RIAA as a Multi-Platinum record in 2001, with over three million US sales through that time. When interviewed on a Boston radio station, Stevens said about Teaser and the Firecat:
"I get the tune and then I just keep on singing the tune until the words come out from the tune. It's kind of a hypnotic state that you reach after a while when you keep on playing it where words just evolve from it. So you take those words and just let them go whichever way they want... 'Moonshadow'? Funny, that was in Spain, I went there alone, completely alone, to get away from a few things. And I was dancin' on the rocks there... right on the rocks where the waves were, like, blowin' and splashin'. Really, it was so fantastic. And the moon was bright, ya know, and I started dancin' and singin' and I sang that song and it stayed. It's just the kind of moment that you want to find when you're writin' songs."
For seven months from 1971 to 1972 Stevens was romantically linked to popular singer Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
while both were produced by Samwell-Smith. During that time both wrote songs for and about one another. Simon wrote and recorded at least two top 50 songs, "Legend in Your Own Time" and "Anticipation
Anticipation (song)
"Anticipation" is a song by Carly Simon. It was the most famous track from her 1971 album of the same name, reaching #13 on the U.S. pop charts...
" about Stevens. He reciprocated in his song to her, after their romance, entitled, "Sweet Scarlet".
His next album, Catch Bull at Four
Catch Bull at Four
Catch Bull at Four is an album by Cat Stevens. It was Stevens' most successful album in the United States, holding the top spot on Billboards chart for three consecutive weeks...
, released in 1972, was his most rapidly successful album in the United States, reaching gold record status in 15 days, and holding the number-one position on the Billboard charts for three weeks. This album continued the introspective and spiritual lyrics that he was known for, combined with a rougher-edged voice and a less acoustic sound than his previous records, utilizing synthesizers and other instruments. Although the sales of the album indicated Stevens' popularity, the album did not produce any real hits, with the exception of the single "Sitting", which charted at #16. Catch Bull at Four was Platinum certified in 2001.
Exploration with movie soundtracks
In July 1970, Stevens recorded one of his songs, "But I Might Die Tonight", for the Jerzy SkolimowskiJerzy Skolimowski
Jerzy Skolimowski is a Polish film director, screenwriter, dramatist and actor. A graduate of the prestigious National Film School in Łódź, Skolimowski has directed more than twenty films since his 1960 début Oko wykol...
film Deep End
Deep End (film)
Deep End is a 1970 British-West German drama film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski and starring Jane Asher, John Moulder Brown and Diana Dors. The film is set in the suburbs of London and is perhaps best known for featuring the song "Mother Sky" by the band Can and "But I Might Die Tonight", the Cat...
. In 1971, Stevens provided nine songs to the soundtrack of the black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
Harold and Maude
Harold and Maude
Harold and Maude is a 1971 American dark comedy film directed by Hal Ashby and released by Paramount Pictures. It incorporates elements of dark humor and existentialist drama, with a plot that revolves around the exploits of a young man intrigued with death, Harold...
which became a popular cult movie celebrating the free spirit, and brought Stevens' music to a wider audience, continuing to do so long after he stopped recording in the late 1970s. Among the songs were "Where Do the Children Play?
Where Do the Children Play?
Where Do the Children Play? is a song by British folk-rock musician Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam. It was the opening track of the album Tea for the Tillerman, released in 1970....
," "Trouble
Trouble (Cat Stevens song)
"Trouble" is a song written by the English singer-songwriter and musician, Cat Stevens, during a period from 1969-1970. Stevens was recovering during what amounted to nearly a year of convalescence, after being diagnosed with a collapsed lung and tuberculosis...
," and "I Think I See the Light." Two of the songs, "Don't Be Shy" and "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out
If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out
"If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out" is a popular song by Cat Stevens. It first appeared in the 1971 film Harold and Maude.Stevens wrote all the songs in Harold and Maude in 1970-1971, during the time he was writing and recording his Tea for the Tillerman album...
," were not released on any album until their inclusion in 1984 on a second "greatest hits" collection: Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits Vol. 2 is a compilation album released by Cat Stevens in 1984. Its fourteen songs include hits such as "Father and Son" and "Where Do the Children Play?" as well as two previously unreleased tracks from the Hal Ashby and Colin Higgins black comedy Harold and...
.
After his religious conversion in the late 1970s, Stevens stopped granting permission for his songs to be used in films. However, almost twenty years later, in 1997, the movie Rushmore
Rushmore (film)
Rushmore is a 1998 comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson about an eccentric teenager named Max Fischer , his friendship with rich industrialist Herman Blume , and their mutual love for elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross . The film was co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson...
was allowed to use his songs "Here Comes My Baby" and "The Wind", showing a new willingness on his part to release his music from his Western "pop star" days. This was followed in 2000 by the inclusion of "Peace Train
Peace Train
"Peace Train" is the title of a 1971 hit song by Cat Stevens, taken from his album Teaser and the Firecat. The song climbed to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week of October 9, 1971, becoming Stevens' first US Top 10 hit. The song also spent three weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary...
" in the movie Remember the Titans
Remember the Titans
Remember the Titans is a 2000 American sports film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Boaz Yakin. Inspired by real events, the plot was conceived from a screenplay written by Gregory Allen Howard. The film starts as a new coach of the Titans, a football team previously coached by the...
, in 2000 by the use in Almost Famous
Almost Famous
Almost Famous is a 2000 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater , and his efforts to get his first cover story published...
of the song "The Wind", and in 2006 the inclusion of "Peace Train
Peace Train
"Peace Train" is the title of a 1971 hit song by Cat Stevens, taken from his album Teaser and the Firecat. The song climbed to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week of October 9, 1971, becoming Stevens' first US Top 10 hit. The song also spent three weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary...
" on the soundtrack to We Are Marshall
We Are Marshall
We Are Marshall is a 2006 American drama film directed by Joseph McGinty Nichol about the aftermath of the 1970 plane crash that killed 37 football players on the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team as well as five coaches, two athletic trainers, the athletic director, 25 boosters and...
. In 2007, an excerpt of "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out" is sung by characters in Charlie Bartlett
Charlie Bartlett
Charlie Bartlett is a 2008 comedy-drama film directed by Jon Poll. The screenplay by Gustin Nash focuses on a teenager who begins to dispense therapeutic advice and prescription drugs to the student body at his new high school in order to become popular....
whose title character resembles the character of Harold in Harold and Maude, where the song first appeared. In 2009, the song "Father and Son" was in the soundtrack of the movie The Boat That Rocked
The Boat That Rocked (soundtrack)
The Boat That Rocked is a soundtrack album to the 2009 British film of the same title, a comedy about a fictitious British pirate radio station set in 1966. The soundtrack was released March 30, 2009 through Mercury Records as a double album featuring popular rock, pop, and soul artists of the 1960s...
(known as Pirate Radio in the U.S.).
Later Cat Stevens recordings
Subsequent releases in the 1970s also did well on the charts and in ongoing sales, although they did not touch the success he had from 1970 to 1973. In 1973, Stevens moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as a tax exileTax exile
A tax exile is one who chooses to leave a country with a high tax burden and instead to reside in a foreign nation or jurisdiction which takes a lower portion of earnings. Going into tax exile is a means of tax mitigation or avoidance.-Legal status:...
from the United Kingdom, (however, he later donated the money to UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
). During that time he created the album Foreigner
Foreigner (Cat Stevens album)
Foreigner is an album released by English singer-songwriter, Cat Stevens in July 1973. In addition to the minor hit "The Hurt", which received a moderate amount of airplay, Foreigner also included such songs as "100 I Dream" and the 18-minute-long "Foreigner Suite", which took up the entirety of...
, which was a departure from the music that had brought him to the height of his fame. It differed in several respects: entirely written by Stevens, he dropped his band and produced the record without the assistance of Samwell-Smith, who had played a large role in catapulting him to fame, and instead of guitar, he played keyboard instrument
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
s throughout the album. It was intended to show a funk/soul element rising in popularity that Stevens had come to appreciate. One side of Foreigner was continuous, much different from the radio-friendly pop tunes fans had come to expect. In November 1973 he performed side two of the album at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood, with a pre-arranged uninterrupted quadraphonic simulcast on the ABC network
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
titled the "Moon and Star" concert; this performance included his band, but they were all but overshadowed by an orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
. The album produced a couple of singles including "The Hurt", but did not reach the heights he had once enjoyed.
The follow-up to Foreigner was Buddha and the Chocolate Box
Buddha and the Chocolate Box
Buddha and the Chocolate Box is a 1974 album by Cat Stevens. The title came to Stevens when he was travelling to a gig on a plane with a Buddha in one hand and a box of...
, largely a return to the instrumentation and styles employed in Teaser and the Firecat and Tea for the Tillerman. Featuring the return of Alun Davies and best known for "Oh Very Young", Buddha and the Chocolate Box reached platinum status in 2001. Stevens' next album was the concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
Numbers
Numbers (Cat Stevens album)
Numbers is concept album by singer/songwriter Cat Stevens released in November 1975. Subtitled "A Pythagorean Theory Tale", it is a concept album based on a fictional planet in a far-off galaxy named Polygor and the "Polygons" who inhabit its palace...
, a less successful departure for him.
The 1977 Izitso
Izitso
Izitso is an album released by the British singer/songwriter Cat Stevens in 1977. After the lackluster Numbers, Izitzo – an album of pop/rock songs more in keeping with the style of Stevens' earlier 1970s albums – proved to be his comeback. The song "Child for a Day" was featured in the 1977 film...
included his last chart hit, "(Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard", a duet with fellow UK singer Elkie Brooks
Elkie Brooks
Elkie Brooks is an English singer, formerly a vocalist with Vinegar Joe, and later a solo artist. Elkie has been nominated twice for Brit Awards' top female singer. She is known for her powerful husky voice...
. Linda Lewis
Linda Lewis
Linda Lewis is an English vocalist, songwriter and Guitarist. Lewis is the oldest of six children two of whom also had singing careers...
appears in the song's video, with Cat Stevens singing to her, as they portray former schoolmates, singing to each other on a schoolyard merry-go-round. This is one of few videos that Stevens made, other than simple videos of concert performances. The album is also notable for "Was Dog a Doughnut", a precursor to the electro music genre of the 1980s.
His final original album under the name Cat Stevens was Back to Earth
Back to Earth (Cat Stevens album)
Back to Earth is a 1978 album released by the British singer/songwriter Cat Stevens. It was the only album he recorded using the name Cat Stevens after his conversion to Islam in December 1977...
, released in late 1978, which was also the first album produced by Samwell-Smith since his peak in single album sales in the early 1970s.
Several compilation albums were released before and after he stopped recording. After Stevens left Decca Records they bundled his first two albums together as a set, hoping to ride the commercial tide of his early success; later his newer labels did the same, and he himself released compilations. The most successful of the compilation albums was the 1975 Greatest Hits
Greatest Hits (Cat Stevens album)
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by Cat Stevens, released in 1975. Though made up mostly of tracks from his five previous studio albums, Cat Stevens' Greatest Hits did contain one new song, "Two Fine People", which was also released as a single in 1975, and the previous non-album single,...
which has sold over 4 million copies in the United States. In May 2003 he received his first Platinum Europe Award from the IFPI
IFPI
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a not-for-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland...
for Remember Cat Stevens, The Ultimate Collection, indicating over one million European sales.
Religious conversion
While on holiday in Marrakech, Morocco, shortly after visiting Ibiza, Stevens was intrigued by the sound of the AḏhānAdhan
The adhān is the Islamic call to prayer, recited by the muezzin at prescribed times of the day. The root of the word is meaning "to permit"; another derivative of this word is , meaning "ear"....
, the Islamic ritual call to prayer, which was explained to him as "music for God". Stevens said, "I thought, music for God? I’d never heard that before – I’d heard of music for money, music for fame, music for personal power, but music for God!"
In 1976 Stevens nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu, California, USA and said he shouted: “Oh God! If you save me I will work for you.” He related that right afterward a wave appeared and carried him back to shore. This brush with death intensified his long-held quest for spiritual truth. He had looked into "Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
, I Ching
I Ching
The I Ching or "Yì Jīng" , also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts...
, Numerology
Numerology
Numerology is any study of the purported mystical relationship between a count or measurement and life. It has many systems and traditions and beliefs...
, tarot cards and Astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
". Stevens' brother David Gordon brought him a copy of the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
as a birthday gift from a trip to Jerusalem. Stevens took to it right away, and began his transition to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
.
During the time he was studying the Qur'an, he began to identify more and more with the name of Joseph
Joseph (Hebrew Bible)
Joseph is an important character in the Hebrew bible, where he connects the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Canaan to the subsequent story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt....
, a man bought and sold in the market place, which is how he says he had increasingly felt within the music business. Regarding his conversion, in his 2006 interview with Alan Yentob
Alan Yentob
Alan Yentob is a British television executive and presenter who has worked throughout his career at the BBC.-Early life:...
, he stated, "to some people, it may have seemed like an enormous jump, but for me, it was a gradual move to this." And, in a Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine interview, he reaffirmed this, saying, "I had found the spiritual home I'd been seeking for most of my life. And if you listen to my music and lyrics, like "Peace Train" and "On The Road To Find Out", it clearly shows my yearning for direction and the spiritual path I was travelling."
Stevens formally converted to the Islamic religion on 23 December 1977, taking the name Yusuf Islam in 1978. Yusuf is the Arabic rendition of the name Joseph. He stated that he "always loved the name Joseph" and was particularly drawn to the story of Joseph in the Qur'an. Although he discontinued his pop career, he was persuaded to perform one last time before what would become his twenty-five year musical hiatus. Appearing with his hair freshly shorn and an untrimmed beard, he headlined a charity concert on 22 November 1979 in Wembley Stadium to benefit UNICEF's International Year of the Child
International Year of the Child
* Maureen Millicent Bomford founded International Year of The Child and it was endorsed by the United Nations. Maureen was born in Canterbury Punchbowl in 1930 and had four brothers. Her father was a Mayor and she always learned to appreciate the value of leadership. As the wife of a prominent...
. The concert closed with a performance by Stevens, David Essex
David Essex
David Essex OBE is an English musician, singer-songwriter and actor. Since the 1970s, Essex has attained nineteen Top 40 singles in the UK , and sixteen Top 40 albums...
, Alun Davies, and Stevens' brother, David, who wrote the song that was the finale, "Child for a Day".
Yusuf married Fauzia Mubarak Ali on 7 September 1979, at Regent's Park Mosque
London Central Mosque
The London Central Mosque is a mosque in North London, England. It was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd, completed in 1978, and has a prominent golden dome. The main hall can hold over five thousand worshippers, with women praying on a balcony overlooking the hall...
in London. They have five children and three grandchildren and currently live in London, spending part of each year in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
.
Muslim faith and musical career
Following his conversion, Yusuf abandoned his music career. When he became a Muslim in 1977, he said, the ImamImam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
at the mosque was told that he was a pop
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
star, and he told Yusuf that it was fine to continue as a musician, so long as the songs were morally acceptable. But Yusuf says he knew there were aspects of the music business, such as vanity and temptations, that did go against the teachings of the Qur'an, and this was the primary reason he gave for retreating from the spotlight. But in his first performance on the television show Later... with Jools Holland, 27 years after leaving the music business, and in other interviews, he gave different reasons for leaving: "A lot of people would have loved me to keep singing," he said. "You come to a point where you have sung, more or less ... your whole repertoire and you want to get down to the job of living. You know, up until that point, I hadn't had a life. I'd been searching, been on the road."
Estimating in January 2007 that he continues to earn approximately $1.5 million USD a year from his Cat Stevens music, he decided to use his accumulated wealth and ongoing earnings from his music career on philanthropic and educational causes in the Muslim community of London and elsewhere. In 1981, he founded the Islamia Primary School
Islamia Primary School
Islamia Primary School is an inner-city Islamic Faith school in Queen's Park, North West London, in the borough of Brent, UK. There are approx. 250 pupils aged between the ages of 4 and 11.-History:...
in Salusbury Road in the north London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
area of Kilburn and, soon after, founded several Muslim secondary schools; in 1992, Yusuf set up The Association of Muslim Schools
Association of Muslim Schools
The Association of Muslim Schools is a global network of Muslim faith-based educational institutes.The Association supports and develops full-time Muslim Schools...
(AMS-UK), a charity that brought together all the Muslim schools in the UK, and served as chairman. He is also the founder and chairman of the Small Kindness
Small Kindness
Small Kindness is the name of a charity organization founded by Yusuf Islam . Small Kindness has earned the respect and admiration of local communities in all its major countries of operation...
charity, which initially assisted famine victims in Africa and now supports thousands of orphans and families in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. He served as chairman of the charity Muslim Aid
Muslim Aid
Muslim Aid is a UK based international relief and development organisation working to alleviate poverty worldwide. The charity says it believes in sustainable, local and practical solutions to empower individuals and strengthen communities...
from 1985 to 1993.
In 1985, Yusuf decided to return to the public spotlight for the first time since his religious conversion, at the historic Live Aid
Live Aid
Live Aid was a dual-venue concert that was held on 13 July 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom ...
concert, concerned with the famine threatening Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
. Though he had written a song especially for the occasion, his appearance was skipped when Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
's set ran too long.
Salman Rushdie controversy
The singer attracted controversy in 1989, during an address to students at London's Kingston UniversityKingston University
Kingston University is a public research university located in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, United Kingdom. It was originally founded in 1899 as Kingston Technical Institute, a polytechnic, and became a university in 1992....
, where he was asked about the fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie. The media interpreted his response as support for the fatwa. Yusuf released a statement the following day denying that he supported vigilantism
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
, and claiming that he had merely recounted the legal Islamic punishment
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
for blasphemy. In a BBC interview, he displayed a newspaper clipping from that period, with quotes from his statement. Subsequent comments made by him in 1989 on a British television programme were also seen as being in support of the fatwa. In a statement in the FAQ section of one of his Web sites, Yusuf asserted that while he regretted the comments, he was joking and that the show was improperly edited. In the years since these comments, he has repeatedly denied ever calling for the death of Rushdie or supporting the fatwa.
September 11 attacks
Immediately following the 11 September 2001, attacks on the United States, he said:- I wish to express my heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate terrorist attacks committed against innocent people of the United States yesterday. While it is still not clear who carried out the attack, it must be stated that no right-thinking follower of Islam could possibly condone such an action. The Qur'an equates the murder of one innocent person with the murder of the whole of humanity. We pray for the families of all those who lost their lives in this unthinkable act of violence as well as all those injured; I hope to reflect the feelings of all Muslims and people around the world whose sympathies go out to the victims of this sorrowful moment.
He appeared on videotape on a VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
pre-show for the October 2001 Concert for New York City
The Concert for New York City
The Concert for New York City was a benefit concert, featuring many famous musicians, that took place on October 20, 2001 at Madison Square Garden in New York City in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks...
, condemning the attacks and singing his song "Peace Train" for the first time in public in more than 20 years, as an a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
version. He also donated a portion of his box-set royalties to the Fund for victims' families, and the rest to orphans in underdeveloped countries. During the same year, Yusuf Islam dedicated time and effort in joining the Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism
Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism
The Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism is a London-based Muslim advocacy group which campaigns against discrimination in the form of Islamophobia or racism. It was established in 2001 as an independent charitable organization with the aim of monitoring media coverage of Islam and Muslims, and...
, an organization that worked towards battling misperceptions and acts against others because of their religious beliefs and/or racial identity, after many Muslims reported a backlash against them due in part to the grief caused by the events in the United States on 9-11.
Denial of entry into the United States
On 21 September 2004, Yusuf was on a United AirlinesUnited Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
flight from London to Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, travelling to a meeting with U.S. entertainer Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
, who had recorded "Peace Train" several years earlier and was planning to include another Cat Stevens song on an upcoming album. While the plane was in flight, his name was flagged as being on a no fly list
No Fly List
The No Fly List is a list, created and maintained by the United States government's Terrorist Screening Center , of people who are not permitted to board a commercial aircraft for travel in or out of the United States. The list has also been used to divert away from U.S. airspace aircraft not...
. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers alerted the United States Transportation Security Administration, which then diverted his flight to Bangor
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, where he was detained by officers from the Department of Homeland Security
United States Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the territory of the United States and protectorates from and responding to...
.
The following day, Yusuf was denied entry and flown back to the United Kingdom. A spokesman for Homeland Security claimed there were "concerns of ties he may have to potential terrorist-related activities". The Israeli government had deported Yusuf in 2000 over allegations that he provided funding to the Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
organisation Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
; he denied doing so knowingly. "I have never knowingly supported or given money to Hamas," says Yusuf, who repeatedly has condemned terrorism and Islamic extremism
Islamic extremism
Islamic extremism refers to two related and partially overlapping but also distinct aspects of extremist interpretations and pursuits of Islamic ideology:...
. "At the time I was reported to have done it, I didn't know such a group existed. Some people give a political interpretation to charity. We were horrified at how people were suffering in the Holy Land." However, the United States Department of Homeland Security added him to a "watch list". The US removal provoked a small international controversy, and led British Foreign Secretary
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a senior member of Her Majesty's Government heading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and regarded as one of the Great Offices of State...
Jack Straw
Jack Straw
Jack Straw , British politician.Jack Straw may also refer to:* Jack Straw , English* "Jack Straw" , 1971 song by the Grateful Dead* Jack Straw by W...
to complain personally to US Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. Powell responded by stating that the watchlist was under review, adding, "I think we have that obligation to review these matters to see if we are right".
Yusuf believed his inclusion on a "watch list" may have simply been an error: a mistaken identification of him for a man with the same name, but different spelling. On 1 October 2004 Yusuf requested the removal of his name, "I remain bewildered by the decision of the US authorities to refuse me entry to the United States". According to a statement by Yusuf, the man on the list was named "Youssef Islam", indicating that Yusuf himself was not the suspected terrorism supporter. Romanization of Arabic names can easily result in different spellings: the transliteration
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
of the Islamic name for Joseph (Yusuf's chosen name) lists a dozen spellings.
Two years later, in December 2006 Yusuf was admitted without incident into the United States for several radio concert performances and interviews to promote his new record. Yusuf said of the incident at the time, that, "No reason was ever given, but being asked to repeat the spelling of my name again and again, made me think it was a fairly simple mistake of identity. Rumors which circulated after made me imagine otherwise."
Yusuf has written a song about the 2004 exclusion from the U.S., entitled "Boots and Sand
Boots and Sand
Boots and Sand is a song written and recorded by Yusuf Islam . It appears as a bonus track on his album Roadsinger which was released on May 5, 2009...
", recorded in the summer of 2008 and featuring Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, Alison Krauss
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...
, Dolly Parton, and Terry Sylvester
Terry Sylvester
Terry Sylvester , was the guitarist/singer with The Escorts, The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Hollies...
.
British reports regarding inadmissibility to the U.S.
In October 2004 the British newspapers The SunThe Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
and The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
voiced their support for Yusuf's exclusion from the U.S., claiming that he had supported terrorism. Yusuf successfully sued for libel and received a substantial out-of-court financial settlement and apologies from the newspapers stating that he had never supported terrorism and acknowledging that he had recently been given a Man of Peace
Man of Peace
The title Man of Peace was created in 1999 by the annual World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome. The purpose of the award is to recognize individuals who have offered "an outstanding contribution to international social justice and peace"....
award from the private Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
Laureates Committee. However The Sunday Times managing editor Richard Caseby said that while there was an "agreed settlement", they "always denied liability" and "disagreed with Cat Stevens' lawyers interpretation", but took a "pragmatic view" of the lawsuit.
Yusuf responded that he was "delighted by the settlement [which] helps vindicate my character and good name. ... It seems to be the easiest thing in the world these days to make scurrilous accusations against Muslims, and in my case it directly impacts on my relief work and damages my reputation as an artist. The harm done is often difficult to repair", and added that he intended to donate the financial award given to him by the court to help orphans of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
.
Yusuf wrote about the experience in a newspaper article titled "A Cat in a Wild World".
False rumour regarding unveiled women
On 18 July 2008, Yusuf received substantial undisclosed damages from the World Entertainment News NetworkWorld Entertainment News Network
World Entertainment News Network is a 24/7 global entertainment text and photo wire services provider headquartered in London with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas and Berlin....
following their distribution of the false rumour that the singer did not speak to unveiled women. The allegations first surfaced in German newspaper
B.Z.
B.Z. (newspaper)
B.Z. is a German tabloid newspaper, published in Berlin by Ullstein-Verlag, a subsidiary of Axel Springer AG. As of 2010, it has a circulation of around 200,000....
after Yusuf's trip to Berlin in March 2007 to collect the Echo music award for "life achievements as musician and ambassador between cultures". Once again he was awarded damages after the World Entertainment News Network allowed an article to be published on Contactmusic.com
Contactmusic.com
Contactmusic.com is a Leeds UK based entertainment magazine/webzine. The site was launched in April 2000 by a small team and has now expanded to 12 fulltime staff and many freelance contributors from across the globe...
, a "website said to have 2.2 million page views a month", alleging that Yusuf would not speak to unveiled women with the exception of his wife. His solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
was reported as having said that "he was made out to be 'so sexist and bigoted that he refused at an awards ceremony to speak to or even acknowledge any women who were not wearing a veil'". The offending news agency apologized, admitting that Yusuf has never had any problem in working with women and, contrary to the article in question, never has required a third party as an intermediary to function at work. The money from this lawsuit will go to Yusuf's Small Kindness Charity.
Yusuf himself discusses this topic on his website, saying, "It’s true that I have asked my manager to respectfully request lady presenters refrain from embracing me when giving awards or during public appearances, but that has nothing to do with my feelings or respect for them. Islam simply requires me to honour the dignity of ladies or young girls who are not closely related to me, and avoid physical intimacy, however innocent it may be." He adds, "My four daughters all follow the basic wearing of clothes which modestly cover their God-given beauty. They’re extremely well educated; they do not cover their faces and interact perfectly well with friends and society."
Return to music
Yusuf gradually resumed his musical career in the 1990s. His initial recordings had not included any musical instruments other than percussion, and featured lyrics about Islamic themes. He invested in building his own recording studio which he named Mountain of Light Studios in the late 1990s, and he was featured as a guest singer on "God Is the Light", a song on an album of nasheeds by the group RaihanRaihan
Raihan is a Malaysian nasheed group originally composing of five members that took Malaysia by storm with the release of their debut album Puji-Pujian in October 1996. The group's original lineup comprised Nazrey Johani, Che Amran Idris, Abu Bakar Md Yatim, Amran Ibrahim, and Azhari Ahmad as the...
. In addition, he invited and collaborated with other Muslim singers, including Canadian artist Dawud Wharnsby. After Yusuf's friend, Irfan Ljubijankic
Irfan Ljubijankic
Dr. Irfan Ljubijankić was a Bosnian facial surgeon, classical music composer, politician and diplomat. He was a good friend of Yusef Islam ....
, the Foreign Minister
Foreign minister
A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...
of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, was killed by a Serbian rocket attack, Yusuf appeared at a 1997 benefit concert in Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
and recorded a benefit album named after a song written by Ljubijankic, I Have No Cannons That Roar.
Realizing there were few educational resources designed to teach children about the Islamic religion, Yusuf wrote and produced a children's album, A Is for Allah
A is for Allah
A is for Allah is the name of a double album created for Muslim children by Yusuf Islam released on July 11, 2000 through Resurgence UK Records. The title song was written in 1980 upon the birth of his first child, a daughter named Hasanah...
, in 2000 with the assistance of South African singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Zain Bhikha
Zain Bhikha
Zain Bhikha is an Indian South African singer-songwriter, who has achieved success as a performer of Islamic nasheed songs. Associated with prominent Muslim personalities, including Yusuf Islam and Dawud Wharnsby, Bhikha has collaborated on albums and also released several solo albums...
. The title song was one Yusuf had written years before to introduce his first child to both the religion and the Arabic alphabet. He also established his own record label, "Jamal Records", and Mountain of Light Productions, and he donates a percentage of his projects' proceeds to his Small Kindness
Small Kindness
Small Kindness is the name of a charity organization founded by Yusuf Islam . Small Kindness has earned the respect and admiration of local communities in all its major countries of operation...
charity, whose name is taken from the Qur'an.
On the occasion of the 2000 re-release of his Cat Stevens albums, he explained that he had stopped performing in English due to his misunderstanding of the Islamic faith. "This issue of music in Islam is not as cut-and-dried as I was led to believe ... I relied on heresy [sic], that was perhaps my mistake."
Yusuf has reflected that his decision to leave the Western pop music business was perhaps too quick with too little communication for his fans. For most, it was a surprise, and even his guitarist, Alun Davies said in later interviews that he hadn't believed that Stevens would actually go through with it, after his many forays into other religions throughout their relationship. Yusuf himself has said the "cut" between his former life and his life as a Muslim might have been too quick, too severe, and that more people might have been better informed about Islam, and given an opportunity to better understand it, and himself, if he had simply removed those items that were considered harām
Haraam
Haraam is an Arabic term meaning "forbidden", or "sacred". In Islam it is used to refer to anything that is prohibited by the word of Allah in the Qur'an or the Hadith Qudsi. Haraam is the highest status of prohibition given to anything that would result in sin when a Muslim commits it...
, in his performances, allowing him to express himself musically and educate listeners through his music without violating any religious constraints.
In 2003, after repeated encouragement from within the Muslim world, Yusuf once again recorded "Peace Train
Peace Train
"Peace Train" is the title of a 1971 hit song by Cat Stevens, taken from his album Teaser and the Firecat. The song climbed to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week of October 9, 1971, becoming Stevens' first US Top 10 hit. The song also spent three weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary...
" for a compilation CD, which also included performances by David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
and Paul McCartney. He performed "Wild World
Wild World
"Wild World" is a song written and recorded by English singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. It first appeared on his fourth album, Tea for the Tillerman, recorded and released in 1970 and, continuing the change in Stevens' sound, after leaving Deram Records and signing with Island Records...
" in Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
's 46664 concert with his former session player Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
, the first time he had publicly performed in English in 25 years. In December 2004, he and Ronan Keating
Ronan Keating
Ronan Patrick John Keating is an Irish recording artist, singer-songwriter, musician, and philanthropist. Keating debuted on the professional music scene alongside Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Shane Lynch and Stephen Gately, in 1994 as the lead singer of Boyzone. His solo career started in 1999, and...
released a new version of "Father and Son": the song entered the charts at number two, behind Band Aid 20's "Do They Know It's Christmas?
Do They Know It's Christmas?
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to raise money for relief of the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The original version was produced by Midge Ure and released by Band Aid on 29 November 1984....
". They also produced a video of the pair walking between photographs of fathers and sons, while singing the song. The proceeds of "Father and Son" were donated to the Band Aid charity
Band Aid (band)
Band Aid was a charity supergroup featuring British and Irish musicians and recording artists. It was founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia by releasing the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for the Christmas market that year. The single...
. Keating's former group, Boyzone
Boyzone
Boyzone are an Irish boy band comprising Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating,Shane Lynch, and formerly Stephen Gately. Boyzone have 19 singles in the top 40 UK charts and 21 singles in the Ire charts. The group currently have 6 UK number one singles and 9 number one singles in Ireland with 12...
, had a hit with the song a decade earlier. As he had been persuaded before, Yusuf contributed to the song, because the proceeds were marked for charity. However, this marked a point in his artistic career where he entertained the concept of using more than simply voice and drums.
On 21 April 2005 Yusuf gave a short talk before a scheduled musical performance in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
, United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
, on the anniversary of Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
's birthday. He said, "There is a great deal of ignorance in the world about Islam today, and we hope to communicate with the help of something more refined than lectures and talks. Our recordings are particularly appealing to the young, having used songs as well as Qur'an verses with pleasing sound effects..." Yusuf observed that there are no real guidelines about instruments and no references about the business of music in the Qur'an, and that Muslim travellers first brought the guitar to Moorish Spain. He noted that Muhammad was fond of celebrations, as in the case of the birth of a child, or a traveller arriving after a long journey. Thus, Yusuf concluded that healthy entertainment was acceptable within limitations, and that he now felt that it was no sin to perform with the guitar. Music, he now felt, is uplifting to the soul; something sorely needed in troubled times. At that point, he was joined by several young male singers who sang backing vocals and played a drum, with Yusuf as lead singer and guitarist. They performed two songs, both half in Arabic, and half in English; "Tala'a Al-Badru Alayna
Ta'la al Badru 'Alayna
Tala‘ al-Badru ‘Alaynā is a traditional Islamic song known as nasheed that the Ansar sung to the Prophet Muhammad upon his arrival at Yathrib after completing the Hijra in 622 CE...
", an old song in Arabic which Yusuf recorded with a folk sound to it, and another song, "The Wind East and West", which was newly written by Yusuf and featured a distinct R&B sound.
With this performance, Yusuf began slowly to integrate instruments into both older material from his Cat Stevens era (some with slight lyrical changes) and new songs, both those known to the Muslim communities around the world and some that have the same Western flair from before with a focus on new topics and another generation of listeners.
In a 2005 press release, he explained his revived recording career:
In early 2005, Yusuf released a new song entitled "Indian Ocean" about the 2004 tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
disaster. The song featured Indian composer/producer A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
, a-ha
A-ha
A-ha were a Norwegian pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. The band was founded by Morten Harket , Magne Furuholmen , and Pål Waaktaar...
keyboard player Magne Furuholmen
Magne Furuholmen
Magne 'Mags' Furuholmen is a Norwegian musician. He is best known as the guitarist and keyboardist of the pop band A-ha.-A-ha:Furuholmen has been the keyboardist with A-ha since their formation in 1982, though he also plays guitar...
and Travis
Travis (band)
Travis are a post-Britpop band from Glasgow, Scotland, comprising Fran Healy , Dougie Payne , Andy Dunlop and Neil Primrose...
drummer Neil Primrose. Proceeds of the single went to help orphans in Banda Aceh
Banda Aceh
Banda Aceh is the provincial capital and largest city in the province of Aceh, Indonesia, located on the island of Sumatra, with an elevation of 35 meters. The city regency covers an area of 64 square kilometres and according to the 2000 census had a population of 219,070 people...
, one of the areas worst affected by the tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
, through Yusuf's Small Kindness charity. At first, the single was released only through several online music store
Online music store
An online music store is an online business which sells audio files, usually music, on a per-song and/or subscription basis. It may be differentiated from music streaming services in that the music store offers the actual music file, while streaming services offer partial or full listening without...
s but later featured on the compilation album Cat Stevens: Gold
Gold (Cat Stevens album)
Gold is a two-CD compilation of classic singles and album tracks by British singer/songwriter Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam. It is part of Universal Music's series of double-disc anthologies derived from their extensive back catalog...
. "I had to learn my faith and look after my family, and I had to make priorities. But now I've done it all and there's a little space for me to fill in the universe of music again."
On 28 May 2005, Yusuf delivered a keynote speech and performed at the Adopt-A-Minefield
Adopt-A-Minefield
Adopt-A-Minefield is a United Kingdom-based charity which raises awareness about landmines and their associated problems, and raises funds to clear minefields and help survivors of landmine accidents...
Gala in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
. The Adopt-A-Minefield charity, under the patronage of Paul McCartney, works internationally to raise awareness and funds to clear landmines and rehabilitate landmine survivors. Yusuf attended as part of an honorary committee which also included George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
, Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
, Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Boutros Boutros-Ghali is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1992 to December 1996...
, Klaus Voormann
Klaus Voormann
Klaus Voormann is a German Grammy Award-winning artist, noted musician, and record producer. He designed artwork for many bands including The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Wet Wet Wet and Turbonegro. His most notable work as a producer was his work with the band Trio, including their worldwide hit "Da Da...
, Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
and others.
In mid-2005
2005 in music
-Events:*During the year 2005, 12 rock music albums scored number 1 in the USA. This was the first time even ten albums have scored number 1 since 1996.-January:...
, Yusuf played guitar for the Dolly Parton album, Those Were the Days
Those Were the Days (Dolly Parton album)
-Charts:The album sold 57,000 copies in its first week of release.-External links:* at dollyon-line.com...
, on her version of his "Where Do the Children Play?". (Parton had also covered "Peace Train" a few years earlier.)
In May 2006, in anticipation of his forthcoming new pop album, the BBC1 programme "Imagine" aired a 49-minute documentary with Alan Yentob
Alan Yentob
Alan Yentob is a British television executive and presenter who has worked throughout his career at the BBC.-Early life:...
called Yusuf: The Artist formerly Known as Cat Stevens. This documentary film features rare audio and video clips from the late 1960s and 1970s, as well as an extensive interview with Yusuf, his brother David Gordon, several record executives, Bob Geldof
Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...
, Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
, and others outlining his career as Cat Stevens, his conversion and emergence as Yusuf Islam, and his return to music in 2006. There are clips of him singing in the studio when he was recording An Other Cup as well as a few 2006 excerpts of him on guitar singing a few verses of Cat Stevens songs including "The Wind" and "On the Road to Find Out".
Yusuf has credited his then 21-year-old son Muhammad Islam, also a musician and artist, for his return to secular music, when the son brought a guitar back into the house, which Yusuf began playing. Muhammad's professional name is Yoriyos and his debut album was released in February 2007. Yoriyos created the art on Yusuf's album An Other Cup, something that Cat Stevens did for his albums in the 1970s.
Starting in 2006, the Cat Stevens song "Tea for The Tillerman" was used as the theme tune for the Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
-HBO sitcom Extras
Extras (TV series)
Extras is a British sitcom about extras working on TV and film sets and in theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO, and is created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom also star in it...
. A Christmas-season television commercial for gift-giving by the diamond industry aired in 2006 with Cat Power
Cat Power
Charlyn Marie Marshall , also known as Chan Marshall or by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer/songwriter and occasional actress and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has come to refer to her musical projects with various backing bands...
's cover of "How Can I Tell You". That song is also covered by John Frusciante
John Frusciante
John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record and film producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he had been for a number of years and recorded five studio albums...
of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
frequently in concert.
In December 2006, Yusuf was one of the artists who performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert
Nobel Peace Prize Concert
The Nobel Peace Prize Concert has been held annually since 1994 on 11 December, one day after the date of Alfred Nobel's death, to honour the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The award ceremony on 10 December takes place in the Oslo City Hall, while the concert is in the Oslo Spektrum Arena, with the...
in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Norway, in honour of the prize winners, Muhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, an institution that provides microcredit to help its clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize...
and Grameen Bank
Grameen Bank
The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...
. He performed the songs "Midday (Avoid City After Dark)", "Peace Train", and "Heaven/Where True Love Goes". He also gave a concert in New York City that month as a Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at West 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle. Frederick P....
event, recorded and broadcast by KCRW-FM radio, along with an interview by Nic Harcourt
Nic Harcourt
Nic Harcourt was, most recently, the Music Director for Santa Monica, California-based radio station KCRW. Before joining KCRW, Harcourt worked for eight years as a news director and music director at radio station WDST in Woodstock, New York...
. Accompanying him, as in the Cat Stevens days, was Alun Davies
Alun Davies (guitarist)
Alun Davies is a Welsh guitarist, studio musician, recording artist, and composer who rose to fame primarily with his supporting guitar work and backing vocals as accompanist for English musician Cat Stevens, from early 1970 to 1977...
, on guitar and vocals.
In April 2007, BBC1 broadcast a concert given at the Porchester Hall by Yusuf as part of BBC Sessions, his first live performance in London in 28 years (the previous one being the UNICEF "Year of the Child" concert in 1979). He played several new songs along with some old ones like "Father and Son", "The Wind", "Where Do the Children Play?", "Don't Be Shy", "Wild World", and "Peace Train".
In July 2007, he performed at a concert in Bochum
Bochum
Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area and is surrounded by the cities of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Witten and Hattingen.-History:...
, Germany, in benefit of Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
's Peace Centre in South Africa and the Milagro Foundation of Deborah and Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
. The audience included Nobel Laureates Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
, Desmond Tutu and other prominent global figures. He later appeared as the final act in the German leg
Live Earth concert, Hamburg
The Live Earth concert in Germany was held at HSH Nordbank Arena, Hamburg on 7 July 2007.-Running order:In order of appearance:*Shakira - "Don't Bother", "Inevitable", "Dia Especial" with Gustavo Cerati, "Hips Don't Lie"...
of Live Earth
Live Earth
-Background:Founded by Emmy-winning producer Kevin Wall, in partnership with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Live Earth was built upon the belief that entertainment has the power to transcend social and cultural barriers to move the world community to action...
in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
performing some classic Cat Stevens songs and more recent compositions reflecting his concern for peace and child welfare. His set included Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
's "Saturn", "Peace Train", "Where Do the Children Play?", "Ruins", and "Wild World". He performed at the Peace One Day
Peace One Day
Peace One Day was founded by British documentary filmmaker and actor Jeremy Gilley in September 1999. The charity promotes the idea of one day a year free of conflict and war, one day of a global truce regardless of all kinds of conflict. The UN had already declared the third Tuesday of September...
concert at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
on 21 September 2007.
In 2008 Yusuf contributed the song "Edge of Existence" to the charity album Songs for Survival
Songs for Survival
Bruce Parry Presents Amazon - Tribe - Songs for Survival is a double album released by Kensaltown Records in support of a tribal peoples charity.-Background:...
, in support of the indigenous rights organization Survival International
Survival International
Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples' fight to keep their ancestral lands,...
.
In January 2009, Yusuf released a charity song in aid of children in Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
. He recorded a rendition of the George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
song "The Day the World Gets Round", along with the German bassist and former Beatles collaborator Klaus Voorman. Yusuf said that all proceeds from the song will be donated to the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and to the nonprofit group Save the Children
Save the Children
Save the Children is an internationally active non-governmental organization that enforces children's rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries...
to be directed to aiding Gaza residents. Israeli Consul
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
David Saranga
David Saranga
David Saranga is an Israeli diplomat and former Consul for Media and Public Affairs of Israel in the United States. Saranga was responsible for Israel’s image in the United States and was the liaison person of Israel to the American media...
criticized Yusuf for not dedicating the song to all the children who are victims of the violence, including Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i children.Israeli Official Blasts Cat Stevens' Song for Gaza Children, Joshua Rhett Miller, Fox News, 26 January 2009.
2006: An Other Cup
In March 2006, Yusuf finished recording his first all-new pop album since 1978. The album, An Other CupAn Other Cup
An Other Cup is an album by Yusuf Islam . It was released on November 10, 2006 in Germany, November 13 in the UK and in the U.S. and worldwide on November 14. An Other Cup is Islam's first Western pop album since Back to Earth, which was released in 1978 under the name Cat Stevens...
, was released internationally in November 2006 on his own label, Ya Records (distributed by Polydor Records
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
in the UK and internationally by Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
) — the 40th anniversary of his first album, Matthew and Son. A single, called Heaven/Where True Love Goes, was simultaneously released. The album was produced with Rick Nowels
Rick Nowels
Richard Wright Nowels Jr. is a Grammy / Ivor Novello award-winning songwriter/producer who has worked with many of the most vibrant artists in contemporary music...
, who has worked with Dido
Dido (singer)
Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong , known as Dido, is an English singer-songwriter.Dido shot to worldwide success with her debut album, No Angel...
and Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
. The performer is noted as "Yusuf", with a cover label identifying him as "the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens". The art on the album is credited to Yoriyos. Yusuf wrote all of the songs except "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is a song written by Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell and Sol Marcus for the singer/pianist Nina Simone, who first recorded it in 1964. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" has been recorded or performed by many artists, and is widely known by the 1965 blues rock hit...
", and recorded it in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Yusuf actively promoted this album, appearing on radio, television and in print interviews. In November, 2006, he told the BBC, "It's me, so it's going to sound like that of course ... This is the real thing.... When my son brought the guitar back into the house, you know, that was the turning point. It opened a flood of, of new ideas and music which I think a lot of people would connect with."
Originally, Yusuf began to return only to his acoustic guitar as he had in the past, but his son encouraged him to "experiment", which resulted in the purchase of a Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
in 2007.
Also in November 2006, Billboard magazine was curious as to why the artist is credited as just his first name, "Yusuf" rather than "Yusuf Islam". His response was "Because 'Islam' doesn't have to be slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
ized. The second name is like the official tag, but you call a friend by their first name. It's more intimate, and to me that's the message of this record." As for why the album sleeve says "the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens", he responded, "That's the tag with which most people are familiar; for recognition purposes I'm not averse to that. For a lot of people, it reminds them of something they want to hold on to. That name is part of my history and a lot of the things I dreamt about as Cat Stevens have come true as Yusuf Islam."
Yusuf was asked by the Swiss periodical
Periodical publication
Periodical literature is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar examples are the newspaper, often published daily, or weekly; or the magazine, typically published weekly, monthly or as a quarterly...
Das Magazin
Tages-Anzeiger
Tages-Anzeiger, also abbreviated Tagi or TA, is a German language Swiss national daily newspaper based in Zurich. Among newspapers in Switzerland, it has one of the largest readerships, reaching around 550,000 readers. The Tages-Anzeiger was first published in 1893...
why the title of the album was An Other Cup, rather than "Another Cup". The answer was that his breakthrough album, Tea for the Tillerman in 1970, was decorated with Yusuf's painting of a peasant sitting down to a cup of steaming drink on the land. Yusuf commented that the two worlds "then, and now, are very different". His new album shows a steaming cup alone on this cover. His answer was that this was actually an other cup; something different; a bridge between the East and West, which Yusuf explained was his own perceived role. He added that, through him, "Westerners might get a glimpse of the East, and Easterners, some understanding of the West. The cup, too, is important; it's a meeting place, a thing meant to be shared."
On CBS Sunday Morning in December 2006, he said, "You know, the cup is there to be filled ... with whatever you want to fill it with. For those people looking for Cat Stevens, they'll probably find him in this record. If you want to find [Yusuf] Islam, go a bit deeper, you'll find him."
Yusuf has since described the album as being too "over-produced" and refers to An Other Cup as being a necessary hurdle he had to overcome before he could release his new album, Roadsinger. Yusuf compares the relationship between An Other Cup and Roadsinger to the relationship between the Cat Stevens albums Mona Bone Jakon and the landmark Tea for the Tillerman with the latter being superior in quality to the former.
2009–present: Roadsinger, appearances and tours
In January 2009, Yusuf recorded a George HarrisonGeorge Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
song, "The Day the World Gets Round", collaborating with Klaus Voormann
Klaus Voormann
Klaus Voormann is a German Grammy Award-winning artist, noted musician, and record producer. He designed artwork for many bands including The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Wet Wet Wet and Turbonegro. His most notable work as a producer was his work with the band Trio, including their worldwide hit "Da Da...
. Proceeds from the single were donated to a charity to help the people of war-torn Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
. To promote the new single, Voormann re-designed his famous Beatles Revolver
Revolver (album)
Revolver is the seventh studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released on 5 August 1966 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin. Many of the tracks on Revolver are marked by an electric guitar-rock sound, in contrast with their previous LP, the folk rock inspired Rubber...
album cover
Album cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
, drawing a picture of a young Cat Stevens along with himself and George Harrison.
A new pop album, Roadsinger
Roadsinger
Roadsinger is a studio album by Yusuf . Roadsinger is Yusuf's second mainstream release since his return to music. The album made its debut on the Billboard 200 at position #41 and on the UK charts at #10.The album was released by Island Records in the UK...
, was released on 5 May 2009. The lead track, "Thinking 'Bout You", received its debut radio play on a BBC programme on 23 March 2009. Unlike An Other Cup
An Other Cup
An Other Cup is an album by Yusuf Islam . It was released on November 10, 2006 in Germany, November 13 in the UK and in the U.S. and worldwide on November 14. An Other Cup is Islam's first Western pop album since Back to Earth, which was released in 1978 under the name Cat Stevens...
, Yusuf promoted the new album with appearances on American television as well as in the U.K. He appeared on the Chris Isaak Hour on the A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
network in April 2009, performing live versions of his new songs, "World O'Darkness", "Boots and Sand", and "Roadsinger". On 13 May he appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Los Angeles, and on 14 May, on The Colbert Report in New York City, performing the title song from the Roadsinger album. On 15 May, he appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon on NBC. The show premiered on March 2, 2009, as the third incarnation of the Late Night franchise originated by David Letterman....
, performing "Boots and Sand" and "Father and Son". On 24 May he appeared on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show, where he was interviewed and performed the title track of Roadsinger
Roadsinger
Roadsinger is a studio album by Yusuf . Roadsinger is Yusuf's second mainstream release since his return to music. The album made its debut on the Billboard 200 at position #41 and on the UK charts at #10.The album was released by Island Records in the UK...
. On 15 August, he was one of many guests at Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
's annual Fairport's Cropredy Convention where he performed five songs accompanied by Alun Davies, with Fairport Convention as his backing band.
A world tour was announced on his web site to promote the new album. He was scheduled to perform at an invitation-only concert at New York City's Highline Ballroom on 3 May and to go on to Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto, as well as some to-be-announced European venues. However, the New York appearance was postponed due to issues regarding his work visa. He appeared in May 2009 at Island Records' 50th Anniversary concert in London. In November and December 2009 Yusuf undertook his "Guess I'll Take My Time Tour" which also showcased his musical play Moonshadow. The tour took him to Dublin, where he had a mixed reception; subsequently he was well received in Birmingham and Liverpool, culminating in an emotional performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In June 2010 he toured Australia for the first time in 36 years, and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
for the first time ever.
On October 30, 2010 Yusuf appeared at Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
and Stephen Colbert's
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, DC, singing alongside Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
. Yusuf performed "Peace Train
Peace Train
"Peace Train" is the title of a 1971 hit song by Cat Stevens, taken from his album Teaser and the Firecat. The song climbed to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week of October 9, 1971, becoming Stevens' first US Top 10 hit. The song also spent three weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary...
" and Ozzy performed "Crazy Train
Crazy Train
"Crazy Train" is a song written by Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads and Bob Daisley. It was released as the first single in 1980 on Osbourne's first solo studio album, Blizzard of Ozz. The song was recorded in 1980, a year after leaving Black Sabbath, and later included on the live album Tribute,...
" at the same time, followed by The O'Jays
The O'Jays
The O'Jays are an American R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in 1963 and originally consisting of Eddie Levert , Walter Williams , William Powell , Bobby Massey and Bill Isles. The O'Jays were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005...
performance of "Love Train
Love Train
"Love Train" is a hit single by the O'Jays, written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Released in 1972, it reached number one on both the R&B Singles and the Hot 100, in February and March 1973 respectively, and was certified gold by the RIAA. It was The O'Jays' first and only number-one record on...
".
On March 2, 2011, Yusuf released his latest song, "My People", as a free download available through his official website, as well as numerous other online outlets. Said to have been recorded at a studio located within a hundred yards of the site of the Berlin Wall, the song is inspired by a series of popular uprisings in the Arab world
2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
.
On April 1, 2011, Yusuf launched a new tour website (yusufinconcert.com) to commemorate his first European tour in over 36 years scheduled from May 7 to June 2, 2011. The ten-date tour will visit Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and cities such as Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Oberhausen
Oberhausen
Oberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
.
Philanthropic and humanitarian awards
- 2003 World AwardWorld AwardThe World Awards were founded by writer Georg Kindel; Mikhail Gorbachev is their president. An international jury selects extraordinary individuals for their achievements in a variety of areas such as acting, arts, business, media, health and others....
also known as the "World Social Award" for "humanitarian relief work helping children and victims of war". - 2004 Man for Peace Award presented by Mikhail GorbachevMikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
for his "dedication to promote peace, the reconciliation of people and to condemn terrorism", the ceremony was held in Rome, Italy and attended by five Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
laureates. - (2005) Honorary DoctorateHonorary degreeAn honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
by the University of GloucestershireUniversity of GloucestershireThe University of Gloucestershire is a university primarily based in Gloucestershire, England, spread over four campuses, three in Cheltenham and one in Gloucester...
for services to education and humanitarian relief. - 4 January 2007, The Mediterranean Prize for Peace in Naples, Italy. The award was received "as a result of the work he has done to increase peace in the world."
- 10 July 2007, honorary doctorate (LLD) by the University of ExeterUniversity of ExeterThe University of Exeter is a public university in South West England. It belongs to the 1994 Group, an association of 19 of the United Kingdom's smaller research-intensive universities....
, in recognition of "his humanitarian work and improving understanding between Islamic and Western cultures". The ceremony was attended by esteemed personalities including ProfessorProfessorA professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Ekmeleddin IhsanogluEkmeleddin IhsanogluEkmeleddin İhsanoğlu is a Turkish academic, diplomat and currently the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation , the second largest intergovernmental organisation after the United Nations...
and guitarist Brian MayBrian MayBrian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...
. - 6 November 2009, Special Achievement Award of the German Sustainability Award.
Music awards and recognition
- 2005 Nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of FameRock and Roll Hall of FameThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
Friedman, Roger, Published 15 September 2005; Accessed 6 May 2006 Cat Stevens Nominated for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. - 20 October 2005, ASCAP named Songwriter of the Year and Song of the YearSong of the YearSong of the Year may refer to:* Dove Award for Song of the Year* Grammis Song of the Year* Grammy Award for Song of the Year* Latin Grammy Award for Song of the Year* Singing News Fan Awards for Song of the Year...
for "The First Cut Is the DeepestThe First Cut Is the Deepest"The First Cut Is the Deepest" is a 1967 song written by Cat Stevens, originally released by P. P. Arnold in the spring of 1967. Stevens' own version of the song is technically a cover, and originally appeared on his album New Masters in December 1967....
" - 8 June 2006, listed as #49 in PastePaste (magazine)Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
magazine's "100 Best Living Songwriters" - 11 October 2006, awarded Songwriter of the Year for the second year running, for the same song "The First Cut Is the DeepestThe First Cut Is the Deepest"The First Cut Is the Deepest" is a 1967 song written by Cat Stevens, originally released by P. P. Arnold in the spring of 1967. Stevens' own version of the song is technically a cover, and originally appeared on his album New Masters in December 1967....
" - 25 March 2007, received the German ECHO "special award for life achievements as musician and ambassador between cultures", Europe's Grammy, in Berlin
- 2008 Nominated for induction into the Songwriters Hall of FameSongwriters Hall of FameThe Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online...
See also
- List of best-selling music artists
- List of converts to Islam
- Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Further reading
- Cat Stevens Complete Illustrated Biography & Discography by George Brown, 2006 (finalist for the award for "Best Research in Recorded Rock Music" from the Association for Recorded Sound CollectionsAssociation for Recorded Sound CollectionsThe Association for Recorded Sound Collections as stated on their website, was "founded in 1966 [and] is a non-profit organization dedicated to research, study, publication, and information exchange surrounding all aspects of recordings and recorded sound."...
). - My Journey From Cat Stevens to Yusuf Islam By Yusuf Islam (Mountain of Light, 2001 Autobiographical account published by Mountain of Light in 2001.
- Cat Stevens biography by Chris Charlesworth (Proteus, 1985)
- Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, (a German language biography) by Albert Eigner Hannibal Verlag GmbH, 2006)
- Cat Stevens Breaks His Silence Rolling Stone article, 14 June 2000
- Billboard Q&A with Yusuf Islam November 2006
- New York Times Magazine Q&A with Yusuf Islam January 2007
- Roadsinger album demo
External links
- Yusuf Islam's official website
- Small Kindness, Yusuf Islam's charity
- Mountain of Light, Yusuf Islam's spiritual website