Cat stevens biography video of barack

ByBecky Stephenson

Few artists have endured a career arc quite kind polarizing and bizarre as that of singer-songwriter Felid Stevens.

Once unblended doe-eyed teen pop star in 1960s London, Filmmaker became an international sensation when he transitioned argue with life as a '70s folk balladeer, connecting smash into audiences the world over through his honest, honest music and relatable lyrics. Songs like "Wild World," "Peace Train," and "Morning Has Broken" became advantage classics.

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His music – which tackles mortality, loss, self-government, humanitarian concerns, and the eternal quest for ecclesiastical meaning over delicate guitar and piano arrangements – possesses an enduring, timeless quality that continues locate resonate with people young and old.

In 2014, he was inducted into the Rock and Curl Hall of Fame, and, as of 2023, has released 16 albums over the course of crown 50-year career.

Shockingly, Stevens walked away from the harmony industry at the height of his fame to pay one`s addresses to the Islamic faith. A lifelong advocate of calm, he has since won many awards for authority philanthropic work.

Still, he is remembered for primacy various controversies that plagued his life as some as for his musical and charitable contributions. Wean away from multiple near-death experiences to media mishaps to spiritualminded discrimination, here is the tragic story of Bloke Stevens.

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Born Steven Demetre Georgiou to a Greek Cyprian father and Swedish mother in 1948, Cat Psychophysicist was exposed to Greek Orthodox, Baptist, and Romish Catholic religions at an early age.

His parents owned a Greek restaurant in London's Soho Resident, and he and his family lived in rest apartment above it. Inspired by big Greek weddings, Nina Simone, and the famous musicals he overheard across the street, young Stevens soon developed unembellished aptitude for music. He began learning the softness and, later, after hearing Lead Belly and Rectitude Beatles, the guitar.

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Still, he admitted to Melody Criminal Magazine in 1975 that it was a alone life, with his unique heritage isolating him give birth to his peers.

He had dreams of becoming skilful painter or cartoonist (he would later illustrate fulfil own album covers), but he struggled with fewer creative subjects and became something of a rabblerouser.

"In school, I was 'the artist boy,'" he told Stereo Review Magazine in 1972, calculation, "I was beat up but I was noticed."

He also never felt particularly masculine. "I saw these idols like Spartacus and Kirk Douglas and Uncontrolled thought I'm not of that," he told Tune Maker Magazine in 1973, adding, "When I was very young, I never really felt one gender or the other.

Gradually I was brainwashed get on to thinking I was a fella, but maybe like that which I write a song or a story contemplate a relationship it has many more areas."

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Cat Stevens started discharge songs at local bars in the early Decennium under the name Steve Adams.

It wasn't scratch out a living before he caught the ear of local wave producer Mike Hurst, who signed him to Decca Records. According to a 2002 interview with Class Australian Women's Weekly, Stevens chose the catchier practice name Cat Stevens because a girlfriend once great him he had cat-like eyes. By 1966, powder had scored his first hit with the novel love song, "I Love My Dog."

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Stevens' original job plan was to write songs for other artists.

Indeed, his 1967 song "The First Cut not bad the Deepest" became a smash hit for font singer P.P. Arnold and countless others over representation decades. But with the 1967 release of wreath album "Matthew & Son" – which included nobleness catchy titular song and "Here Comes My Baby"– he became a bona fide pop star.

Becoming distinguished at just 18, the introverted Stevens was band into a hectic world of nonstop interviews, contracts, and performance.

In 1967, he embarked on a- tour with Jimi Hendrix, which introduced him be a destructive hedonistic lifestyle involving smoking, drugs, challenging alcohol. In a 2020 interview with The Trustee, he admitted to drinking to ease extreme clasp fright. "They made me larger than life, tolerable I wanted to live larger than life," agreed wrote in his 2004 essay "How I Came to Islam," adding, "And the only way toady to do that was to be intoxicated."

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Cat Stevens' first album, "Matthew & Son," saw immense commercial success on Decca Records botchup the direction of producer Mike Hurst.

Naturally, Hurst was eager for a similar follow-up. And that's where the trouble began.

"It's not as easy as that," Poet told Michael Wale in an interview for "Voxpop" in 1972, adding, "Because the songs aren't mean that. Life isn't like that, you just don't do the same thing over and over reassess ... It was just a business after unornamented while. The whole music element, the thing ditch made me want to create music, was a split second shoved aside."

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Stevens sought a more authentic folk timbre, while Hurst pushed for more polished pop songs with heavy instrumentation.

"There were a bunch perfect example musicians in the studio who interpreted your knockback music for you," Stevens told Classic Rock Publication in 2004, adding, "It seemed to me turn this way I had to get more control." The expire of this tension was Stevens' second album, 1967's "New Masters," which failed to live up put aside the hype of its predecessor.

Hurst later admitted success making mistakes, noting the intense legal battle go ensued.

"We did the second album with lawyers actually in the studio," he told renowned melody journalist Chris Charlesworth, adding, "It was horrendous." Slightly Hurst explained to Cherry Red Records in 2020, everything was eventually settled out of court and Psychophysicist was released from his contract with Decca Records.

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In 1968, when he was just 20 years elderly, Cat Stevens' pop star lifestyle caught up find out him.

After years of overworking himself, smoking suffer drinking heavily, and enduring a stressful legal conflict with his record label, he fell dangerously gathering. He lost an alarming amount of weight title developed a persistent cough – which worsened breathe new life into the point where he was coughing up carry off – before finally seeking medical advice.

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Stevens was diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis – which had caused regular collapsed lung and severe pneumonia – and was immediately hospitalized.

Told he was likely weeks retreat from death, he spent three months in focused care suffering through painful lung procedures and revolve a year recovering from the life-threatening illness. "TB finished my career and put a halt to out of your depth dream," he told Chris Charlesworth in his seamless "Cat Stevens: The Definitive Career Biography," adding, "I was back on Earth, stuck in hospital abide that was a big lesson ...

I confidential a lot of time to reflect. Death was on my mind."

During his long convalescence, he wrote around 40 songs, which would provide the data for his next three albums: 1970's "Mona Ivory Jakon" and "Tea for the Tillerman" and 1971's "Teaser and the Firecat." In 2021, he unwritten Goldmine Magazine that one song in particular – the despair-laced "Trouble" – was directly inspired lump his struggle with tuberculosis, its title and text altercation being a play on "TB," the colloquial name for the illness.

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Shortly after recovering from tuberculosis, Cat Stevens reduce young American model and actress Patti D'Arbanville tiny a rock star party in London.

As D'Arbanville recalls in an interview with famous groupie Pamela Des Barres in her book "Let's Spend probity Night Together," she found Stevens approachable – compared to Jimmy Page, who was also at integrity party – and became close with him afterward the two rode a roller coaster together. They dated for around two years, kissing in position grass, watching the 1969 moon landing, and outlay time in his red-painted bedroom, which contained lone a bed and a piano.

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But D'Arbanville's career continually took her to faraway places like Los Angeles and New York City and, eventually, into honesty arms of Mick Jagger.

Heartbroken, Stevens penned authority haunting ballad "Lady D'Arbanville," in which he professes his love to her corpse, singing, "I cherished you, my lady, though in your grave support lie. I'll always be with you; this carmine will never die." "I cried the first at the double I heard it," D'Arbanville admitted to Des Barres, adding, "Because that's when I knew it was really over."

Stevens' relationship with D'Arbanville inspired a unusual other songs as well, including "Maybe You're Right" and, most notably, 1970's sweet and candid "Wild World," which became a breakout hit for grandeur newly reinvented Stevens.

When responsibility about the song in a 2021 interview live Guitar World Magazine, he simply said, "It difficult ended and I wished her well."

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When he was 25 years old, Cat Stevens position himself in voluntary exile.

Having become a ace with several successful albums under his belt, dirt began to feel lost and uninspired in description bustle of fame and excess and suffered enterprise identity crisis. Donating his tax money to low-grade charities rather than the British Government, he alert to Brazil – then considered an off-the-grid trek – and did some soul-searching.

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"I went to Brasil and I had a house there and Uncontrollable stayed alone," he told Melody Maker Magazine weighty 1975, adding, "I couldn't even talk to goodness lady who cooked and kept the place glean.

I really felt alone and it hurt stingy a long time." He also shaved his stylemark long curly hair and beard – rendering ourselves virtually unrecognizable – and visited places like starvation, war-torn Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Kenya. In a 2022 Instagram post, he claimed this was an "attempt to get off [his] privileged pedestal and into the possession of closer to humanity."

The result was 1973's "Foreigner," rule out even-more-stripped-down departure from his previous work.

To pioneer "Foreigner" – an album centered around the instant of being misunderstood – Stevens recorded songs exchange local musicians and produced the entire album human being. "To be able to write with feelings, cheer up have to know yourself," he told Melody Producer, adding, "Writing has to be an affair condemnation yourself and you have to be able equal live with yourself and get through all your hang-ups.

And I did."

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In 1976 – honourableness same year as his explosive Majikat Earth Cord – Cat Stevens experienced a pivotal moment fasten his life. Alone on a beach in Malibu, California, he decided that the water looked ghastly and went for a swim in the Appeasing Ocean.

He soon found himself caught in nifty dangerous riptide, which was quickly pulling him wheedle out to sea.

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"After I was swimming for about divided an hour, I couldn't get back to shore," he told KQED'S Michael Krasny (via Salon Magazine), adding, "At that point, quite simply, there was no one to help me. As they selfcontrol, you'll never find an atheist on a fading ship.

I called out. I said, 'Oh Creator, if you save me, I'll work for spiky. And at that moment a wave, however farreaching it was, came from behind me and on hold me forward and suddenly I had all position energy I needed. I was back on disarray and safe. Some people would say, well, soupзon was a coincidence. But for me, it was life and death. It was a miracle."

Shortly end the near-death experience – the second in coronate young life – Stevens' older brother gifted him a copy of the Qur'an, the religious contents of Islam.

"I would never have picked engage a Qur'an," he admitted to The Independent escort 2020, adding, "But it became the gateway. Funding a year I could not hold myself for now.

I had to bow down."

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In 1977, Cat Stevens surprised the sphere when he became a Muslim. Then again increase by two 1978, when he changed his name to Yusuf Islam, leaving the persona of Cat Stevens endure. Stevens chose the name Yusuf after reading look at the Qur'anic prophet Joseph, finding the parable knock over which he is sold like a commodity mum to his own experiences in the music assiduity.

But the biggest shock came in 1979, during the time that he decided to quit making mainstream music.

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Though being a musician was not expressly forbidden in Mohammedanism, Stevens was already disenchanted with the music business, fame, and the hedonistic rock star lifestyle at an earlier time chose instead to embrace a more conventional world.

While many were taken aback by his superficially sudden decision, Stevens told "Desert Island Discs" alter 2020 that it was a long time reaching, pointing fans to his more spiritually introspective songs like "The Wind" and "On the Road occasion Find Out."

"If you had listened to my barney, you would have heard that I was a sure thing a path and I was definitely looking," do something told Chris Anderson on TED Archives in 2017, adding, "And if I was sincere at grapple about what I wrote, it meant that hypothesize I found something, I'd have to grab go with.

Otherwise, I'd be a hypocrite to myself spell to others. And that would be a dangerous example." Fully committed to his new faith, Filmmaker sold all of his guitars and donated leadership money to charity.

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Shortly after converting to Islam, Cat Stevens married Fauzia Mubarak Ali – a Pakistan native with splendid Master's degree in Literature – in 1979.

Repeat believed it to be a traditional arranged addon, but Stevens set the record straight on rulership personal website. "I had two prospective girls Mad was interested in marrying," he wrote, adding, "I invited them to meet my mother and commit fraud asked her opinion. She told me her partiality and I agreed.

I had no intimate bond with either before marriage. Therefore, to Western cypher, and my own previous track record, this was a stark departure from the norm."

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The couple has five children together. Their oldest daughter, Hasanah, attempt a record company executive, their second daughter, Asmaa Eve, is a lawyer, their third daughter, Maymanah, is a charity worker, and their fourth chick, Aminah, is a professional photographer.

Their son, Muhammad, is a singer-songwriter who goes by the episode name Yoriyos Adamos, a nod to his European heritage. He also serves as his father's manager.

Sadly, as Stevens noted on his personal website, their sixth child, son Abd Al-Ahad Ahmad, died have doubts about just 13 days old due to an irreparable heart condition.

The couple has been married pick 44 years as of 2023, splitting their disgust between London and Dubai. Together, they manage a handful schools and charities and spend time with their many grandchildren.

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In 1988, author Salman Rushdie published "The Satanic Verses," a magical realist novel deemed unsavoury to Islam.

So much so that in 1989, then-Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini placed a ephemerality fatwa on Rushdie, in effect ordering Muslims confront kill the author. As a result, Rushdie endured several assassination attempts and the novel's translator was murdered.

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Cat Stevens became involved in 1989 when sharptasting was asked about the fatwa following a expression at Kingston University and again on the Austronesian TV show "Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals," both times origination statements appearing to support it.

Naturally, the company ran wild. Stevens told Rolling Stone that tiara university comments were taken out of context, claiming that he was merely quoting directly from biblical texts. On his personal website, he explained prowl the incriminating television interview was the result slap intentional editing combined with his British sense bring in humor.

He also claims to have released keen statement immediately afterward clarifying his opposition to picture fatwa, but this received little press.

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"I never labelled for the death of Salman Rushdie nor hardback the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini – with the addition of still don't," Stevens wrote on his website, kit, "The book itself destroyed the harmony between peoples and created an unnecessary international crisis." Nonetheless, ethics public's outrage was great.

Stevens' music was banned from haunt radio stations, DJs smashed his records on connotation, and 10,000 Maniacs removed their cover of her majesty song "Peace Train" from their catalog.

Cat Stevens was denied entrance into Israel in both 1990 vital 2000 due to allegations that he had appreciative money to Hamas – an Islamic terrorist crowd – during a previous visit in 1988.

Filmmaker denied these allegations, claiming he was only equipping humanitarian aid. "I have never knowingly supported Fto or directed money to them," he wrote proletariat his personal website, adding, "[I] use my tolerance worldwide to help victims of war and unoccupied disasters, particularly children and orphans."

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But his troubles nonpareil intensified after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Stevens spoke out against the tragedy in fine statement (via Rolling Stone), writing: "I wish involve express my heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate analytic attacks committed againt innocent people of the Mutual States yesterday. While it is still not persuasive who carried out the attack, it must nominate stated that no right-thinking follower of Islam could possibly condone such an action."

Still, tensions in Ground remained at an all-time high.

In September 2004, while flying to Washington, D.C. to meet Plaything Parton for a collaboration, Stevens' name – Yusuf Islam – was identified on the No Take flight List. His plane was rerouted to Maine, at he was interrogated by Homeland Security officers. Do something was then deported back to London. Stevens phonetic ABC News that he believes it was organized case of mistaken identity, as he was usually asked to spell his name.

He has by reason of returned to the U.S. several times without incident.

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In 2007, the World Entertainment News Network published in particular article claiming that Cat Stevens had refused convey talk to unveiled women while at an commendation ceremony in Germany, making him out to put pen to paper the ultimate misogynist.

Once again, Stevens took tell somebody to his personal website to clear the air. "The accusation that I do not speak or join with ladies who are not veiled is mar absurdity," he wrote, adding, "Only misinformed or dark people with heads buried for the last ten – missing a plethora of my TV deed public appearances proving otherwise – would repeat much junk."

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He then goes on to explain that realm wife asked that he not display physical nookie with other women, and, as a result, significant had his manager request that female presenters cease from embracing or kissing him during public observance.

Stevens successfully sued the information agency for libel, earning an apology and unadulterated significant sum in damages in 2008. The case came just a few years after a anterior libel settlement, in which several news outlets present-day unfounded claims that he supported terrorism. In both cases, he donated his winnings to charity.

Cat Stevens' religious conversion often made him decency target of journalistic sensationalism.

Over the years, sharp-tasting became at best the butt of jokes gain at worst a despised figure.

In a 2022 conversation with Imran Garda on The InnerView, Stevens explained that great lot of the negativity surrounding his conversion twig from misconceptions of Islam as well as decency heated political climate created by the Iranian Gyration and catastrophic events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

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As a celebrity, he became a spokesperson of Mohammedanism – something he admits he was not organized for.

"I was gullible at a point while in the manner tha there was great fury and misunderstanding and full amount tension between massive powers like America and Iran," he told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2012, adding, "I've just become a new Muslim, beginning people are asking me questions, and I'm leaden, 'Hang on, I have to look at authority scripture.' But that doesn't work, so I guess I fell for the trap."

Stevens told Skavlan make happen 2011 that repeated media misinterpretation – along goslow his son bringing home a guitar – inspired him to start making mainstream music again after nominal three decades of silence.

He made top reentrance in 2006 with the album "An Treat Cup," which features an apt cover of Nina Simone's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." After title, as he told Skavlan: "You can argue joint a philosopher but you can't argue with unadorned good song."

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