Cat Stevens

Cat Stevens (born July 21, 1948, London, England) is a British singer-songwriter and philanthropist, particularly of Islamic charities.

Early life

Steven Demetre Georgiou was born in London to parents Stavros Georgiou and Ingrid Wickman, who owned and operated a restaurant, the Moulin Rouge, above which the family lived. Georgiou; his elder sister, Anita; and brother, David, worked at the restaurant. From an early age, Georgiou had exceptional musical ability. He learned to play piano at his family home, teaching himself chords. Despite being raised Greek Orthodox, he was sent to a Roman Catholic school. He later cited this experience as instilling a distrust of Islam within him. At age 15, he asked his father to buy him his first guitar, and he began writing songs.

Early career

Later, in the interest of developing his artistic skills, Georgiou moved with his mother to Gävle, Sweden. In particular, he was inspired by his uncle Hugo Wickman, who was a well-known painter in Sweden at the time. When they returned to England, Georgiou was consistently bullied at school. He began attending Hammersmith College of Art (later the Chelsea College of Art and Design), to study painting and cartooning. It was there, in July 1964, that he performed on his guitar under the stage name Steve Adams at a campus pub called Black Horse. Eventually, he dropped out of Hammersmith to focus on music and recorded “Back to the Good Old Times/Everything’s Piling On.” His brother took the record to Denmark Street, a popular spot for music shops in London, and successfully solicited the music on Adams’s behalf. Adams subsequently signed with Ardmore & Beechwood, with which he made a series of demo recordings. Among the demos was “The First Cut is the Deepest” (1965), which would become one of his most popular early songs.

Adams was then discovered by record producer Mike Hurst, who signed him to Deram Records, a label of Decca Records. Around this time Adams changed his name to Cat Stevens and recorded several singles that achieved commercial success, including “I Love My Dog” (1966; his first single), “Matthew and Son” (1966), and “I’m Gonna Get Me a Gun” (1967). Stevens released his first album, Matthew and Son (1967), which reached the top 10 on U.K. music charts, with the eponymous single peaking at number two. In the spring of 1967 Stevens went on a month-long tour as part of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, which featured Hendrix, Stevens, and the Walker Brothers. In December of that year he released his second album, New Masters.

Stevens was prepared to release other music with Decca Records. However, the label’s producers declined because they feared the new work did not match the expectations of the teenagers they saw as his audience. Stevens became depressed following this rejection. He smoked and excessively consumed alcohol. In 1968 he contracted tuberculosis. By the time Stevens sought medical attention, the disease had reached advanced stages, and he had a collapsed lung. He was hospitalized for several months, spending a year in recovery, during which time he engaged in intense introspection and wrote a number of new songs. He also took an interest in religion and began practicing meditation and Yoga.

Breakthrough albums

Once he fully recovered, Stevens ended his professional relationship with Hurst and signed with producer Paul Samwell-Smith, former bassist of the Yardbirds, at Island Records. Working with Samwell-Smith, Stevens had the freedom to record his music the way he desired. Samwell-Smith also introduced Stevens to guitarist Alun Davies, who helped him record new music. Davies and Stevens developed a long-lasting collaborative partnership and friendship. In 1970 the two released their first album, Mona Bone Jakon, which eventually sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States. The album was stripped down, with less arrangement, compared to his previous albums. His next album, Tea for the Tillerman, released the same year, was also a success. It featured the popular singles “Wild World,” “Father and Son,” and “Hard Headed Woman.” His following album, Teaser and the Firecat (1971), launched Stevens into stardom. The tracks “Moonshadow,” “Morning Has Broken,” and “Peace Train” were massively popular.

Conversion to Islam

In 1975, while swimming off the coast of Malibu, California, Stevens was pulled out to sea by the current. Fearing his death, he appealed to God to save his life, in return for which he promised to dedicate his life to God’s service. According to Stevens, he was then carried to the shore by the sea. The event impacted him significantly, and in 1977, after being gifted a copy of the Qurʾān by his brother, he converted to Islam.

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In 1978, fascinated by the biblical character Joseph, Stevens changed his name to Yusuf Islam. The following year he decided to step away from his musical career. He auctioned off his guitars for charity and started a family. He mostly dedicated himself to various Muslim charities and in 1983 founded a Muslim primary school in North London. He subsequently began producing educational music with an Islamic theme and made a spoken-word album, The Life of the Last Prophet (1995), which related the story of the Prophet Muhammad.

Return to music

In 2006 Islam returned to making the kind of music for which he had become well known, rebranding himself as Yusuf/Cat Stevens. That year he released his 12th studio album, An Other Cup. His next album, Roadsinger (2009), hit number 10 on the U.K. music charts. From 2009 to 2011 he performed on the Guess I’ll Take My Time tour. In 2012 he produced Moonshadow the Musical, about a young man struggling against darkness, that featured music from throughout his career. In the years following Yusuf continued to produce music. In 2023 he released his 17th album, King of a Land.