Early life (1948–1965) Steven Demetre Georgiou, born on 21 July 1948 in the
Marylebone area of London, and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (1915–1989). He has an older sister, Anita (b. 1937), and a brother, David Gordon. The family lived above the Moulin Rouge, a restaurant his parents operated on the north end of
Shaftesbury Avenue, a short walk from
Piccadilly Circus in the
Soho theatre district of London. All family members worked in the restaurant. Although his father was
Greek Orthodox and his mother was a
Baptist, Georgiou was sent to St Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School, Macklin Street, which was closer to his father's business on
Drury Lane. Georgiou developed an interest in piano at a 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. He occasionally escaped his family responsibilities by going to the rooftop above their home and listening to the tunes of the musicals drifting from around the corner 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. 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 said, "I was beat up, but I was noticed". He took a one-year course at
Hammersmith School of Art, considering a career as a cartoonist. Though he enjoyed art (his later record albums featured his original artwork), At that point, his goal was to become a songwriter. As well as the Beatles, other musicians who influenced him were
the Kinks,
Bob Dylan,
Nina Simone,
blues artists
Lead Belly and
Muddy Waters,
Biff Rose (particularly Rose's first album),
Leo Kottke He also sought to emulate composers of musicals, such as
Ira Gershwin and
Leonard Bernstein. In 1965, he signed a publishing deal with Ardmore & Beechwood and recorded several demos, including "
The First Cut Is the Deepest".
Musical career (1966–1978) Early musical career Georgiou began performing his songs in London coffee houses and pubs. At first he tried to form a band, but realised he preferred performing solo. In 1966, at age 18, he was heard by manager/producer
Mike Hurst, formerly of British vocal group
the Springfields. Hurst arranged for him to record a demo and helped him get a record deal. Stevens's first singles were hits: "
I Love My Dog" reached number 28 on the
UK Singles Chart; and "
Matthew and Son", the title song from his debut album, reached number 2 in the UK. "
I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun" was his second UK top 10 single, reaching number 6, and the album
Matthew and Son, released in March 1967, reached number 7 on the
UK Albums Chart. Over the next two years, Stevens recorded and toured with an eclectic group of artists ranging from
Jimi Hendrix to
Engelbert Humperdinck. He was considered a fresh-faced teen star, placing several single releases in the
British pop music charts. 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 was one of several recording artists who had benefited from the station to broadcast messages during its final hour to mourn its closure. His December 1967 album
New Masters failed to chart in the United Kingdom, and contained the single "
Kitty" which was Stevens's final charting release in the UK for three years. Forty years after he recorded the first demo of the song, it earned him back-to-back ASCAP "Songwriter of the Year" awards, in 2005 and 2006.
Tuberculosis Stevens contracted
tuberculosis in 1969 and was close to death at the time of his admission to the King Edward VII Hospital,
Midhurst, West Sussex. read about other religions and became a vegetarian. but soon developed a friendship. Davies, like Stevens, was a perfectionist, appearing at all sound checks to be sure that all the equipment and sound were prepared for each concert. 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 had a
madrigal sound, unlike most music played on pop radio, with
djembes and bass in addition to Stevens's and Davies's guitars. It reached number eight in the UK Other songs written for D'Arbanville included "Maybe You're Right" and "Just Another Night". "Pop Star", a song about his experience as a teen star, and "Katmandu", with
Genesis frontman
Peter Gabriel playing flute, were also 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".
Mona Bone Jakon was the precursor of Stevens's 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 Kingdom and the United States. The combination of Stevens's new folk rock style and accessible lyrics, which spoke of everyday situations and problems, mixed with the beginning of spiritual questions about life, remained 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. The head of Island Records, Chris Blackwell, was quoted as calling it "the best album we've ever released". It is ranked at No. 206 in the 2003 list of "
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". After his relationship with D'Arbanville ended, Stevens noted the effect it had on his writing, 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 ..." For seven months, in 1971 and 1972, Stevens was romantically linked to popular singer
Carly Simon, while both were being produced by Samwell-Smith. During that time, they each 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 with a song to her, written after their romance, titled "Sweet Scarlet". 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 for three weeks on the
Billboard 200 and
fifteen weeks at number one in the Australian
ARIA Charts. He contributed two songs to the 1971 film
Harold and Maude, but was annoyed when director
Hal Ashby decided to use the original demos instead of allowing Stevens to finish them. The film used seven other Stevens songs as well but, perhaps because of the dispute, the soundtrack album was not released until 2007. After his religious conversion in the late 1970s, Stevens stopped granting permission for his songs to be used in films. However, almost 20 years later, in 1997, the film
Rushmore received his permission to use his songs "
Here Comes My Baby" and "The Wind"; this showed a new willingness on his part to release music from his Western "pop star" days. and
Almost Famous used the song "The Wind". In 2006, "Peace Train" was featured in the soundtrack to
We Are Marshall. In 2023, “The Wind” was included in the film ''
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.'', the film adaptation of the
1970 novel with the same name.
Later recordings in 1976 Subsequent releases in the 1970s also did well on the charts and in ongoing sales, although they did not touch the success Stevens 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 he saved in taxes to
UNESCO. 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: it was entirely written by Stevens; he dropped his band; and, with the exception of some guitar on the title track and "100 I Dream", he produced the record without the assistance of Samwell-Smith, who had played a large role in catapulting him to fame. In June 1974, while in Australia, Stevens was presented with a plaque representing the sale of forty gold records, the largest number ever presented to an artist in Australia. Stevens released the albums
Buddha and the Chocolate Box in 1974, and
Numbers in 1975. In April 1977, his
Izitso album updated his pop rock and folk rock style with the extensive use of
synthesisers, giving it a more
synthpop style. "Was Dog a Doughnut", in particular, was an early
techno-pop fusion track and a precursor to the 1980s
electro music genre, making early use of a
music sequencer.
Izitso included his last chart hit, "(Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard", an early synthpop song
Religious conversion While on holiday in
Marrakesh, Stevens was intrigued by the sound of the
adhān, 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!?" In 1976, Stevens nearly drowned off the coast of
Malibu, California, and said he shouted, "Oh, God! If you save me I will work for you." He stated that, immediately afterwards, 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". brought him a copy of the
Qur'an as a birthday gift from a trip to
Jerusalem. "I would never have picked up the Qur'an myself as a free spirit; I was more aligned to my father's Greek Orthodox beliefs." His brother's timely gift was quickly absorbed and he was taken with its content, soon beginning his transition and conversion to Islam, which would forever change his private and professional life. As he was studying the Qur'an, Stevens began to identify more and more with the story of
Joseph, a man bought and sold in the market place, which was how he said he had increasingly felt within the music business. Regarding his conversion, in his 2006 interview with
Alan Yentob, 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 said, "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." Stevens formally converted to Islam on 23 December 1977, and took 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. The concert closed with his performance along with
David Essex, Alun Davies, and Islam's brother, David Gordon, who wrote the finale song "Child for a Day". A second son died in infancy. They have a home in London while currently preferring to spend a major part of each year in
Dubai. He has said that there was "a combination of reasons, really", and that the continuing demands of the music business had been "becoming a chore, and not an inspiration anymore". he said he would use his accumulated wealth and ongoing earnings from his music career for philanthropic and educational causes in the Muslim community of London and elsewhere. In 1983, he founded the
Islamia Primary School in Brondesbury Park, which later moved to Salusbury Road in the north London area of
Queen's Park and, soon after, founded several Muslim secondary schools. In 1992, he 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. He was chairman of the charity
Muslim Aid from 1985 to 1993.
Salman Rushdie controversy In 1989, following an address by Islam to students at London's Kingston Polytechnic (now
Kingston University), where he was asked about the
fatwa calling for the killing of
Salman Rushdie, author of the novel
The Satanic Verses, Islam made a series of comments that appeared to show support for the fatwa. He stated, "He [Rushdie] must be killed. The Qur'an makes it clear – if someone defames the prophet, then he must die." He released a statement the following day denying that he supported vigilantism and claiming that he had merely recounted the
Islamic Sharia law punishment for blasphemy. Subsequently, he commented in a 1989 interview on Australian television that Rushdie should be killed and stated he would rather burn Rushdie than an effigy. In a statement in the FAQ section of one of his websites, Islam asserted that while he regretted the comments, he was joking and that the show was improperly edited. In the years since these comments, he has repeatedly denied ever calling for the death of Rushdie or supporting the fatwa. In a 2007 letter to the editor of
The Daily Telegraph, Rushdie complained of what he believed was Islam's attempts to "rewrite his past", and called his claims of innocence "rubbish". On 12 August 2022, Rushdie suffered a knife attack as he was about to give a public lecture at the
Chautauqua Institution in
Chautauqua, New York, United States. In response to the attack, Islam tweeted, "Saddened and shocked to learn about the horrific act on Salman Rushdie my wish is for us all to live in peace. May God grant him and every one else who has suffered from the manic pandemic of violence in this world, a full recovery. Peace".
11 September attacks Immediately following the
September 11 attacks on the United States, he said: Islam 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. During the same year, he joined the
Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism, an organisation that worked towards battling misconceptions 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 11 September. The following day, he 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". The
Israeli government had denied entry to Islam in 2000 over allegations that he provided funding to the
Palestinian organisation
Hamas, but he denied doing so knowingly. Islam stated "I have never knowingly supported or given money to Hamas". "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." 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". Islam 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 he requested the removal of his name: "I remain bewildered by the decision of the US authorities to refuse me entry to the United States". According to his statement, the man on the list was named "Youssef Islam", indicating that Islam was not the suspected terrorism supporter. He said of the incident at the time, "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. Rumours which circulated after made me imagine otherwise." Islam wrote a song about his 2004 exclusion from the US, titled "
Boots and Sand", recorded in 2008 and featuring
Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton, and
Terry Sylvester.
Libel cases Lawsuit over News UK newspaper reports that he had supported terrorism In October 2004,
The Sun and
The Sunday Times newspapers voiced their support for Islam's exclusion from the United States and claimed that he had supported terrorism. He sued for
libel and received an out-of-court
financial settlement from the newspapers, which both published apology statements saying that he had never supported terrorism and mentioning that he had recently been given a
Man of Peace award from the
World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. 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's lawyers interpretation", but took a "pragmatic view" of the lawsuit. Islam 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
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.
Lawsuit about allegations that he would not talk to unveiled women On 18 July 2008, Islam received substantial undisclosed damages from the
World Entertainment News Network following their publication of a story which claimed that the singer refused to speak to unveiled women. The allegations first surfaced in the German newspaper
BZ after Islam's trip to Berlin in March 2007 to collect the
Echo music award for "life achievements as musician and ambassador between cultures". Once again he was awarded damages after the World Entertainment News Network allowed an article to be published on
Contactmusic.com alleging that he would not speak to unveiled women with the exception of his wife. His solicitor said "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. The news agency apologised and issued a statement saying that Islam has never had any problem in working with women and that he has never required a third party to function as an intermediary at work. Realising there were few educational resources designed to teach children about the Islamic religion, Islam wrote and produced a children's album,
A Is for Allah, in 2000 with the assistance of South African singer-songwriter
Zain Bhikha. The title song was one Islam 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. On the occasion of the 2000 re-release of his Cat Stevens albums, at the urging of his label rep Sujata, Islam agreed to interviews with the media to tell his story and reconnect with his fans. Islam 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, that was perhaps my mistake." Islam 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 long-time guitarist Alun Davies said in later interviews that he had not believed that his friend would actually go through with it after his many forays into other religions throughout their relationship. In 2003, after repeated encouragement from within the Muslim world, Islam 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 earlier collaborator,
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, Islam contributed to the song, because the proceeds were marked for charity. On 21 April 2005, Islam gave a short talk before a scheduled musical performance in
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the anniversary of the prophet
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 ... Islam 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, Islam 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. At that point, he was joined by several young male singers who sang backing vocals and played a drum, with Islam 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 Islam recorded with a folk sound to it, and another song, "The Wind East and West", which was newly written by Islam and featured a distinct
R&B sound. With this performance, Islam 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. On 28 May 2005, Islam 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. Islam attended as part of an honorary committee which also included
George Martin,
Richard Branson,
Boutros Boutros-Ghali,
Klaus Voormann,
Christopher Lee and others. In
mid-2005, Islam 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.) Islam 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 Islam began playing. Yoriyos created the art on Islam's album
An Other Cup, something that Cat Stevens did for his own albums in the 1970s. 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 Islam, 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". 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. An accompanying single, called "Heaven/Where True Love Goes", was also 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. Islam wrote all of the songs except "
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", and recorded it in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally, he 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 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". 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. In 2008 Islam contributed the song "Edge of Existence" to the charity album
Songs for Survival, in support of the indigenous rights organisation
Survival International.
2009–2014: Roadsinger, "My People" and tours , London, May 2009 , Cardiff in 2015 In January 2009, Islam released a single in aid of children in
Gaza, a rendition of the
George Harrison song "The Day the World Gets Round", along with the German bassist
Klaus Voormann, who had formerly collaborated with
The Beatles. To promote the new single, Voormann redesigned his famous Beatles
Revolver album cover, drawing a picture of a young Cat Stevens along with himself and Harrison. Proceeds from the single were donated to charities and organisations including
UNESCO,
UNRWA, and the nonprofit group
Save the Children, with the funds earmarked for Gaza children. Israeli
Consul David Saranga criticised Islam for not dedicating the song to all of the children who are victims of the conflict, including Israeli children. On 5 May 2009, Islam released
Roadsinger, a new pop album recorded in 2008. The lead track, "Thinking 'Bout You", received its debut radio play on a BBC programme on 23 March 2009. Unlike
An Other Cup, he promoted the new album with appearances on American television as well as in the UK. 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 2009 and to go on to Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto, as well as some to-be-announced European venues. and New Zealand for the first time ever. On 30 October 2010, Islam appeared at
Jon Stewart and
Stephen Colbert's spoof
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". On 2 March 2011, Islam released his latest song, "My People", as a free download available through his official website, as well as numerous other online outlets. 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, known as the
Arab Spring. On 1 April 2011, he 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. In May 2012,
Moonshadow, a new musical featuring music from throughout his career opened at the
Princess Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. The show received mixed reviews and closed four weeks early. In October 2013, Islam was nominated for induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work under the Cat Stevens name (this was his second nomination – the first being an unsuccessful nomination in 2005). He was selected and was inducted by
Art Garfunkel in April 2014 at the
Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, where he performed "Father and Son", "Wild World", and "Peace Train". A record of his travel from Dubai to New York is captured in an episode of the
National Geographic Channel television show
Ultimate Airport Dubai (season 2, episode 6), first aired in China on 17 January 2015. In this episode he talks about his difficulty in entering the US.
2014–2017: ''Tell 'Em I'm Gone'', "He Was Alone" and tours On 15 September 2014, Islam announced the forthcoming release on 27 October 2014 of his new studio album, ''
Tell 'Em I'm Gone'', and two short tours: a November 2014 (9-date) Europe tour and a December 2014 (6-date) North America tour, the latter being his first one since 1976. On 4 December 2014, he played to his first public US audience since the 1970s at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia. Islam performed two shows in early 2015: on 27 February at the
Viña del Mar Festival, Quinta Vergara,
Viña del Mar, Chile and on 22 April at the
Wales Millennium Centre in
Cardiff Bay, area of
Cardiff, Wales. On 1 June 2016, Islam shared a new song called "He Was Alone" and its corresponding video. Part of his newly launched fundraising campaign for child refugees, #YouAreNotAlone, the song was inspired by a trip to southern Turkey's camps for Syrian refugees. He performed the song live for the first time in a special charity concert, his first show in more than a year, on 14 June 2016 at the Westminster Central Hall in London. On 9 August 2016, Islam announced "A Cat's Attic Tour", his second North American tour since 1978, beginning on 12 September 2016 at the
Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto and ending on 7 October 2016 at the
Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. The string of 12 dates roughly coincides with the 50th anniversary of his first single, "
I Love My Dog", and would "feature a limited run of stripped down, introspective performances." The tour included three shows in New York City (two shows at the
Beacon Theatre and one show in
Central Park at the
Global Citizen Festival), he would be donating a portion of the revenue from each ticket sale towards his charity
Small Kindness, as well as
UNICEF and the
International Rescue Committee in an effort to assist children affected by the current
Syrian refugee crisis. The tour continued in the UK with shows in Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle and London. The London show took place at the
Shaftesbury Theatre, only a block away from where he grew up.
2017–present: as Yusuf / Cat Stevens, The Laughing Apple, TT2 " at the National Remembrance Service for victims of the
Christchurch mosque shootings, in
Hagley Park, Christchurch, on 29 March 2019 On 15 September 2017, he released his fifteenth studio album,
The Laughing Apple. The album is credited to "Yusuf / Cat Stevens" and is his first record under the Cat Stevens name since
Back to Earth in 1978. The album earned him his first nomination for a
Grammy Award for
Best Folk Album. In July 2018, Islam signed with
BMG Rights Management, which will publish his songwriting credits worldwide and distribute nine of his studio albums. On 29 March 2019, Islam performed in
Christchurch, New Zealand, at the National Remembrance Service for victims of the
Christchurch mosque shootings. On 3 March 2020, Islam played the Music for the Marsden benefit concert at the
O2 Arena in London. On 28 May 2020, Islam announced his next album,
Tea for the Tillerman 2, and it was released on 18 September 2020, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original LP. Known as
TT2,
Tea for the Tillerman 2 is a re-imagining and re-recording of the songs from the earlier album, with updated interpretations and arrangements. On 25 September 2020, Islam was the guest on the BBC's
Desert Island Discs. Islam is one of a small number of guests that have chosen their own music as a desert island choice, however he picked the Stevie Wonder Motown hit '
As' for his favoured choice in front of his own recording, if only one could be saved. Teaming up with
Playing for Change, in 2021 Yusuf / Cat Stevens recorded a new version of "Peace Train" with over 25 musicians from 12 countries.
2023: Yusuf / Cat Stevens - European Tour and King of a Land In June 2023, Islam performed shows in
Berlin, Hamburg,
Rome,
Marbella, and made his first ever appearance at
Glastonbury Festival: on 25 June 2023, he played the Pyramid Stage, performing songs including covering iconic Beatles hits and his Teacup album memories. On 16 June 2023, he released
King of a Land, a new studio album with
children's music and
religious music influences.
2025: Cat on the Road to Find Out and US visa issues In October 2025, Islam released his official autobiography
Cat on the Road to Findout. In his review of the book for
The Guardian newspaper, Alexis Petridis said of Islam "He seems happy, ending his story with a poem that opens 'when I was a little foetus'. Whatever you make of that, it reads remarkably like one of the more wide-eyed lyrics from his heyday. Yusuf Islam has been on quite a journey, but some things never change." A book tour had been planned in support of the autobiography. In September 2025, it was announced that the North American leg of the tour had been cancelled as a result of unspecified visa issues. == Legacy ==