Yusuf islam cat stevens biography yusuf

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It didn't stick though, and within a year he'd chosen the much better-known stage name.

"In England, and I was sure in America, they loved animals," he later explained. He continued recording — and touring — and in 2012 staged the musical Moonshadow, using his songs and themes.

After all, everybody knew I was ‘on the road to find out.’”

After getting married and having children, Yusuf became heavily involved with education and humanitarian relief. The songs of this era would also go on to be appreciated by future generations, their timeless quality was shown when a cover of ‘Father & Son’ became a huge hit for the Irish pop band Boyzone in the 1990s.

In 1975 Cat experienced another momentous and life-changing event.

However, it was unquestionably 1971’s Teaser and the Firecat that made Cat a true megastar. Yusuf/Cat Stevens

Unlike many popstars, Yusuf didn't come from a particularly musical family.

His family did have a baby grand piano, but no-one in the family was good enough to teach him so he taught himself the chords.

Then The Beatles came along, and the 15-year-old Yusuf managed to convince his dad to shell out the then tidy sum of £8 (£135 in today's money) for a guitar.

He started writing songs, as well as hanging out on his roof to take in the sound of the nearby Denmark Street, Britain's own Tin Pan Alley.

Cat had considered a career as a cartoonist while at Hammersmith, but the pull of music was too strong.

Three years later another new album, Roadsinger, cemented his reconnection with the music industry. For most of the next three decades he gave up pop for devotional music, spoken word, educational and children’s albums, while quietly starting a family and committing himself to education and charitable activities. He snapped him up and got him a record deal.

Cat Stevens released the track 'I Love My Dog' in 1066 and went straight to number 28 in the UK singles chart.

The son of a Swedish mother and Greek father who operated a restaurant in London, Stevens became interested in folk music and rock ‘n’ roll in his teens, and in 1965 began performing under the name Steve Adams. It may be that he once sang 'Peace Train'... In 2016 the ‘Cat’s Attic’ tour gave the American public their opportunity to echo these feelings.

2017 kicked off a series of significant anniversaries as it marked 50 years since the release of Yusuf’s first two albums, ‘Matthew & Son’ and ‘New Masters’ in 1967.

He spoke out in the media against the atrocities, against fanaticism and war, and called for peace and unity. After years of ceaseless campaigning, in 1998 the school was awarded grant–maintained status, an historic first in the UK.

In the late 1990s, Yusuf and his wife, Fawziah, established the Small Kindness charity in response to the devastating conflicts in the Balkans.

It was in '00s that he strode back into the mainstream, recording a new version of 'Peace Train' in 2003 and performing 'Wild World' alongside Peter Gabriel at a Nelson Mandela's 46664 concert.

He re-recorded 'Father and Son' with Ronan Keating (Keating's former band Boyzone had a hit with a cover back in 1995) for Band Aid, and in 2005 recorded the new song 'Indian Ocean', about the previous year's Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Yusuf released the comeback album An Other Cup in 2006, his first proper pop album since 1978, and since then has continued his comeback, leading up to a Glastonbury Festival performance and King of a Land album in 2023.

Is Yusuf married and does he have children?

After a brief engagement to Louise Wightman, Yusuf married partner Fauzia Mubarak Ali in September 1979, at Regent's Park Mosque in London.

They have one son and four daughters and nine grandchildren together, while a second son died in infancy.

They have a family home in London, while also spending a major part of each year in Dubai.