Cat Stevens: The Untold Story

Yusuf Islam, born Steven Demetre Georgiou, 21st July 1948, Marylebone, London, England, UK, commonly known by his stage name Cat Stevens, is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His debut album entered the top 10 in the UK during 1967, with its title song "Matthew and Son" hitting UK # 2. Stevens' L.P. Tea for the Tillerman (1970), followed by Teaser and the Firecat (1971) were certified triple platinum in the US by the RIAA. His musical style comprises folk, pop, rock, with in his later career, Islamic music. His album Catch Bull at Four (1972), spent 3 weeks on top of the Billboard 200, and 15 weeks at # 1 in the Australian ARIA Charts. Cat received two ASCAP songwriting awards in 2005 and 2006 for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", the song having been a hit for 4 artists. His other hit songs include "Father and Son", "Wild World", "Peace Train", "Moonshadow", and "Morning Has Broken". Stevens received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 2007. Cat converted to Islam during December 1977, adopting the name Yusuf Islam the following year. He auctioned all of his guitars for charity in 1979, leaving his musical career behind to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. Stevens was embroiled in a long-running controversy regarding comments he made during 1989 about the death fatwa on author Salman Rushdie. He's received two honorary doctorates and awards for promoting peace from two organisations founded by Mikhail Gorbachev. Yusuf returned to pop music in 2006, releasing his first new studio L.P. of new pop songs for 28 years, titled An Other Cup. With that issue, as with later ones, he dropped the surname "Islam" from the album cover art, using the stage name Yusuf as a mononym. He released the album Roadsinger during 2009 then in 2014, he released the L.P. Tell 'Em I'm Gone, having began his first US tour since 1978. Stevens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during 2014. His 2nd North American tour since his resurgence, featuring 12 shows in intimate venues, ran from 12th September to 7th October 2016 then he issued the album The Laughing Apple the following year.