"Stereo Love" is a song by Romanian DJ and musician Edward Maya and Moldovan-Romanian producer and singer Vika Jigulina, released as their debut single in 2009 from Maya's album, The Stereo Love Show. The refrain is sampled from "Bayatılar", a 1989 song by Azerbaijani composer Eldar Mansurov. It quickly became a worldwide hit, especially in nightclubs and rose to the top of eleven national music charts and has been certified 8× Platinum in Norway, 7× Platinum in Sweden, and Gold or higher in ten additional countries.
The song and the music video were both included on the compilation NRJ Music Awards 2010.[6] The music video was filmed in Mykonos, Greece, as Maya stated in an interview that Greece "was a place that I fell in love with".[7] The song won the Top Dance Song Award at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards.[8]
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".[4][5]
The keyboard riff of this song was also used as a theme to "Zalim", a ubiquitous song written by the Turkish singer and songwriter Sezen Aksu, first recorded and released in 1995 by her former bassist and backing vocalist Levent Yüksel which was a hit that year, and then in 1996 by Sezen Aksu herself.
Chart performance
On the issue date 17 October 2009, the song debuted at number 12 on the French Digital Singles Chart.[10] It became number one on 22 November 2009, with more than 6,142 copies sold.[11] It reached its highest-weekly sales on 3 January 2010 with 9,763 sales.[12] The song remained at number one for a total of eight-consecutive weeks. On the issue date 22 November 2009, "Stereo Love" debuted at number 2 on the French Physical Singles Chart and became number one on 27 December 2009. In Belgium, the single entered at number 40 on 28 November 2009 and reached a peak of number 2 eleven weeks later. In the Netherlands, it was ranked for two weeks atop, eleven weeks in the top 10 and 17 weeks in the top 40. In Switzerland, the single debuted at number 3 and peaked at number 2. It began at the number-one spot in the French-speaking part of Switzerland (Romandy), where it stayed 5 weeks. In the UK, the song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 4. In Ireland, the first week of release, the unofficial DJ Team version proved to be more popular (number 8 on the IRMA chart) than Edward Maya's (number 17); however, on 21 May 2010 the former dropped three places to number 11 while the latter jumped eleven positions to number 6 just before reaching a week later the top of the chart where it has been for four-consecutive weeks.
Outside of Europe, "Stereo Love" also enjoyed success in the Middle East, US, and Canada. It debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number 93 on the week ending 23 October 2010 and peaked at number 16. In 2011, it peaked at number 11 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart.[13]
In the United States, the single entered the Billboard Hot Dance Airplay chart at number 23 in the 17 April 2010 issue. During its second week it slipped to number 25, but in its fourth week saw a major move in the 8 May 2010 issue, moving from number 25 to number 8, the biggest-jump ever on the chart, and ultimately reaching the number one position three times. The single was released by Ultra Music, the same label that also scored another top 10 hit in 2010 with another song, "Hot" by Romanian singer Inna, which also went all the way to number one, thus giving Ultra Music the distinction of having artists from the same country reach number one in the same year with debut singles on the same chart. It would become the number one Dance Airplay single of 2010 on the Billboard Year-End issue.[14] As of September 2012, the song has sold 2,226,000 copies in the US.[15]
On the Italian FIMI chart the song peaked at number 4 for two non-consecutive weeks in April 2010 and spent 17 weeks within the top 10. "Stereo Love" is the longest-charting song in the history of the European Hot 100, accumulating 47 weeks.
The official "Stereo Love" music video has received over 520 million YouTube views, with other copies and forms of the song and video receiving several million views.[16] The music video was also the most popular video uploaded on Spinnin' Records' YouTube channel until 10 April 2014, when the views were surpassed by Martin Garrix's music video for his song "Animals."[17] The music video for "Stereo Love" was shot in the island of Mykonos, in Greece.
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
Ultra Music hired Canadian singer Mia Martina to record an official remix of Maya's "Stereo Love". The rights to an official remix were acquired by Ultra Music from Romanian label Cat Music.[113]
It was released to the United States on iTunes on 10 August 2010 and in the Canadian market in September 2010 from Martina's debut album, Devotion. The music video was directed by Marc André Debruyne, with Mia riding a sailboat, christened the "Insanador" at the Toronto waterfront at sunset and then riding around in a Mercedes CLS 500 in the downtown at night, going by the Arcade Building at 137 Yonge Street and going under the Railway Landsoverpass on Yonge Street.
The original version by Maya and Vika Jigulina was already a top 20 hit on the Canadian Hot 100, peaking at number 19 before it was outpeaked by the version promoted with Mia Martina, reaching number 10.
Elements of this song were used on 2021 single Feel Your Love by Belgian-Greek DJ duo Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Australian DJ Timmy Trumpet with Maya credited as featured artist. Stereo Love was also extensively sampled by Arozin - Fall In Love. It features an identical main chorus with the chord sequence reversed.
^Birchmeier, Jason. "Alexandra Stan – Artist Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 2 September 2023. Like recent worldwide Euro-dance hits to emerge from Romania, namely Inna's "Hot" and Edward Maya's "Stereo Love," it wasn't long before "Mr. Saxobeat" was licensed for release internationally.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – RADIO – TOP 100 and insert 201014 into search. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
^"Media Forest – Weekly Charts. Media Forest. 20 July 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2018. Note: Select 'Songs – TV'. Romanian and international positions are rendered together by the number of plays before resulting an overall chart.
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