Edward Maya

Eduard Marian Ilie (born 29 June 1986), better known by his stage name Edward Maya, is a Romanian musician, record producer, DJ, singer and songwriter. He is known for his 2009 smash hit single "Stereo Love".

Career
In and around 2006, Maya worked with many other Romanian artists such as Akcent and Vika Jigulina. He also worked on the song Tornerò, which was performed by Mihai Trăistariu in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. He added in an interview on Beat-Town.com that this song "was the beginning of my career"

In the summer of 2009, Maya launched his first song as an artist, "Stereo Love", reaching No. 2 in the Romanian singles charts. Later that year, "Stereo Love" became an international hit in clubs. While this success was followed by concerts worldwide, the song entered the top-5 singles charts in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. "Stereo Love" has received over 539 million YouTube views as of November 2022.

On 13 May 2010, Maya released his second single "This Is My Life". To help maintain control of his career and provide opportunities for other artists, Maya has formed his own record label, Mayavin Records.

Maya released the song and video for his third single "Desert Rain" on Christmas night worldwide. In an interview Edward Maya talked about his Desert Rain tour he mentions he'll start off with India and later he will be touring Europe, US, South Africa and Pakistan. His fourth single "Mono in Love" was released on 29 November 2012 also featuring Vika Jigulina.

He graduated from George Enescu Music High School in Bucharest and is currently a final year student at the Bucharest Conservatory.

Maya was chosen to dub Grug voice in the animated movie Onward.

Copyright controversy
In the autumn of 2009, during his stay in Greece, Azerbaijani composer Eldar Mansurov heard the song "Stereo Love" and contacted the Romanian Police, claiming the melody in the chorus was taken from his popular 1989 composition "Bayatılar". In the music video, the composer of "Stereo Love" was only listed as anonymous. The office confirmed with Edward Maya that he had in fact copied Mansurov's work. He admitted to have been fascinated by an accordion version of "Bayatılar" which he had come across online in early 2009 and claimed to have tried to contact the author but had been unable to due to his busy schedule. On 19 January 2010, Edward Maya signed an agreement with Eldar Mansurov in Baku, Azerbaijan, confirming their co-authorship of "Stereo Love".