Yusuf

Cat Stevens was born Steven Demetre Georgiou to a Greek father and Sweden mother who had a restaurant business, in London. During his college years, the young man grew fond of folk and rock-n-roll music. In 1965, he started performing under the name of Steve Adams. In a short while, the beginner’s demo tape brought his a contract with a respectable label. The musician’s debut single, I Love My Dog, made the British charts in October 1966. By that time, Steven had taken up the stage name that would accompany him for decades. The second single, Matthew & Son, appeared second the chart-topper. Titled the same, Steven’s debut album soon saw light of days. The musician was quick to gain the reputation of a highly skilled song writer and established cooperation with many other performers.

Steven’s career seemed to rise speedily, but in March 1968, the artist fell ill with tuberculosis, which resulted in a year of recovery. His coming back to the stage in 1969 was far from triumphant. The single Where Are You looked miserable against its powerful predecessors. In 1970, the artist issued another studio album that received the title Mona Bone Jakon and, being promoted with the single Lady D'Arbanville, entered the UK charts. The following record, Tea for the Tillerman, did not become a sensation on the musician’s home soil, but made him a top level star in the States. Soon, Stevens delivered a new long player, Teaser and the Firecat, an immediate gold seller in America. Later, many old and new songs by the artist were picked up for the soundtrack to the black comedy Harold and Maude, released in 1972 to great commercial success. Shortly after, Cat hit the stores with his fresh effort, Catch Bull at Four. Compared to the earlier works, this was a more rock-oriented, harder material that turned put the best seller in the musician’s entire career. In the USA, it topped the charts and stood a step away from the peak in the UK. In 1973, Cat Stevens left England and relocated to Brazil due to some troubles with taxation inspection back in the UK. He committed the assets that he did not pay as taxes to the charity projects. Cat reduced his concert activity significantly and became much less eager to share interviews.

In spring 1974, Stevens released his new studio album, Buddha and the Chocolate Box. The artist admitted to having more ad more troubles with finding new and interesting ideas. These words were proved by the performance of his following work, (1975). Although, it remained among the charts-leaders for a long time and earned the golden status, the critics noticed obvious signs of Steven’s creativity decline. Delivered in 1977, Izitso raised good funds only thank to the artist’s name on the artwork. In December 1977, Cat Stevens turned Muslim and officially became Yusuf Islam. Despite this crucial event, later in the same month, stores offered the artist’s eleventh effort, Back to Earth, with his previous name on the cover. After that, he married and became a father of five children.

Yusuf arranged an auction to sell off his possessions and founded a Muslim school in London. For about ten years, he did not make big news, until he stepped forward to defend radical measures taken by a row of Muslim prominent figures. This caused many radio stations to exclude his songs out of their airplays, yet it did not affect the never fading popularity of Islam’s music. In 2000, Yusuf went on a promotional tour after the re-release of his old works in the USA. In 2006, thirty years after the issuance of Cat Steven’s last album, Islam recorded a brand new long player, An Other Cup. In March 2009, the artist's new song Thinking 'Bout You surfaced in the radio airplay marking the approaching of his fresh full-length album, Roadsinger.