Sami Yusuf Vs Awakening

Assalamu alaykum

For those Sami Yusuf Fans out there (those that dont know who Sami is then where have you been for the past few years!) Just Kidding.

Sami Yusuf is a Muslim Singer - Some Say he is a Nasheed Artist however he claims that he is just an Artist. Most of his Songs he Sings about Islam other he sings about Poverty, Famine, World Affairs and what not! He has thousand of fans worldwide mostly from the Muslim Community and he does attract a lot from the Non Muslim Audience too. As controversial as it seems he uses "Music" and by that I mean Full on blow Music! Which half thing its haraam and the other half says its ok. The Music issues is another thing altogether we wont be talking about this today!

His First album was released in 2003 called Al-Muallim, Second Album in 2005 called My Ummah and the third Album Called "Without You" Was released Mid January of 2009

However this is where the problem is

According to Sami official Website his recording Company Awakening records have released the 3rd Album without his Consent and Sami Claims that these Records are based on "Stolen Demos" and "Work in Progress"

So then Awakening releases this Public Statement

It has come to the attention of Awakening Records that there are certain rumours and statements circulating claiming that Sami Yusuf has left Awakening Records and that Awakening Records is releasing Without You - the third album of Sami Yusuf - without his approval and that the album merely consists of demos. Awakening Records has so far taken careful steps to not publicly disclose any information or discuss the matter in order to minimise any harm to Sami Yusuf, his fan base or even Awakening Records itself. However, Awakening Records would like to clarify that:
1. Awakening Records is a reputable worldwide company and takes every measure to ensure that it has full rights to release a product and deliver it to the highest quality. It will not jeopardise its relationship with its partners, artists, customers, investors and supporters by releasing a product that it has no right to release.
2. Awakening Records has produced pioneering Islamic music albums since 2003 to provide an alternative cultural vision for the global Muslim community. In this effort, it identified, supported, supervised and managed the work of Sami Yusuf since May 2003.
3. First and foremost by God’s grace, then through the gifted talent of Sami Yusuf and with huge investment and tremendously hard work undertaken by Awakening Records, Sami Yusuf is now a household name across the global Muslim community inspiring millions of Muslim youth to be proud of their faith and identity.
4. Sami Yusuf is signed exclusively to Awakening Records for five albums. Awakening Records has previously released two albums - Al-Muallim and My Ummah and the third album Without You was released on Monday 12th of January 2009. Under the current agreements, all recordings are exclusively owned by Awakening Records.
5. Awakening Records has made substantial payments to Sami Yusuf for the third album which was due for release in August 2008 - as advertised on www.samiyusuf.com since May 2008 - and has full exclusive rights to release and distribute the album worldwide. Any other individual or company releasing any of Sami Yusuf’s music albums or works can only do so by infringing the copyrights held by Awakening Records.
6. The third album is a complete and high quality album. It consists of 11 professionally recorded studio tracks owned by Awakening Records. All of the songs were composed, arranged and recorded by Sami Yusuf and so were all the vocals without exception.
7. Due to some internal contractual disputes – primarily resulting from third party interferences – Awakening Records had initially decided to postpone the release of the album till the outstanding matters were resolved.
8. It now seems that the dispute will take longer than expected to resolve and thus Awakening Records has decided to release the third album whilst other outstanding contractual issues are resolved. It is not in the interest of Awakening Records or Sami Yusuf to continue to put all work on hold indefinitely.
9. The matter is not in the courts as claimed but is currently being dealt with by lawyers representing Sami Yusuf and Awakening Records.
10. It has further come to the attention of Awakening Records that certain people are taking this opportunity to spread false information and rumours about Awakening Records and Sami Yusuf. Despite what is happening, Awakening Records holds Sami Yusuf in high esteem and is proud to have him as one of its artists. We urge people to refrain from spreading uncorroborated and partial information that only harms Sami Yusuf and Awakening Records.
11. The relationship between Awakening Records and Sami Yusuf is not merely contractual. All the directors of Awakening Records without exception are close personal friends of Sami Yusuf and hence the matter is very delicate, sensitive and complicated.
12. The issue is best left to be sorted out by Awakening Records, Sami Yusuf and their respective lawyers. Awakening Records is not willing to engage in gossip about its artists. Such action is not only unethical but also un-Islamic. Awakening Records has no intention to make this matter a public debacle and will thus issue no further statements.
Although contractual disputes are the norm in the ‘music industry’, it is unfortunate and it deeply saddens us that it has come to this. However, we are hopeful that matters will be resolved amicably and as swiftly as possible. In the meantime, enjoy the creative brilliance of Sami Yusuf’s long awaited third album, which can be purchased fromwww.awakeningstore.com, iTunes and music stores worldwide. Awakening Records is donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the album to Islamic Relief’s Gaza Appeal.
Awakening Records
19th January 2009




So seems that there is a long Dispute going on between the both with both sets of Fans the hard Core Sami fans and the Hardcore Awakening Fans both at each other

However the bottom line is Those that are sticking up for Sami will probably be the First to buy this "Unfinished" Album and no one would care about this.

From my sources I hear that Sami yusuf wishes to be more mainstream and wants to go to places like MTV so i can only assume that awakening stance on this for being a Muslim Company is that they dont want him to go over the top which i Agree with, however both sides should just thank each other for where they are now

Without Sami Yusuf awakening would not be as successful

and Without Awakening Sami Yusuf would just be another unknown Name!