Cat Stevens

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Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam
Background information
Birth name	Steven Demetre Georgiou
Born	July 21, 1948 (age 58)
Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	Pop, Folk
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s)	Vocals, Guitar, Spanish guitar, Ovation Guitar, Classical Guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, Piano, Electric Piano, electric piano, Keyboards, electric mandolin, organ, synthesizer, penny whistle, drums, percussion, Bass, Polymoog, Bouzouki, Harpsichord
Years active	1966-1978, 2006-Present
Label(s)	Island Records, A&M, Polydor, Mountain of Light, Jamal
Website	CatStevens.com YusufIslam.org.uk

Yusuf Islam ^[1] (born Steven Demetre Georgiou on 21 July 1948 in London) performed under the name Cat Stevens from 1966 to 1978. He is a English musician, singer-songwriter, educator, philanthropist, and a prominent convert to Islam.

Under the name Cat Stevens he has sold over 60 million albums around the world from the late 60s to the present day. His albums Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat were both certified by the RIAA as having achieved Triple Platinum status in the United States (3 million sales each); his album Catch Bull at Four sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release and was Billboard's #1 LP for three consecutive weeks. His songwriting has also earned him two ASCAP songwriting awards (for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", which has been a hit single for four different artists.)

At the height of his fame, Stevens decided to become a convert to Islam in 1977 and in 1978 adopted the name Yusuf Islam, leaving his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. As a high-profile voice for Islam, he caused controversy in 1989 with public statements that were widely interpreted as support for the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, an interpretation which he has denied. In 2006 he returned to pop music, with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup. He has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2004 Man for Peace award and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. He lives with his wife, Fauzia Mubarak Ali and five children in London and spends part of each year in Dubai.^[2]

Contents 1 Early life (1948 - 1965) 2 Musical Career (1966 - 1978) 2.1 Early musical career 2.2 Comeback after tuberculosis 2.3 Success 2.4 Conversion to Islam 3 Life as Yusuf Islam (1978 - present) 3.1 Muslim faith and musical career 3.2 Salman Rushdie controversy 3.3 September 11th attacks 3.4 Denial of entry into the United States 3.4.1 Libel case victory 3.5 Return to music 3.5.1 An Other Cup 4 Awards 5 Discography 5.1 As Cat Stevens 5.2 As Yusuf Islam 5.3 Compilations 6 See also 7 Notes and references 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit] Early life (1948 - 1965)

Steven Georgiou was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father (Stavros Georgiou) and a Swedish mother (Ingrid Wickman). The family lived above Moulin Rouge, the restaurant that his parents operated on Shaftesbury Avenue, a few steps from Piccadilly Circus in the Soho area of London. All of the family, including Steven, worked in the restaurant.

Although his father was Greek Orthodox and his mother a Baptist, Steven was sent to a Catholic school, St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School in Macklin Street.

When Steven was about eight years old, his parents divorced, but they both continued to run the restaurant and live above it. At age 12 Steven, who already played piano, began to play guitar and write songs. A few years later his mother returned with him to Gävle, Sweden, where he started developing his drawing skills, influenced by his uncle Hugo, a painter.

At age 16, he left school and was accepted, then later dismissed from, Hammersmith Art School. Although he enjoyed art — his later record albums would feature his original artwork on the covers — Steven wanted to establish a musical career. It was during this period he was first influenced by folk music.^[3]

[edit] Musical Career (1966 - 1978)

[edit] Early musical career

He began to perform his songs in coffee houses and pubs. Thinking that his Greek name might not be memorable as a stage name - "I couldn't imagine anyone going to the record store and asking for that Stephen Demetre Georgiou album. And in England, and I was sure in America, they loved animals."^[4] - he started calling himself Cat Stevens, reportedly chosen because a girlfriend said he had eyes like a cat. 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, "I Love My Dog" and "Matthew and Son" (the title song from his debut album, released in the beginning of 1967) reached Britain's Top 10, and the album Matthew and Son itself began charting.

Over the next two years, Stevens recorded and toured - with artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Engelbert Humperdinck - and Cat Stevens was considered a teen pop sensation, 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 played his records. (In August 1967, he went on the air with other recording artists who had benefited from the pirate station to mourn its closure.)

His December 1967 album New Masters failed to chart in the United Kingdom; but the album is now most notable for his song "The First Cut Is the Deepest" which has become an international hit for P.P. Arnold, Rod Stewart and Sheryl Crow, and has won several song-writing awards.

Stevens was living a fast-moving pop-star life and in early 1968 at the age of nineteen, he became very ill with life-threatening tuberculosis. During several months in the hospital and a year of convalescence, Stevens began to question aspects of his life, took up meditation, read about other religions and became a vegetarian.^[5] In that time, as part of his spiritual awakening and questioning, he wrote as many as 40 songs which were much more introspective than his previous work. Many of those songs were to appear on his albums in years to come.^[6]

[edit] Comeback after tuberculosis

Now healthy, armed with a new perspective on what he wanted to bring to the world with his music, and a catalog of introspective songs, the stage was set for international stardom. He landed a new record contract with an American distribution deal in 1970, signing with Island Records (then rival A&M Records in North America), and released Mona Bone Jakon, a folk-based album that was much different from his more "pop" style earlier records, drawing on his new, introspective work. The album featured the songs "Lady D'Arbanville" that was written for Stevens' girlfriend at the time, actress Patti D'Arbanville; "Pop Star", about his experience as a teen star; and "Katmandu", featuring Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel playing flute. Mona Bone Jakon was an early example of the solo singer-songwriter album that would later become very popular for other artists as well.

It was followed by Stevens' international breakthrough album, Tea for the Tillerman, which became a number-one Billboard hit and reached Gold record status within six months of release (at least 500,000 sales) in the United States and in Britain, combining Stevens' new folk style with accessible lyrics that spoke of everyday situations and problems, mixed with some spiritual imagery. Tea for the Tillerman features the top-10 single "Wild World", "Hard-Headed Woman", and "Father and Son", a unique, double-voiced, autobiographical, song. In 2001 this album was certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as a Multi-Platinum record, meaning it had sold 3 million copies in the United States at that time.^[7] It is included at #206^[8] in Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 listing of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

With the success of Tea for the Tillerman, Stevens no longer was opening for other acts on tour - he launched his own tour and became a super-star. During this time he was romantically linked to singer Carly Simon whose song "Anticipation" was written about Stevens.^[9]

[edit] Success

Having established a signature sound, Stevens enjoyed a string of successes over the following years. The Teaser and the Firecat LP album (1971) reached #2 and achieved Gold record status within three weeks of its release in the US. It yielded several hits, including "Peace Train", "Morning Has Broken" (a cover of a Christian hymn with lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon), and "Moonshadow". This album was also certified by the RIAA as a Multi-Platinum record in 2001, with over 3 million US sales up until then.

Speaking on a Boston radio station, Stevens said about Teaser:

"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."^[10]

Also in 1971, several of his songs were used in the soundtrack to the movie Harold and Maude, including at least one that had not been on any album prior to its inclusion on a second "greatest hits" collection many years later. Harold and Maude would go on to become a cult hit, popular for decades, bringing Stevens' music to a wide audience, long after he stopped recording.

His next album, Catch Bull at Four, released in 1972, was his most rapidly successful album - reaching Gold record status in 15 days, and holding the #1 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. The single "Sitting" was released off of this album, and charted at #16. Catch Bull at Four was Platinum certified in 2001.

Subsequent releases in the 1970s also did well on the charts and in ongoing sales; his final album under the name Cat Stevens was Back to Earth, released in late 1978. Several compilation albums were released before and after he stopped recording; the most successful of which 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^[11] from the IFPI for Remember Cat Stevens, The Ultimate Collection, indicating over one million European sales.

In 1977, Stevens secured his last chart hit with "(Remember The Days Of The) Old Schoolyard", a duet with fellow UK singer Elkie Brooks although she remains uncredited on the release.^[12]

[edit] Conversion to Islam

When Stevens nearly drowned in an accident in Malibu in 1975,^[13] he reports having pleaded with God to save him. Stevens described the event in a VH1 interview some years later: "I suddenly held myself and I said, 'Oh God! If you save me, I'll work for you.'" The near-death experience intensified his long-held quest for spiritual truth. He had looked into Buddhism "Zen and I Ching, numerology, tarot cards and astrology",^[14] but when his brother David gave him a copy of the Qur'an, Stevens began to find peace with himself and began his transition to Islam.

He formally converted to the Islamic faith in 1977 and took the name Yusuf Islam in 1978,^[15] saying that he "always loved the name Joseph" and was particularly drawn to the story of Joseph in the Qur'an. ^[16][17]

He made his last musical appearance at The Year of The Child concert in Wembley Stadium, on November 22, 1979.

[edit] Life as Yusuf Islam (1978 - present)

[edit] Muslim faith and musical career

Following his conversion, Yusuf Islam abandoned his career as a pop star. Song and the use of musical instruments is an area of debate in Muslim jurisprudence, considered Harām by some, and is the primary reason he gave for retreating from the pop spotlight. At one point he wrote to the record companies asking that his music no longer be distributed, but his request was denied.

He decided to use the continuing wealth he earns from his music career^[18] on philanthropic and educational causes in the Muslim community of London and elsewhere. In 1981 he founded the Islamia Primary School in Salisbury Road in the north London area of Kilburn; after that he founded several Islamic secondary schools, and devoted his energy to providing an Islamic education to children and to charitable causes. He founded, and is 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.^[19] He also was Chair of the charity Muslim Aid from 1985 to 1993.^[20]

In 1985, Yusuf Islam decided to return to the public spotlight for the first time since his religious conversion at the historic Live Aid concert, inspired by 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. ^[21]

[edit] Salman Rushdie controversy

On February 21, 1989 Yusuf Islam addressed students at Kingston University in London about his journey to Islam and was asked about the controversy in the Muslim world and the fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie's execution. He claims to have only stated the legal consequences from the Qur'an - that blasphemy is a capital offense - and not actually have made any claims of support for the fatwa. Newspapers quickly denounced Yusuf Islam's support for a possible assassination of Rushdie. The next day he released a statement saying that he was not personally encouraging anybody towards vigilantism.^[22]

However, on May 23, 1989, the New York Times reported on comments Yusuf Islam had made on a British television courtroom-style program, Hypotheticals,^[23] in an episode ("A Satanic Scenario") that had already been recorded to be broadcast the following week, and that Islam had in a later interview reaffirmed the comments he made:

[Rather than go to a demonstration to burn an effigy of the author Salman Rushdie] I would have hoped that it'd be the real thing.^[24]

[If Rushdie turned up at my doorstep looking for help] I might ring somebody who might do more damage to him than he would like. I'd try to phone the Ayatollah Khomeini and tell him exactly where this man is.^[24]

On March 8 1989, while speaking in London's Regents Park Mosque, when asked by a Christian Science Monitor reporter how he would "cope with the idea of killing a writer for writing a book" he is reported to have replied:

In Islam there is a line between let's say freedom and the line which is then transgressed into immorality and irresponsibility and I think as far as this writer is concerned, unfortunately, he has been irresponsible with his freedom of speech. Salman Rushdie or indeed any writer who abuses the prophet, or indeed any prophet, under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death. It's got to be seen as a deterrent, so that other people should not commit the same mistake again.^[25]

He added that if Rushdie should manage to escape the death sentence he would still have to "face God on the day of judgement."^[25]

He has never retracted his statements about Rushdie, but, in a 2000 Rolling Stone^[26] interview, he was asked to explain his position on the fatwa controversy and said:

I'm very sad that this seems to be the No. 1 question people want to discuss. I had nothing to do with the issue other than what the media created. I was innocently drawn into the whole controversy. So, after many years, I'm glad at least now that I have been given the opportunity to explain to the public and fans my side of the story in my own words. At a lecture, back in 1989, I was asked a question about blasphemy according to Islamic Law, I simply repeated the legal view according to my limited knowledge of the Scriptural texts, based directly on historical commentaries of the Qur'an. The next day the newspaper headlines read, "Cat Says, Kill Rushdie." I was abhorred, but what could I do? I was a new Muslim. If you ask a Bible student to quote the legal punishment of a person who commits blasphemy in the Bible, he would be dishonest if he didn't mention Leviticus 24:16^[27].

Furthermore, he states his position on his personal spiritual website, starting as follows^[28]:

I never called for the death of Salman Rushdie; nor backed the Fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini - and still don’t. The book itself destroyed the harmony between peoples and created an unnecessary international crisis.

When asked about my opinion regarding blasphemy, I could not tell a lie and confirmed that - like both the Torah and the Gospel - the Qur’an considers it, without repentance, as a capital offense. The Bible is full of similar harsh laws if you’re looking for them^[29]. However, the application of such Biblical and Qur’anic injunctions is not to be outside of due process of law, in a place or land where such law is accepted and applied by the society as a whole...

There was backlash over the Rushdie incident at the time, including the band 10,000 Maniacs, who had recorded "Peace Train" on their 1987 In My Tribe album, deleting the song from subsequent pressings of their album as a protest against the remarks he made.

[edit] September 11th attacks

Yusuf Islam immediately and vehemently spoke out against the 11th of September 2001 attacks on the United States, saying:

"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."^[30]

He appeared on videotape on a VH-1 pre-show for the October 2001 Concert for New York City condemning the attacks and singing an a cappella version of his song Peace Train for the first time in public in more than twenty years. He also donated half of his box-set royalties to the September 11 Fund for victims' families, and the other half to orphans in underdeveloped countries.

[edit] Denial of entry into the United States

On 21 September 2004 Yusuf Islam was traveling on a United Airlines flight from London to Washington, en route to a meeting with singer Dolly Parton who had recorded a cover of "Peace Train" several years earlier and was planning to include another Cat Stevens song on an upcoming album. While the plane was in flight, the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System flagged his name as being on a no-fly list. Customs agents alerted the Transportation Security Administration, which then diverted his flight to Bangor, Maine, where he was detained by the FBI.

The following day, Yusuf Islam was deported back to the United Kingdom. The United States Transportation Security Administration claimed there were "concerns of ties he may have to potential terrorist-related activities." The United States Department of Homeland Security specifically alleged that Islam had provided funding to the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas, although it did not offer any proof of its allegation, nor has any turned up, as evidenced by the fact that Islam was admitted without incident into the United States in December 2006 for several radio concert performances and interviews to promote his new record.^[31]

Yusuf Islam's 2004 deportation provoked a small international controversy and led British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to complain personally to Secretary of State Colin Powell at the United Nations. Powell responded by stating that the watch list was under review, and added, "I think we have that obligation to review these matters to see if we are right."

Yusuf Islam believes his inclusion on the 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 Islam was reported to have requested the removal of his name and stated, "I remain bewildered by the decision of the US authorities to refuse me entry to the United States."^[32] According to a statement by Islam, the man on the list was named "Youssef Islam", indicating that Yusuf Islam himself was not the suspected terror supporter.^[16]

[edit] Libel case victory

As a footnote to the actions taken by the U.S. government in deporting Yusuf Islam as a suspected terrorist, The Sun and The Sunday Times British newspapers had published reports in October 2004 which stated that the U.S. was correct in its action. As a result Yusuf Islam sued for libel, and received a substantial out-of-court, "agreed settlement" and apology from the newspapers.^[33] Both newspapers acknowledged that Yusuf Islam has never supported terrorism and that, to the contrary, he had recently been given a Man for Peace award from the private Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Committee.

Yusuf Islam 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 recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean.^[33]

Yusuf Islam wrote about the experience in a newspaper article titled "A Cat in a Wild World".^[34]

[edit] Return to music

For several years during the 1990s, Yusuf Islam made recordings featuring lyrics about Islamic themes accompanied only by basic percussion instruments, which he felt were acceptable to his faith. In the late 1990s, he was featured as a guest singer of "God is the Light" on an album by the Nasheed group, Raihan. He produced a children's album in 2000 called A is for Allah after realizing there were few materials designed to educate children about Islam.^[35] He also established the record label called Mountain of Light Productions that donates a percentage of its proceeds to Islam's Small Kindness charity.

On the occasion of the 2000 re-release of his Cat Stevens albums, Yusuf explained that the reason why he had stopped performing in English was due to his own 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][36], that was perhaps my mistake."^[35]

In 2003, after repeated encouragement from within the Muslim world, Yusuf Islam once again recorded the song "Peace Train" for a compilation CD which also included performances by David Bowie and Paul McCartney. He also performed "Wild World" in Nelson Mandela's 46664 concert with his former session player Peter Gabriel, for which he publicly performed in English for the first time in twenty-five years. In December 2004, he and Ronan Keating released a new version of "Father and Son". It debuted at number two, behind Band Aid 20's "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The proceeds of "Father and Son" were donated to the Band Aid charity. Keating's former group, Boyzone, had a hit with a cover version of the song a decade earlier. In a 2005 press release, he explains his revived recording career:

After I embraced Islam many people told me to carry on composing and recording but at the time I was hesitant for fear that it might be for the wrong reasons. I felt unsure what the right course of action was. I guess it is only now after all these years that I've come to fully understand and appreciate what everyone has been asking of me. It's as if I've come full circle - however, I have gathered a lot of knowledge on the subject in the meantime.^[37]

In early 2005, Yusuf Islam 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 Islam's Small Kindness charity. At first, the single was only released through several online music stores but later highlighted the compilation album entitled Cat Stevens: Gold.

On 28 May 2005 Yusuf Islam delivered a keynote speech and performed at the Adopt-A-Minefield Gala in Düsseldorf. The Adopt-A-Minefield charity, under the patronage of Sir Paul McCartney, works internationally to raise awareness and funds to clear landmines and rehabilitate landmine survivors. Yusuf Islam attended as part of an honorary committee which also included Sir George Martin, Sir Richard Branson, Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Klaus Voormann, Christopher Lee and others.^[38]

In mid-2005, Yusuf Islam played guitar for the Dolly Parton album of cover songs entitled, Those Were The Days, on her version of his "Where Do The Children Play".

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 Islam, his brother, 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 excerpts of him on guitar, today, singing a few verses of old Cat Stevens songs including "The Wind" and "On the Road to Find Out". ^[39]

In numerous interviews Yusuf has credited his 21 year old son Muhammad Islam, also a musician and artist, for his father's return to secular music, when he brought a guitar back into the house which Yusuf began playing again.^[40] Muhammad's professional name is "Yoriyos"^[41] and his debut album was released in February 2007.^[42] Yoriyos is also credited with the artwork on Yusuf's album An Other Cup.

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".

On 11 December 2006, Yusuf was one of the artists that 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".

[edit] An Other Cup

Main article: An Other Cup

In March 2006, Billboard magazine^[43] reported Yusuf Islam had finished recording his first all new pop album since 1978. The album, An Other Cup, 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 was simultaneously released from the album, called "Heaven/Where True Love Goes". The album was produced with Rick Nowels, who has worked with Dido and Rod Stewart and the artist is listed as "Yusuf", with a cover label identifying him as "the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens". The artwork on the album is credited to Yoriyos. Yusuf Islam wrote all of the songs except "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood",^[44] and recorded it in both the United States and the United Kingdom.^[43] Speaking about the album, David Joseph, co-president of Polydor, said: "Yusuf is one of the most unique artists the UK has ever produced. The new album is sensational and will prove to be one of the biggest musical highlights of the year. His voice and melody are totally timeless."^[45]

Yusuf is actively promoting this album, appearing on radio and television and in print interviews. He was interviewed by the BBC in November 2006 and is quoted as saying, "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." ^[46]

Asked in a November 2006 Billboard magazine interview^[47] about why the artist is credited as "Yusuf" rather than "Yusuf Islam", he said, "Because 'Islam' doesn't have to be sloganized. 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 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."^[47]

And speaking on CBS Sunday Morning in December 2006, Yusuf Islam 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, go a bit deeper, you'll find him." ^[48]

[edit] Awards

Cat Stevens was nominated to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, but not voted in. ^[49][50]

On 10 November 2004, Yusuf Islam was presented with a Man for Peace award by the private foundation of former USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev, 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 Prize laureates. A year later, on 4 November 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Gloucestershire for services to education and humanitarian relief.^[51] In October 2003 he received the World Social Award for "humanitarian relief work helping children and victims of war".^[52]

On 20 October 2005, Yusuf Islam was named ASCAP's Songwriter of the Year and received Song of the Year honours for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", at a special presentation in London. At the ceremony, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) honoured the top British writer and publisher members of the UK's Performing Rights Society.^[53]

On 11 October 2006, Yusuf Islam was named Songwriter of the Year for the second year running and received another award for the same song "The First Cut Is the Deepest".^[54]

On 4 January 2007, Yusuf Islam was awarded the Mediterranean Prize for Peace in Naples, Italy. He received the award "as a result of the work he has done to increase peace in the world".^[55]

On 25 March 2007, he received the German ECHO "special award for life achievements as musician and ambassador between cultures" in Berlin^[56].

[edit] Discography

See also Cat Stevens Albums

[edit] As Cat Stevens

• 1967: Matthew and Son
• 1967: New Masters
• 1970: Mona Bone Jakon
• 1970: Tea for the Tillerman
• 1971: Teaser and the Firecat
• 1972: Catch Bull at Four
• 1973: Foreigner
• 1974: Buddha and the Chocolate Box
• 1974: Saturnight (Live in Tokyo)
• 1975: Numbers
• 1977: Izitso
• 1978: Back to Earth
• 1984: Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
• 2004: Majikat

[edit] As Yusuf Islam

• 1995: The Life of the Last Prophet
• 1999: Prayers of the Last Prophet
• 2000: A is for Allah
• 2003: I Look I See
• 2005: Indian Ocean
• 2006: Footsteps In The Light
• 2006: An Other Cup

[edit] Compilations

• 1975: Greatest Hits
• 2000: The Very Best of Cat Stevens
• 2001: Cat Stevens Box Set
• 2005: Gold

[edit] See also

• List of best-selling music artists
• List of converts to Islam
• List of ex-Christians

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] Further reading

• Cat Stevens Breaks His Silence Rolling Stone article, June 14, 2000
• Billboard Q&A with Yusuf Islam November 2006
• New York Times Magazine Q&A with Yusuf Islam January 2007
• Yusuf Islam: Short Bio
• Exclusive video interview with Cat Stevens The Hour, January 3, 2007.

[edit] External links

• Cat Stevens at the Internet Movie Database
• Cat Stevens at the Notable Names Database
• Cat Stevens Official Myspace page
• Yusuf Islam Official Myspace page
• Yusuf Islam Official website
• Small Kindness Yusuf Islam's charity
• Mountain of Light Yusuf Islam's spiritual homepage

Cat Stevens
Discography
Studio albums: Matthew and Son | New Masters | Mona Bone Jakon | Tea for the Tillerman | Teaser and the Firecat | Catch Bull at Four | Foreigner | Buddha and the Chocolate Box | Saturnight (Live in Tokyo) | Numbers | Izitso | Back to Earth | Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 | Majikat
Yusuf Islam: The Life of the Last Prophet | Prayers of the Last Prophet | A is for Allah | I Look I See | Indian Ocean | Footsteps In The Light | An Other Cup
Compilations: Greatest Hits | The Very Best of Cat Stevens | Cat Stevens Box Set | Gold
Related articles
Folk music | God
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Persondata
NAME	Yusuf Islam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Georgiou, Stephen Demetre (birth name); Cat Stevens (pseudonym 1965-1978); Yusuf (today's pseudonym)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	English Singer-Songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH	July 25, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH	London, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH