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Cat Stevens was born 1948 in London, as Stephen Demetre Georgiou, to Greek Orthodox restaurant owners. After getting kicked out of art
school, Stephen began to establish a music career at only 16. In 1966 at 18 years old he released his first single, and though he had a great
interest in folk music, he leaned more towards pop. For his career he changed his name to Cat Stevens, and over the next two years he
enjoyed success released pop singles and touring England. In 1968 Stevens contracted tuberculosis, and had to spend several months in the
hospital fighting the disease. His "comebac ...read more
Cat Stevens was born 1948 in London, as Stephen Demetre Georgiou, to Greek Orthodox restaurant owners. After getting kicked out of art
school, Stephen began to establish a music career at only 16. In 1966 at 18 years old he released his first single, and though he had a great
interest in folk music, he leaned more towards pop. For his career he changed his name to Cat Stevens, and over the next two years he
enjoyed success released pop singles and touring England. In 1968 Stevens contracted tuberculosis, and had to spend several months in the
hospital fighting the disease. His "comeback" singles fared poorly when he did recover.
Cat Stevens released Mona Bone Jakon in 1970 after signing a new record deal, and shedding the teen popstar persona of the '60s. His
new sound was folksy, introspective and emotional. His songwriting varied from peppy and positive to melancholic. It didn't make too much
of an impact commercially but it established Stevens as a serious artist. His following albums, Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and
the Firecat broke him into stardom, achieving worldwide success with these brighter, poppier albums. His following releases were more
soul-searching, mysterious, darker and had less mainstream appeal. 1974's Foreigner was more of a rock album with an opus taking up
one LP side, and started to decline his popularity, as did its predecessor. It's follow-up, Buddha and the Chocolate Box, was somewhat of
a return to previous works, but Cat's success with the charts had ended. Nevertheless, he still a big fan base and toured the world one final
time in 1976.
That same year, he had almost drowned in the ocean. According to Stevens, he had pleaded to God for life and offered to devote his life to
him, then felt a wave push him back to shore. Stevens had always explored his spiritual side, but what followed was a bit unexpected. He
then began studying the Muslim faith, and converted to the Islamic faith in 1977. He also changed his name one last time, to Yusuf Islam.
Two more albums were released as Cat Stevens in 1977 and 1978, but Islam stopped his music career following the conversion to his new
religion.
Yusuf Islam has remained out of the spotlight since, but reappeared in the media for one more time. In 1989, Yusuf Islam had stated legal
consequences from the Qur'an as to Salmon Rushdie's execution for his book The Satanic Verses, a highly controversial book in the
Muslim world. The media quickly claimed that Islam was a supporter of Rushdie's execution and a wave of backlash ensued. Steam rollings
of his albums were held, and the band 10,000 Maniacs even removed their cover of "Peace Train" from their album as a protest to Islam's
supposed statements. Islam quickly explained the matter that he was simply stating what the Qur'an said, and was still new to the religion.
Yusuf Islam has released several Islamic albums in the 90s, one including a children's album teaching about the Islamic faith. Cat Stevens
has sold over 40 millions albums worldwide, and a lot of the re-releases of his classic albums have reached platinum status. He was
nominated for entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, but wasn't inducted. For the second time, Stevens was nominated for entry
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this time in 2013, and was inducted into the 2014 HOF class along with Peter Gabriel, Nirvana, Kiss, Linda
Ronstadt and Hall & Oates. He remains a very influential and inspiring artist in the world today. « hide |
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