I'm a rock musician from London. There's more to it than that, of course, and you have only to go to one of his concerts to understand how he has become an icon and role model for Muslim teenagers who love his music, along with its spiritual and religious messages, as much as they love his voice. He has even coined a new word, "spiritique" in an effort to extract himself from the pigeonhole he has has been put in, partly by his former record company, who chose to market him that way.
His acrimonious split from them has marked the past three years, and Yusuf sees the new album, Wherever You Are, as the product of the hurtful and damaging turmoil he has suffered. Without going into too much detail, he says he feels cheated by the record company that produced his first two albums but released a third, made up of demo tracks and experimental work after he had parted company with it.
In some cases, I hadn't even added the words and there's just a lot of humming. It was made up of experiments and sketches and released as a professional product in several Arab countries. I decided I would rather do an amazing new album. I also did a video for my website and explained to my fans what had happened and that this was stealing.
I left the company because of various disagreements and felt that I was being cheated. These are issues that clearly still rankle, but Yusuf is doing his best not to sound bitter and says he loves everyone, "even the people who hurt me". Although he was born in Iran, his parents moved to the UK when he was three years old, and are now naturalised Britons living in Stockport, northwest England.
His German-born wife, who converted to Islam before she met Yusuf, also lives there; although the couple, who have been married for five years, also have homes in Dubai, Sharjah and Cairo. Yusuf grew up in Acton, west London and describes his schooldays there as "tough". However, the one thing they didn't pick on him for was his religion. Most of his friends, he says, were "middle-class white guys". I don't distinguish people by ethnicity. For him, his position as an artist is a sacred trust, a trust best honored in serving humanity.
His genuine benevolence is reflected through his unwavering commitment as United Nations Celebrity Partner to reach out to those in need throughout the world. He has recently launched a campaign in partnership with United Nations World Food Programme to help end hunger in the Horn of Africa that has been hit by its worst drought in the last 60 years. He has been relentless in assuming his responsibilities as the first global ambassador of Silatech - a Qatar-based initiative promoting entrepreneurial skills and open access to capital and markets for large-scale job creation in the MENA region.
His Live8 concert in Wembley Arena raised millions of pounds for the victims of the conflict-laden region of Darfur - an effort recognised and praised by the British government.
Sami also took the initiative to work in close tandem with the UN sponsored charity, Save the Children, to help uplift morale of the victims of Pakistan floods by sending a message of hope and undying support through his charity single, Hear Your Call. Sami is one of the UK's biggest exports in the last decade. In the course of 10 years, he has masterfully navigated through unchartered waters - he has won over the hearts and minds of millions from across the Middle East, Europe, North America and North Africa.
His compass, in principle, has been his self-coined genre - Spiritique. Manifested both musically and philosophically in his third album, Wherever You Are selling well over 4 million copies, Spiritique is a product of Sami's identity.
Sami is a passionate advocate of unity and is boldly committed to cross-cultural appreciation through promotion of universal values and celebration of the human spirit.
The aim is to bridge the gap between perceptions and sense of incompatibility, and to foster spiritual autonomy so we may usher into a new era of cooperation and coexistence. When different races stand side by side, when young and old, pious or agnostic, male or female sing in one voice; that's when Spiritique shines.
An ambitious undertaking it may be to some. Other people have also stirred controversy in Iran for travelling to Israel. The location of his poetic film, The Gardener, was Haifa, the largest city in northern Israel. Makhmalbaf now lives in exile in London. I am citizen of cinema, and cinema has no border, and in fact before my journey to Israel my film travelled to that country many years before.
Read more on Wikipedia. Since , the English Wikipedia page of Sami Yusuf has received more than 1,, page views. His biography is available in 33 different languages on Wikipedia up from 31 in Sami Yusuf is the th most popular singer up from th in , the th most popular biography from Iran down from th in and the 3rd most popular Iranian Singer.
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