Sami Yusuf

Sami Yusuf's alternately lush and intimate, cosmopolitan songs reflect a music education steeped in both Western and Middle Eastern classical music and encompassing influences ranging from flamenco to Sufi music and U.K. contemporary pop. Of Azerbaijani descent and raised in England, he emerged in the mid-2000s with albums like the devotional Al-Mu'allim (2005) and Without You (2009) -- both hits in the Middle East -- while gaining a reputation for stirring live performances. Yusuf's output in the 2010s was highlighted by 2014's intimate The Centre, 2015's Songs of the Way, an...