With the recording said to have taken place in the UK, Egypt, UAE, as well as South Africa, news about the long anticipated album started circulating in August 2009, with the release of the musical video “You Came To Me”, followed by “Healing”, among other singles …   Finally the third album of the British Muslim celebrity walks out the door. The long anticipated release of Wherever You Are comes exactly four years after Sami Yusuf’s great hit My Ummah, which marked a new phase of his global success and popularity. With the recording said to have taken place in the UK, Egypt, UAE, as well as South Africa, news about the long anticipated album started circulating in August 2009, with the release of the musical video “You Came To Me”, followed by “Healing”, among other singles included in the new album and which went public quite long before the official release of the album, which is quite unusual for Sami. The release of some of the album tracks almost two years prior the official release is seen by many as a great marketing strategy that readied the platform for the long awaited hit. Wherever You Are, includes 10 tracks:
  1. Wherever You Are”
  2. Salaam
  3. Without You
  4. You Came To Me
  5. Give The Young A Chance
  6. Trials Of Life
  7. Worry Ends
  8. Fragile World
  9. In Every Tear, He Is There
  10. Make Me Strong
  11. No Word Is Worthy
  12. Healing
  13. You Came To Me (Arabic)
  14. You Came To Me (Turkish)
  15. You Came To Me (Persian)
Like previous releases, the album includes songs in English, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian, to ensure a farther outreach to audiences of Sami that stretch from China to Iraq, even though Sami enjoys great popularity even in countries that do not speak or are the least familiar with any of the languages he uses. Besides the display of Sami’s heartwarming music, that comes form a heart that vibrates true love for the Lord, accompanied by well-selected lyrics propagating love for Allah and the Prophet, the album carries a universal message of peace and love. It’s the fruit of years of hard work and life experiences the British singer went through, and the impacts of which were engraved in his heart and soul, to come out vividly in his new set of works. Sami’s new album, which hit the music stores only a few months ago, by large is an exquisite call for the hearts to feel fine emotions of love of Allah, his Prophet, a recurring theme in all of his works, yet presented differently in this breakthrough. A retreat for souls preoccupied with the modern materialistic world. The new album sums up a journey Sami obviously went through, one that witnessed encounter with new personalities and new life happenings. Perhaps that, along with Sami’s usual sincerity, could be traced as one key factor behind the genuine emotions felt in the new work. On the sidelines of the newly released album, Sami held a number of concerts that took him from London to Turkey then Le Bataclan in France, and soon in Egypt, Belgoium, Spain and again in the UK. Sami plans to hold a concert in the Uk on June 1st, in support of  War Child, an international charity aimed at elevating the sufferings caused to children affected by wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Uganda, and Congo. This is not unique of Sami, known for his constant preoccupation with human sufferings, an artist of high moral values who’s assigned himself an open mission of spreading love and respect for humanity. Back to Sami’s new album, which hit the music stores only a few months ago, by far it is an exquisite call for the hearts to feel fine emotions of love of Allah and his Prophet, a recurring theme in all of works of the widely loved Muslim celebrity, yet presented differently in this breakthrough. A retreat for souls very much overwhelmed by the modern materialistic world. I found it a state of being, strongly connecting me to unique words and beautiful rhythms interwoven in a set of superbly presented tracks. This album will definitely set new standards for Sami’s works. And by large it shall set ahead of him new challenges, as he’ll have to meet expectations of fans whose taste is refined by living the beauty of his art. May God Bless you Sami and grant you greater successes.   Wassalaam, Maha Youssuf maha@muslimtribune.org Posted on: May 28, 2011