British composer Sami Yusuf is one of the most influential musicians of our time in the field of world music traditions. The internationally acclaimed artist is known for his electrifying large-scale events that interweave diverse strands of world music with contemporary innovation. His ground-breaking performances draw large audiences from the Americas to Europe and from the MENA region to Central and South Asia.
Creator of the When Paths Meet concert series, Sami has released nine studio albums and thirteen live albums, amassed over a billion downloads, and performed at sold-out venues on six continents. His work shines with beauty and depth as it moves fluidly among genres as diverse as qawwali, Persian classical, Middle Eastern Sufi music, flamenco, and Western classical styles. He has sold over 45 million albums and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Roehampton University for "his invaluable contribution to the field of music."
“When composing, I feel I have entered a world more vibrant and alive than the one we normally inhabit.”
– Sami Yusuf
“It is music that blows you away with polyphonic choirs, virtuoso percussion and the power of the single melody held in place by so many instruments simultaneously.”
– Cultural Press Agency
British composer Sami Yusuf has been dubbed "a megastar" by the BBC, "the biggest star in the Middle East is a Brit" by The Guardian, and "one of the most successful artists in contemporary times" by MyLondon. The numbers bear this out: over 45 million albums sold, over a billion downloads amassed; sold-out concerts at venues including Wembley Arena, The Royal Albert Hall, Los Angeles’s Shrine Auditorium, and the Philharmonie de Paris; and an audience of 250,000 in an open-air performance in Istanbul—one of the largest live concert events ever. His iconic piece ‘Supplication’ was featured in the Golden Globe-nominated film The Kite Runner, and he composed music for the award-winning film 1001 Inventions with Omar Sharif.
His recent major events and albums include his When Paths Meet concerts: Alma at the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music (2024); L’Amour at the Philharmonie de Paris (2023); and ONE at Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw (2022); as well as Beyond the Stars at the Dubai EXPO (2021); and A Timeless Presence at the UNESCO World Congress (2019). Teaming up with legends such as A.R. Rahman, Homayoun Shajarian, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Antonio Rey, Abida Parveen, Ballaké Sissoko, Nabyla Maan, and China’s "national treasure" Guo Gan, Sami has performed on six continents and his tracks have topped world music charts.
Born to Azerbaijani parents in Tehran, Iran (1980) and raised in London, Sami was trained from an early age in both Western and Middle Eastern classical music. As a result, his impressive body of work reflects his deep mastery of multiple musical languages. As a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist, at festivals and anchor events worldwide, his large-scale works shine with beauty and depth. He is widely acclaimed for his ability to move fluidly and authentically among genres as diverse as qawwali, Persian classical, Middle Eastern Sufi music, flamenco, and Western classical styles.
A passion for the power of music to express the subtleties of the human spirit has guided Sami Yusuf’s career from its start. He always knew music was his calling. He began developing his craft as a child growing up in London. His father, who was his principal teacher, taught him to play several traditional Middle Eastern instruments and gave him his early training in the tones and modes of the music they conveyed. To his ability to express himself musically within the classical Arabic/Central Asian modal systems of his Azerbaijani heritage, in his teens he added a fluency with piano and violin as he interiorised and immersed himself in Western classical music.
To date, Sami has released nine studio albums, thirteen live albums, and two compilation albums. Sami’s first album, Al-Mu’allim (2003), incorporated the Western and Eastern elements that exist within him, and with its release he quickly gained international recognition and celebrity. He composed and produced this work and others when he was in his early twenties, and although they created an entirely new musical genre that other artists to this day continue to follow, Sami soon realised that his artistic path was leading him elsewhere.
And so, he withdrew from the touring and producing scene for a number of years, releasing very few new pieces. During that time, Sami immersed himself in the study of both music and philosophy, exploring their complex theories and the ways that they express human experience. He travelled to sacred places, absorbing their ambience and inspiration. He sought out teachers from whom he learned knowledge along with ways of being. He worked on his craft, honing his skills through disciplined practice and experimentation, and seeking to bring new levels of artistry and meaning to his works. He came to see the interconnectedness of musical traditions, and resolved to bring that vision to his compositions. It was a time of profound personal and professional change, and the knowledge gained then became the foundation of the mature works that have since defined his career.
When he returned to the world stage with the release of Barakah in 2016, Sami’s passion for expressing the music and poetry of world artistic traditions reimagined in a contemporary language came fully into focus. In his performances at the Dubai EXPO, the UNESCO World Congress, the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, and in his When Paths Meet concert series, Sami brings together master musicians from China to Central Asia to Arabia and from North and West Africa to Europe under his direction. Each concert is a unique experience at which he launches new compositions and arrangements. His large global listening audience grows ever larger as the reach of his ecstatic compositions continues to expand.
