WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories^[1] which participate in the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) global cooperative. It is built and maintained collectively by the participating libraries.

History[link]

The catalog was created in 1971 and, as of April 2012^[update], it contains more than 264 million different records pointing to over 1.83 billion physical and digital assets in more than 470 languages.^[1] It is the world's largest bibliographic database. OCLC makes WorldCat itself available free to libraries, but the catalog is the foundation for other fee-based OCLC services (such as resource sharing and collection management). WorldCat was founded by Fred Kilgour in 1967.^[2]

In 2003, OCLC began the "Open WorldCat" pilot program, making abbreviated records from a subset of WorldCat available to partner Web sites and booksellers, to increase the accessibility of its member libraries' collections. In 2006, it became possible to search WorldCat directly at its website. In 2007, WorldCat Identities began providing pages for 20 million "identities", predominantly authors and persons who are the subjects of published titles.

Limitations[link]

WorldCat operates on a batch processing model rather than a real-time model. That is, WorldCat records are synchronized only at intermittent intervals with the underlying library catalogs instead of real-time or even every day. WorldCat merely shows that a particular item is listed in the catalog of a library, but cannot indicate if the item has been borrowed and is therefore unavailable for access by other patrons right now. As a partial workaround, WorldCat allows participating institutions to add direct links to WorldCat to their catalog entries for a particular item, but this is not as convenient as being able to view current status for all institutions owning an item on a single Web page.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Wendy M. Grossman (21 January 2009). "Why you can't find a library book in your search engine: Finding a book at your local library should just involve a simple web search; but thanks to a US cataloguing site, that is far from the case". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/22/library-search-engines-books. 

External links[link]

• Official website
• OCLC - "Web scale" discovery and delivery of library resources
• WorldCat Identities

Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens in Böblingen, Germany in 1976
Background information
Birth name	Steven Demetre Georgiou
Also known as	Steve Adams, Yusuf
Born	(1948-07-21) 21 July 1948 (age 63) Marylebone, London, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Folk rock, psychedelic rock,[1] soft rock,[1] pop rock,[1] synthpop,[2] electro,[3] nasheed, spoken word, hamd
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass, mandolin, organ, piano, mellotron, double bass, percussion
Years active	1966–1980 (as Cat Stevens) 1995–present (as Yusuf Islam)
Labels	Deram, Island, A&M, Jamal, Ya
Associated acts	Alun Davies
Website	www.yusufislam.com
Notable instruments
Baldwin piano Epiphone Casino Fender Rhodes Fender Telecaster Gibson Everly Brothers Flattop Gibson ES-335 Gibson J-200

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.^[4]

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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[7]

Stevens converted to Islam in December 1977^[8] and adopted the name Yusuf Islam the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars for charity^[9] 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.^[10][11] His most recent album, Roadsinger, was released on 5 May 2009.

Early life (1948–1965)[link]

Steven Georgiou, born in Marylebone, London, England,^[12] was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou (b. 1900),^[13] and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (b. 1915).^[14] He has an older sister, Anita, and brother, David.^[12] 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.^[12] 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.^[15] 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.^[16] Inspired by the popularity of The Beatles, at age 15 he extended his interest to the guitar,^[8] convinced his father to pay £8 for his first instrument, and began playing it and writing songs.^[16] 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^[12] from Denmark Street, which was then the centre of the British music industry.^[8] Later, Stevens has emphasised 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.^[17] 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.^[18]

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".^[19] He went on to take a one-year course of study at Hammersmith School of Art,^[20] as he considered a career as a cartoonist. Though he enjoyed art (his later record albums would feature his original artwork on his album covers),^[19] he wanted to establish a musical career and began to perform originally under the stage name "Steve Adams" in 1965 while at Hammersmith.^[20][21] 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,^[22] John Lennon, Biff Rose (who played on his first album), Leo Kottke,^[19] and Paul Simon.^[23] 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".^[24]

Musical career (1966–1970)[link]

Early musical career[link]

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.^[16] Thinking that his given name might not be memorable to prospective fans, he chose 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."^[25] 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 number 28, and "Matthew and Son", the title song from his debut album, went to number 2.^[26] "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.

	"The First Cut is the Deepest" (1967) noicon Sample of "The First Cut is the Deepest", performed by Cat Stevens. Appears on New Masters.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

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.^[27] 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.^[28]

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,^[29] 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.^[30][31]

Tuberculosis[link]

Stevens contracted tuberculosis in 1969^[19][32] and was close to death at the time of his admittance to the King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst;^[32] he spent months recuperating in the 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."^[26]

He took up meditation, yoga, and metaphysics;^[33] read about other religions; and became a vegetarian.^[25] As a result of his serious illness and long convalescence,^[33] 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.^[9]

Changes in musical sound after illness[link]

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 orchestration, and over-production,^[23] 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.^[26] 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".^[33] With Krost's recommendation, Stevens signed with Paul Samwell-Smith, previously the bassist of the Yardbirds, to be his new producer.^[34]

Musical career (1970–1978)[link]

Height of popularity[link]

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 Records 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.

Producer Paul Samwell-Smith paired Stevens with guitarist Alun Davies, who was currently working as a session musician. 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 with Stevens in particular for his "fingerwork" on the guitar, harmonising and his backing vocals. They originally met just to record Mona Bone Jakon,^[35] but developed a fast friendship. Davies, like Stevens, was a perfectionist,^[36] appearing after all the sound checks had been completed, just to be sure that all the equipment and sound were prepared for each concert.^[37] He collaborated with Stevens on all but two of the succeeding albums Stevens released, and performed and recorded with him until Stevens' retirement. Their friendship continued, however, and when Stevens re-emerged as Yusuf Islam after 27 years, Davies appeared again performing at his side, and has remained there.

	"Wild World" (1971) noicon Sample of "Wild World", performed by Cat Stevens. Appears on Tea for the Tillerman.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

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 djembes and bass in addition to Stevens' and Davies' guitars, reached number 8 in the UK. It was the first of his hits to get real airplay in the United States.^[26] It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold record in 1971.^[38] Other songs written for D'Arbanville included "Maybe You're Right", and "Just Another Night".^[39] 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".^[40]

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".^[23] 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.^[41] It is ranked at No. 206 in Rolling Stone Magazine's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".^[42]

	"Father and Son" (1970) noicon Sample of "Father and Son", performed by Cat Stevens. Appears on Tea for the Tillerman.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

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..."^[42]

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:

"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."^[43]

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".^[44][45][46]

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, utilising synthesisers 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 number 16. Catch Bull at Four was Platinum certified in 2001.

Exploration with movie soundtracks[link]

In July 1970, Stevens recorded one of his songs, "But I Might Die Tonight", for the Jerzy Skolimowski film Deep End.^[47] 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.^[17] This was followed in 2000 by the inclusion of "Peace Train" in the movie Remember the Titans,^[48] in 2000 by the use in Almost Famous of the song "The Wind",^[49] and in 2006 the inclusion of "Peace Train" on the soundtrack to We Are Marshall.^[50] 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.^[51] 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.). In 2010, the song "Wild World" was sung out by characters in the TV series Skins.

Later recordings[link]

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 exile from the United Kingdom, however, he later donated the money to UNESCO.^[52] 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 instruments 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.

	"Later" (1973) noicon Sample of "Later", performed by Cat Stevens. Appears on Foreigner.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

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.

In April 1977, his Izitso album updated his pop rock and folk rock style with the extensive use of synthesisers,^[53] giving it a more synthpop style.^[2] "Was Dog a Doughnut" in particular was an early techno-pop fusion track and a precursor to the 1980s electro music genre,^[3] making early use of a music sequencer.^[54] Izitso included his last chart hit, "(Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard", an early synthpop song^[2] that utilised a polyphonic synthesiser; it was a duet with fellow UK singer Elkie Brooks.^[54] 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 the few music videos that Stevens made, other than simple videos of concert performances.

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^[55] from the IFPI for Remember Cat Stevens, The Ultimate Collection, indicating over one million European sales.

Religious conversion[link]

Yusuf in 2008

While on holiday in Marrakech, Morocco, shortly after visiting Ibiza, Stevens was intrigued by the sound of the Aḏhān, 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!"^[56]

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".^[25] Stevens' brother David Gordon brought him a copy of the Qur'an as a birthday gift from a trip to Jerusalem.^[17] 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.^[34] Regarding his conversion, in his 2006 interview with Alan Yentob,^[57] 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."^[58]

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.^[34] 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.^[59] 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".^[59]

Yusuf married Fauzia Mubarak Ali on 7 September 1979,^[59] 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.^[10]

Life as Yusuf Islam (1978–present)[link]

Muslim faith and musical career[link]

Following his conversion, Yusuf abandoned his music career. When he became a Muslim in 1977, he said, the Imam 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,^[60] 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."^[15]

Estimating in January 2007 that he continues to earn approximately $1.5 million USD a year from his Cat Stevens music,^[61] 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. 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.^[62] He served as chairman of the charity Muslim Aid from 1985 to 1993.^[63]

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.^[64]

Salman Rushdie controversy[link]

The singer attracted controversy in 1989, during an address to students at London's Kingston University, 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.^[65] In the years since these comments, he has repeatedly denied ever calling for the death of Rushdie or supporting the fatwa.^[9][58]

11 September 2001 attacks[link]

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.^[66][67]

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.^[68] During the same year, Yusuf Islam dedicated time and effort in joining the Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism, an organisation that worked towards battling misperceptions and acts against others because of their religious beliefs or their racial identity (or both), 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.^[52]

Denial of entry into the United States[link]

On 21 September 2004, Yusuf was on a United Airlines 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.^[57] 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.^[69]

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".^[70] The Israeli government had deported Yusuf in 2000 over allegations that he provided funding to the Palestinian organisation Hamas;^[71] he denied doing so knowingly.^[72] "I have never knowingly supported or given money to Hamas," says Yusuf, who repeatedly has condemned terrorism and Islamic extremism.^[73] "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."^[72] However, the United States Department of Homeland Security added him to a "watch list".^[20] 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.^[74] 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".^[75]

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".^[76] 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.^[15] 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.^[77] 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."^[78]

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.^[79]

Libel cases[link]

British reports regarding inadmissibility to the U.S.[link]

In October 2004 the British newspapers The Sun 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.^[80]

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.^[80]

Yusuf wrote about the experience in a newspaper article titled "A Cat in a Wild World".^[81]

False rumour regarding unveiled women[link]

On 18 July 2008, Yusuf received substantial undisclosed damages from the World Entertainment News Network following their distribution of the false rumour that the singer did not speak to unveiled women.^[82] 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".^[83] 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",^[82] 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'".^[82][84] The offending news agency apologised, 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.^[83] The money from this lawsuit will go to Yusuf's Small Kindness Charity.^[82]

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."^[85]

Return to music[link]

Yusuf at the 2009 MOJO Awards in London.

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 Raihan. 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.^[86] 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^[87] 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.^[88]

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],^[89] that was perhaps my mistake."^[87]

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.^[34] 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.^[90]

In 2003, after repeated encouragement from within the Muslim world,^[91] 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..."^[92] 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.^[93] 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.^[90]

In a 2005 press release, he explained 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.^[91]

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 stores 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."^[95]

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.^[96]

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".^[57]

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.^[9] Muhammad's professional name is Yoriyos^[10][97] and his debut album was released in February 2007.^[98] 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.

	"I Think I See the Light" (2007) noicon Sample of "I Think I See the Light", performed by Yusuf Islam at BBC Sessions
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

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.^[99] In 2008 Yusuf contributed the song "Edge of Existence" to the charity album Songs for Survival, in support of the indigenous rights organisation 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 Klaus Voorman, who formerly collaborated with The Beatles. 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.^[100] Israeli Consul David Saranga criticised Yusuf for not dedicating the song to all the children who are victims of the violence, including Israeli children.^[101]

[edit] 2006: An Other Cup

In March 2006, Yusuf finished recording his first all-new pop album since 1978.^[102] 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, 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",^[103] and recorded it in the United States and the United Kingdom.^[102]

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."^[104] 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^[105] 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".^[95] His response was "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 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."^[95]

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."^[94]

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."^[9]

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.

[edit] 2009–present: Roadsinger, appearances and tours

In January 2009, Yusuf recorded a George Harrison 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 Harrison.^[106]

Performance 28 May 2009 at Shepherds Bush Empire, London for Island Records' 50th Anniversary

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.^[107] 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^[108] and to go on to Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto, as well as some to-be-announced European venues.^[10] 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.^[10] 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,^[109] and New Zealand for the first time ever.^[110]

On 30 October 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".^[111]

On 2 March 2011, Yusuf released his latest song, "My People", as a free download available through his official website, as well as numerous other online outlets.^[112] 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.^[113]

On 1 April 2011, Yusuf launched a new tour website (yusufinconcert.com) to commemorate his first European tour in over 36 years scheduled from 7 May to 2 June 2011. The ten-date tour visited Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and cities such as Stockholm, Hamburg, Oberhausen, Berlin, Munich, Rotterdam, Paris, Mannheim, Vienna and Brussels.^[114]

In May 2012, Moonshadow, a new musical by Yusuf, featuring music from throughout his career, will open at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne, Australia.^[115] The public can register on the musical's website (www.moonshadowthemusical.com.au) to receive updated news and information, including updates on ticket sales. According to the Theatre's website, "Through [Yusuf's] much loved songs and music, Moonshadow will take the audience on an incredible journey with a magical story of a young man and his moonshadow's struggle against the oncoming of darkness and the search for everlasting happiness".^[116]

Awards[link]

Philanthropic and humanitarian awards[link]

• 2003 World Award also known as the "World Social Award" for "humanitarian relief work helping children and victims of war".^[117]
• 2004 Man for Peace Award presented by 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.
• (2005) Honorary Doctorate by the University of Gloucestershire for services to education and humanitarian relief.^[118]
• 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."^[119]
• 10 July 2007, honorary doctorate (LLD) by the University of Exeter, in recognition of "his humanitarian work and improving understanding between Islamic and Western cultures".^[120][121]
• 6 November 2009, Special Achievement Award of the German Sustainability Award.

Music awards and recognition[link]

• 2005 Nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame^[122]
• 20 October 2005, ASCAP named Songwriter of the Year and Song of the Year for "The First Cut Is the Deepest"^[7]
• 8 June 2006, listed as number 49 in Paste magazine's "100 Best Living Songwriters"^[123]
• 11 October 2006, awarded Songwriter of the Year for the second year running, for the same song "The First Cut Is the Deepest"^[124]
• 25 March 2007, received the German ECHO "special award for life achievements as musician and ambassador between cultures", Europe's Grammy, in Berlin^[83]
• 2008 Nominated for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame^[125]

Discography[link]

(includes Yusuf discography)

See also[link]

• List of best-selling music artists
• List of converts to Islam
• Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

Notes and references[link]

Further reading[link]

1. 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 Collections).
2. My Journey From Cat Stevens to Yusuf Islam By Yusuf Islam (Mountain of Light, 2001 Autobiographical account published by Mountain of Light in 2001.
3. Cat Stevens biography by Chris Charlesworth (Proteus, 1985)
4. Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, (a German language biography) by Albert Eigner Hannibal Verlag GmbH, 2006)
5. Cat Stevens Breaks His Silence Rolling Stone article, 14 June 2000
6. Billboard Q&A with Yusuf Islam November 2006
7. New York Times Magazine Q&A with Yusuf Islam January 2007
8. Roadsinger album demo

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cat Stevens

• Official website
• Cat Stevens at the Internet Movie Database
• Small Kindness, Yusuf Islam's charity
• Mountain of Light, Yusuf Islam's spiritual website

Tori Amos
Tori Amos at the 2008 Comic-Con
Background information
Birth name	Myra Ellen Amos
Born	(1963-08-22) August 22, 1963 (age 48) Newton, North Carolina, United States
Genres	Piano rock, art pop, alternative rock, electronica
Occupations	Musician, vocalist, songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Piano, harpsichord, clavichord, Hammond organ, harmonium, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Kurzweil, clavinet, vocals
Years active	1986–present
Labels	Atlantic Epic Universal Republic Deutsche Grammophon
Associated acts	Y Kant Tori Read
Website	toriamos.com everythingtori.com
Notable instruments
Bösendorfer piano[1]

Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. Amos originally served as the lead singer of 1980s synthpop group Y Kant Tori Read, and as a solo artist was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s. She was also noteworthy early in her solo career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument. Some of her charting singles include "Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "God", "Cornflake Girl", "Caught a Lite Sneeze", "Professional Widow", "Spark", "1000 Oceans", and "A Sorta Fairytale", her most commercially successful single in the U.S. to date.^[2]

As of 2005, Amos had sold 12 million albums worldwide.^[3] She has been nominated for 8 Grammy Awards. Amos was also named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 1996.^[4]

Early life[link]

Amos was born in Newton, North Carolina. When she was two, her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she began to play the piano. By age five, she had begun composing instrumental pieces on piano and, while living in Rockville, Maryland, she won a full scholarship to the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music.^[5] Her scholarship was discontinued at age 11 and she was asked to leave. Amos has asserted that she lost the scholarship because of her interest in rock and popular music, coupled with her dislike for reading from sheet music.^[5] In 1972, The Amos family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, where her father, Reverend Edison Amos, became pastor of the Good Shepherd United Methodist church. At the age of 13 she began playing at gay bars and piano bars, chaperoned by her father.^[5][6]

Amos first came to local notice by winning a county teen talent contest in 1977, singing a song called "More Than Just a Friend". As a senior at Richard Montgomery High School, she co-wrote "Baltimore" with her brother Mike Amos for a competition involving the Baltimore Orioles. The song won the contest and became her first single, released as a 7" single pressed locally for family and friends during 1980 with another Amos-penned composition as a B-side, "Walking With You". Prior to this period she performed under her middle name, Ellen, but permanently adopted Tori after a friend's boyfriend told her it suited her.^[7] At age 21, Amos moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career after several years performing on the piano bar circuit of the D.C. area.^[8]

Atlantic years (1986–2001)[link]

Y Kant Tori Read[link]

In 1986, Amos formed a music group, Y Kant Tori Read, the name of which was a reference to her days at the Peabody Conservatory, where she was able to play songs on her piano by ear, but was never successful at sight reading.^[9] In addition to Amos, the group was composed of Steve Caton (who would later play guitars on all her subsequent albums until 1999), drummer Matt Sorum, bass player Brad Cobb and, for a short time, keyboardist Jim Tauber. Following several phases of writing and recording, during which Amos has since asserted that the band lost their musical edge and direction due to interference from record executives, in July 1988, the Y Kant Tori Read's self-titled debut album was released. Although its producer, Joe Chiccarelli, has stated that Amos was very happy with the album at the time,^[10] it is now out of print and Amos has expressed no interest in reissuing it.^[11] Following the album's commercial failure and the group's subsequent disbanding, Amos began working with other artists (including Stan Ridgway, Sandra Bernhard, and Al Stewart) as a backup vocalist. She also recorded a song called "Distant Storm" for the film China O'Brien; in the credits, the song is attributed to a band called Tess Makes Good.^[12] It was the only song recorded by the band, and its only commercial release was in the film.

Solo career[link]

Despite the disappointing reaction to Y Kant Tori Read, Amos still had to comply with her six-record contract with Atlantic Records, who in 1989 wanted a new record by March 1990. The initial recordings were declined by the label, which Amos felt was because the album had not been properly presented.^[13] The album was reworked and expanded under the guidance of Doug Morris and the musical talents of Steve Caton, Eric Rosse, Will MacGregor, Carlo Nuccio, and Dan Nebenzal, resulting in Little Earthquakes, an album recounting her religious upbringing, sexual awakening, struggle to establish her identity, and sexual assault. This album became her commercial and artistic breakthrough.

Amos traveled to New Mexico with personal and professional partner Eric Rosse in 1993 to write and largely record her second solo record, Under the Pink. The album was received with mostly favorable reviews and sold enough copies to chart at #12 on the Billboard 200, a significantly higher position than the preceding album's position at #54 on the same chart.^[14]

Amos performing on her Dew Drop Inn tour in 1996

Her third solo album, Boys for Pele, was released in January 1996. The album was recorded in an Irish church, in Delgany, County Wicklow, with Amos taking advantage of the church recording setting to create an album ripe with baroque influences, lending it a darker sound and style. She added harpsichord, harmonium, and clavichord to her keyboard repertoire, and also included such anomalies as a gospel choir, bagpipes, church bells, and drum programming. The album garnered mixed reviews upon its release, with some critics praising its intensity and uniqueness while others bemoaned its comparative impenetrability. Despite the album's erratic lyrical content and instrumentation, the latter of which kept it away from mainstream audiences, Boys for Pele is Amos's most successful simultaneous transatlantic release, reaching #2 on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Top 40 upon its release at the height of her fame.^[15][16]

Fueled by the desire to have her own recording studio to distance herself from record company executives,^[17] Amos had the barn of her home in Cornwall converted into a state-of-the-art recording studio, Martian Engineering Studios.

From the Choirgirl Hotel and To Venus and Back, released in May 1998 and September 1999, respectively, differ greatly from previous albums as Amos's trademark acoustic piano-based sound is largely replaced with arrangements that include elements of electronica, dance music, vocal washes and sonic landscapes. The underlying themes of both albums deal with womanhood, and Amos's own miscarriages and marriage. Reviews for From the Choirgirl Hotel were mostly favorable and praised Amos's continued artistic originality. While not her highest chart debut, debut sales for From the Choirgirl Hotel are Amos's best to date, selling 153,000 copies in its first week.^[18] To Venus and Back, a two-disc release of original studio material and live material recorded from the previous world tour, received mostly positive reviews and included the first major-label single available for sale as a digital download.^[19]

Motherhood inspired Amos to produce a cover album, recording songs written by men about women and reversing the gender roles to show a woman's perspective.^[20] That idea grew into Strange Little Girls, released in September 2001, one year after giving birth to her daughter. The album is Amos's first concept album, with artwork featuring Amos photographed in character of the women portrayed in each song. Amos would later reveal that a stimulus for the album was to end her contract with Atlantic without giving them new original songs; Amos felt that since 1998, the label had not been properly promoting her and had trapped her in a contract by refusing to sell her to another label.^[21]

Epic Records years (2002–07)[link]

With her Atlantic contract fulfilled after a 15-year stint, Amos signed to Epic in late 2001. In October 2002, Amos released Scarlet's Walk, another concept album. Described as a "sonic novel", the album explores Amos's alter ego, Scarlet, intertwined with her cross-country concert tour following 9/11. Through the songs, Amos explores such topics as the history of America, American people, Native American history, pornography, masochism, homophobia and misogyny. The album had a strong debut,^[22][23] demonstrating that Amos' fan base remained intact through the label change. However, Scarlet's Walk is Amos' last album to date to reach certified gold status.^[24]

Amos in concert in June, 2005

Not long after Amos was ensconced with her new label, she received unsettling news when Polly Anthony resigned as president of Epic Records in 2003. Anthony had been one of the primary reasons Amos signed with the label and as a result of her resignation, Amos formed the Bridge Entertainment Group. Further trouble for Amos occurred the following year when her label, Epic/Sony Music Entertainment, merged with BMG Entertainment as a result of the industry's decline.^[25] Amos would later hint in interviews that during the creation of her next album, those in charge at the label following the aforementioned merger were interested "only in making money", the effects of which on the album have not been disclosed.^{[citation needed]}

Amos released two more albums with the label, The Beekeeper (2005) and American Doll Posse (2007). Both albums received mixed reviews, some of which stated that the albums suffered from being too long.^[26][27] The Beekeeper was conceptually influenced by the ancient art of beekeeping, which she considered a source of female inspiration and empowerment. Through extensive study, Amos also wove in the stories of the Gnostic gospels and the removal of women from a position of power within the Christian church to create an album based largely on religion and politics. The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200,^[28] placing her in an elite group of women who have secured five or more US Top 10 album debuts.^[29] American Doll Posse, another concept album, was fashioned around a group of girls (the "posse") who are used as a theme of alter-egos of Amos's. Musically and stylistically, the album saw Amos return to a more confrontational nature.^[30] Like its predecessor, American Doll Posse debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200.^[14]

During her tenure with Epic Records, Amos also released a retrospective collection titled Tales of a Librarian (2003) through her former label, Atlantic Records; a two-disc DVD set Fade to Red (2006) containing most of Amos's solo music videos, released through the Warner Bros. reissue imprint Rhino; a five disc box set titled A Piano: The Collection (2006), celebrating Amos's 15 year solo career through remastered album tracks, remixes, alternate mixes, demos, and a string of unreleased songs from album recording sessions, also released through Rhino; and numerous official bootlegs from two world tours, The Original Bootlegs (2005) and Legs & Boots (2007) through Epic Records.

Universal Music years (2008–present)[link]

Universal Republic (2008–2011)[link]

In May 2008, Amos announced that, due to creative and financial disagreements with Epic Records, she had negotiated an end to her contract with the record label, and would be operating independently of major record labels on future work.^[31][32] In September of the same year, Amos released a live album and DVD, Live at Montreux 1991/1992, through Eagle Rock Entertainment, of two performances she gave at the Montreux Jazz Festival very early on in her career while promoting her debut solo album, Little Earthquakes. By December, after a chance encounter with chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, Doug Morris, Amos signed a "joint venture" deal with Universal Republic Records.^{[33][34][35][36]}

Abnormally Attracted to Sin, Amos's tenth solo studio-album and her first album released through Universal Republic, was released in May 2009 to mostly positive reviews. The album debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200,^[37] making it the Amos' seventh album to do so.^[38] Abnormally Attracted to Sin, admitted Amos, was a "personal album", not a conceptual one.^[39] Continuing her distribution deal with Universal Republic, Amos released Midwinter Graces, her first seasonal album, in November of the same year. The album features reworked versions of traditional carols, as well as original songs written by Amos.^[40]

During her contract with the label, Amos recorded vocals for two songs for David Byrne's collaboration album with Fatboy Slim, entitled Here Lies Love,^[41] which was released in April 2010. In July of the same year, the DVD Tori Amos- Live from the Artists Den was released exclusively through Barnes & Noble.

After a brief tour from June to September 2010, Amos released the highly exclusive live album From Russia With Love in December the same year, recorded live in Moscow on 3 September 2010. The limited edition set included a signature edition Lomography Diana F+ camera, along with 2 lenses, a roll of film and 1 of 5 photographs taken of Tori during her time in Moscow. The set was released exclusively through toriamos.com and only 2000 were produced. It is currently unknown as to whether the album will receive a mass release.

Deutsche Grammophon (2011–present)[link]

In September 2011, Amos released her first classical music album, Night of Hunters, featuring variations on a theme to pay tribute to such renowned composers as Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Granados, Satie and Schubert, through the Deutsche Grammophon label, a division of Universal Music Group. She is currently writing the music for Samuel Adamson's musical adaptation of the George MacDonald story The Light Princess for the Royal National Theatre, which was originally expected to debut in spring 2012^[42] but has now been deferred.^[43] Amos has, however, confirmed the release of an album in 2012 marking the 20th anniversary of her debut album Little Earthquakes.^[44] The album will consist of songs from her back catalogue rearranged and performed by the Metropole Orchestra.

On May 1st, 2012, Amos announced the formation of her own record label Transmission Galactic, which she intends to use to develop new artists.

In print[link]

Released in conjunction with The Beekeeper, Amos co-authored an autobiography with rock music journalist Ann Powers entitled Piece by Piece (2005). The book's subject is Amos's interest in mythology and religion, exploring her songwriting process, rise to fame, and her relationship with Atlantic Records.

Image Comics released Comic Book Tattoo (2008), a collection of comic stories, each based on or inspired by songs recorded by Amos. Editor Rantz Hoseley worked with Amos to gather 80 different artists for the book, including Pia Guerra, David Mack, and Leah Moore.

Additionally, Amos and her music have been the subject of numerous official and unofficial books, as well as academic critique, including Tori Amos: Lyrics (2001) and an earlier biography, Tori Amos: All These Years (1996).^[45][46][47]

"Tori Amos: In the Studio" (2011) by Jake Brown features an in-depth look at Amos's career, discography and recording process.^[48]

In 2011 Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, a sociology graduate student at Western Michigan University, received her PhD for a dissertation entitled “All I Am: Defining Music as an Emotional Catalyst through a Sociological Study of Emotions, Gender and Culture". Trier-Bieniek focused on Amos' female fans and the emotional support they receive from listening to Amos' music. Along with Patricia Leavy, Trier-Bieniek contributed a chapter to the book "The Art of Social Critique"^[49] which addressed Amos' later albums and songwriting skills.

Personal life[link]

Family[link]

Amos in 1993 Alexandra Palace, London

Amos is the third child of Rev. Dr. Edison and Mary Ellen Amos. She was born at the Old Catawba Hospital in Newton, North Carolina, during a trip from their Georgetown home in Washington, D.C. Her maternal grandparents were of mixed European and Eastern Cherokee ancestry; of particular importance to her as a child was her grandfather, Calvin Clinton Copeland, who was a great source of inspiration and guidance to her as a young child, offering a more pantheistic spiritual alternative to her father and paternal grandmother's traditional Christianity.^[50]

Early in her professional career, Amos befriended author Neil Gaiman, who became a fan after she referenced him in the song "Tear in Your Hand" and also in print interviews.^[51] Although created before the two met, the character Delirium from Gaiman's The Sandman series (or even her sister Death) is inspired by Amos; Gaiman has stated that they "steal shamelessly from each other".^[52] She wrote the foreword to his collection Death: The High Cost of Living; he in turn wrote the introduction to Comic Book Tattoo. Gaiman is godfather to her daughter and a poem written for her birth, Blueberry Girl, was published as a children's book of the same name in 2009.^[53]

Amos married English sound engineer Mark Hawley on February 22, 1998. Their only child, a daughter named Natashya "Tash" Lórien Hawley, was born on September 5, 2000, a few weeks after Tori's 37th birthday. The family divides their time between Sewall's Point in Florida, Kinsale^[54] (County Cork) in Ireland, and Cornwall in England.

Activism[link]

In June 1994, Amos co-founded RAINN, The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, a toll-free help line in the US connecting callers with their local rape crisis center. Amos, herself a survivor of sexual assault,^[55] was seen as unlocking the silence of her assault through her music; thus "Unlock the Silence" went on to become a year-long campaign for RAINN when Amos became a national spokesperson for the organization. By the summer of 2006, RAINN had received its one millionth caller^[56] and the organization's success has led to it ranking in "America's 100 Best Charities" by Worth, and one of the "Top 10 Best Charities" by Marie Claire.

Discography[link]

As of 2011, Amos has released 12 solo studio albums during her solo career; all but the first two are self-produced.

• Little Earthquakes (1992)
• Under the Pink (1994)
• Boys for Pele (1996)
• From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998)
• To Venus and Back (1999)
• Strange Little Girls (2001)
• Scarlet's Walk (2002)
• The Beekeeper (2005)
• American Doll Posse (2007)
• Abnormally Attracted to Sin (2009)
• Midwinter Graces (2009)
• Night of Hunters (2011)

Amos has also released more than 30 singles and 60 B-sides, and has contributed original material to nine film soundtracks, including Higher Learning (1995), Twister (1996), Great Expectations (1998) and Mission: Impossible II (2000). Her cover of the 1952 hit "You Belong to Me" appears on the soundtrack to 2003's Mona Lisa Smile.

Tours[link]

Amos, who has been performing in bars and clubs from as early as 1976 and under her professional name as early as 1991 has performed more than 1,000 shows since her first world tour in 1992. In 2003, Amos was voted fifth best touring act by the readers of Rolling Stone magazine. Her concerts are notable for their changing set lists from night to night.

Little Earthquakes Tour 

Amos's first world tour began on January 29, 1992 in London and ended on November 30, 1992 in Auckland. She performed solo with a Yamaha CP-70 unless the venue was able to provide a piano.^[57][58] The tour included 142 concerts around the globe.

Under the Pink Tour 

Amos's second world tour began on February 24, 1994 in Newcastle upon Tyne and ended on December 13, 1994 in Perth, Western Australia. Amos performed solo each night on her iconic Bösendorfer^{[citation needed]} piano, and on a prepared piano during "Bells for Her". The tour included 181 concerts.

Dew Drop Inn Tour 

The third world tour began on February 23, 1996 in Ipswich, England, and ended on November 11, 1996 in Boulder. Amos performed each night on piano, harpsichord, and harmonium, with Steve Caton on guitar on some songs. The tour included 187 concerts.

Plugged '98 Tour 

Amos's first band tour. Amos, on piano and Kurzweil keyboard, was joined by Steve Caton on guitar, Matt Chamberlain on drums, and Jon Evans on bass. The tour began on April 18, 1998 in Fort Lauderdale and ended on December 3, 1998 in East Lansing, Michigan, including 137 concerts.

Five and a Half Weeks Tour / To Dallas and Back 

Amos's fifth tour was North America–only. The first part of the tour was co-headlining with Alanis Morissette and featured the same band and equipment line-up as in 1998. Amos and the band continued for eight shows before Amos embarked on a series of solo shows. The tour began on August 18, 1999 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and ended on December 9, 1999 in Denver, including 46 concerts.

Strange Little Tour 

This tour was Amos's first since becoming a mother in 2000 and her first tour fully solo since 1994 (Steve Caton was present on some songs in 1996). It saw Amos perform on piano, Rhodes piano, and Wurlitzer electric piano, and though the tour was in support of her covers album, the set lists were not strictly covers-oriented. Having brought her one-year-old daughter on the road with her, this tour was also one of Amos's shortest ventures, lasting just three months. It began on August 30, 2001 in London and ended on December 17, 2001 in Milan, including 55 concerts.

On Scarlet's Walk / Lottapianos Tour 

Amos's seventh tour saw her reunited with Matt Chamberlain and Jon Evans, but not Steve Caton. The first part of the tour, which featured Amos on piano, Rhodes, and Wurlitzer, was six months long and Amos went out again in the summer of 2003 for a tour with Ben Folds opening. The tour began on November 7, 2002 in Tampa and ended on September 4, 2003 in West Palm Beach, featuring 124 concerts. The final show of the tour was filmed and released as part of a DVD/CD set titled Welcome to Sunny Florida (the set also included a studio EP titled Scarlet's Hidden Treasures, an extension of the Scarlet's Walk album).

Original Sinsuality Tour / Summer of Sin 

This tour began on April 1, 2005 in Clearwater, Florida, with Amos on piano, two Hammond B-3 organs, and Rhodes. The tour also encompassed Australia for the first time since 1994. Amos announced at a concert on this tour that she would never stop touring but would scale down the tours. Amos returned to the road in August and September for the Summer of Sin North America leg, ending on September 17, 2005 in Los Angeles. The tour featured "Tori's Piano Bar", where fans could nominate cover songs on Amos's website which she would then choose from to play in a special section of each show. One of the songs chosen was the Kylie Minogue hit "Can't Get You Out of My Head", which Amos dedicated to her the day after Minogue's breast cancer was announced to the public. Other songs performed by Amos include The Doors' "People are Strange", Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus", Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game", Madonna's "Live to Tell" and "Like a Prayer", Björk's "Hyperballad", Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" (which she debuted in Austin, Texas, just after the events of Hurricane Katrina), Kate Bush's "And Dream of Sheep" and Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over", dedicating it to drummer Paul Hester who had died a week before. The entire concert tour featured 82 concerts, and six full-length concerts were released as The Original Bootlegs.

American Doll Posse World Tour 

This was Amos's first tour with a full band since her 1999 Five and a Half Weeks Tour, accompanied by long-time band mates Jon Evans and Matt Chamberlain, with guitarist Dan Phelps rounding out Amos's new band.^[59] Amos's equipment included her piano, a Hammond B-3 organ, and two Yamaha S90 ES keyboards. The tour kicked off with its European leg in Rome, Italy on May 28, 2007, which lasted through July, concluding in Israel; the Australian leg took place during September; the North American leg lasted from October to December 16, 2007, when the tour concluded in Los Angeles. Amos opened each show dressed as one of the four non-Tori personae from the album, then Amos would emerge as herself to perform for the remaining two-thirds of the show. The entire concert tour featured 93 concerts, and 27 full-length concerts of the North American tour were released as official bootlegs in the Legs and Boots series.

Sinful Attraction Tour 

For her tenth tour, Amos returned to the trio format of her 2002 and 2003 tours with bassist Jon Evans and drummer Matt Chamberlain while expanding her lineup of keyboards by adding three M-Audio MIDI controllers to her ensemble of her piano, a Hammond B-3 organ, and a Yamaha S90 ES keyboard. The North American and European band tour began on 10 July 2009 in Seattle, Washington and ended in Warsaw on 10 October 2009. A solo leg through Australia began in Melbourne on 12 November 2009 and ended in Brisbane on 24 November 2009. The entire tour featured 63 concerts.

Night of Hunters tour 

Amos' eleventh tour was her first with a string quartet, Apollon Musagète, (Amos' equipment includes her piano and a Yamaha S90 ES keyboard) and her first time touring in South Africa. It kicked off on 28 September 2011 in Finland, Helsinki Ice Hall and ended on 22 December 2011 in Dallas, Texas.^[60]

Award nominations[link]

Grammy Awards