| CAT
STEVENS (ARTIST BIOGRAPHY)
Cat Stevens was born Stephen Demetre Georgiou in
1948, to a Greek Cypriot father and a Swedish mother.
The family owned a restaurant on
Shaftesbury Avenue, in the west End of London, and Stevens and his
older brother and sister waited tables from an early age.
Although he was brought up within the
Greek Orthodox religion, Stevens’ parents sent him to a Roman
Catholic school, where he developed a strong moral conscience.
After learning to play the piano in
his parent's tiny flat, Cat Stevens’ talent was soon spotted by
record executives, and he released his first hit single at the
tender age of eighteen, entitled 'I Love My Dog'.
As Cat Steven’s, Stephen enjoyed
chart success with classic tracks such as 'Morning Has Broken', 'Here
Comes My Baby', 'Father and Son' and 'The First Cut Is The Deepest'.
When he was 19, Stevens contracted
tuberculosis, and was hospitalised. He claims that it was this
period of illness and recovery that forced him to re-evaluate his
lifestyle.
Stevens eventually decided to convert
to Islam, despite the fact that his father’s nationality had meant
that he was raised to view the religion with suspicion. He changed
his name to Yusuf Islam, and withdrew from the world of
entertainment.
A scandal broke out in 1989 when
Yusuf was asked by a radio presenter to give his opinion on Salman
Rushdie’s controversial book 'Satanic Verses'. Although he stated
that he thought the book to be blasphemous to the Islamic faith, he
also declared that he did not condone the views of Ayatollah
Khomeini, who had called for the death sentence for Rushdie. However,
Yusuf Islam was misrepresented in the press and his music was
subsequently blacklisted by a number of radio stations.
In the decades that followed, Yusuf
presented lectures on cosmic and religious themes.
1995 saw the release of Yusuf Islam’s
first album in eighteen years, titled 'The Life of the Last Prophet'.
He continues to write music and study
religion. He released a charity track with Ronan Keating in late
2004, and his most recent appearance was an impromptu live set at
the concert for Darfur refugees at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in
December 2004. |
