Ovidiu Bistriceanu is pop music’s up-and-coming mastermind. Where other songwriters and producers cross their fingers and hope to strike gold, ‘Ovi’ makes a science out of topping the charts. Years ago, he cracked the code for the perfect Top 40 confection, and charted a course for creative domination. He takes control over every aspect of the music, from the production to the topline melody—occasionally, he even sings the hook himself. Is it any wonder that nearly 100% of the singles he has released in Canada have become radio hits and commercial smashes? A phenomenon like this doesn’t happen by accident. It is planned and then executed.
      Indeed, Ovi’s list of accomplishments reads like the calling card of a young empire-builder. Hits like Mia Martina’s ‘Burning’ and Massari’s ‘Brand New Day’ and ‘Shisha’ dominate airwaves and dance floors while the industry accolades roll in. SOCAN, SIRIUSXM, Music Canada, the Canadian Music Awards and MTV Europe have all honoured him with awards for songs that blend cosmopolitan elements into a consistently fresh, infectious sound. Massari’s latest release, ‘What About The Love’, showcases Ovi’s command of the entire pop terrain. He nimbly synthesizes urban, pop, dance, and dub step influences to create a song that effortlessly captures the current moment. Ovi will do this every time. He will break down any style in order to build it back into music that moves the masses.
      Born behind the Iron Curtain in Soviet-era Romania, Ovi grew up combining incongruous qualities. He was a children’s choir prodigy, an aspiring computer programmer, and a singer in a pop rock band who broke out as a songwriter in the early 2000s. At that time, he managed to create a hit song with his country’s top producer—despite being initially told by this same producer that his band’s sound had ‘no chance’. He kept writing and producing Romanian hits, developing his ear for the undeniable pop hook.
      When he represented Romania at the legendary Eurovision Awards in 2009, with Elena Gheorghe’s ‘The Balkan Girls’, he cemented his status as a master of European pop music. Soon, he had two big European hits under his belt, ‘Midnight Sun’ and ‘Disco Romancing’. All that was left was the world. After immigrating to Vancouver, British Columbia, he began systematically taking the Canadian charts by storm. In the last two years alone Canadian radio choose to spin his singles over 200,000 times (and counting).
      Add to his creative gifts and technician’s precision an almost perverse tenacity and you will have the basic recipe for Ovi’s rise to international pop dominance. But if you hear his music in a packed club you won’t need to dig too deeply to figure out what makes him a success. And he planned it that way.