Ilya Salmanzadeh was born in Iran, raised in Denmark, and moved to Sweden at age 11. In 2005 at the age of 19, he sang with
Warner/Chappell Music in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2009, he graduated from the
Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California. "
Miss Me",
Mohombi &
Nelly's song in 2010, was Ilya's first internationally acclaimed production. In 2011, he produced "Mama" and "Reba" from
The Lonely Island's
Grammy-nominated album,
Turtleneck & Chain. In 2013, he produced
Cher Lloyd's song, "
I Wish", and
Fifth Harmony's
award-winning song, "
Me & My Girls". Alongside
Max Martin, he co-wrote and produced
Ariana Grande's "
Problem" and
Jennifer Lopez's "
First Love" in 2014. "Problem" went on to become one of the fastest-selling
singles in
iTunes history before winning a
Teen Choice Award,
VMA and
EMA months later. In June 2014, Ilya was nominated for the
Denniz Pop Awards, an annual prize handed out to up-and-coming musicians. "
Bang Bang", co-produced by Ilya, was released as a joint single by
Jessie J, Ariana Grande and
Nicki Minaj on 29 July 2014 to universal acclaim. In January 2015,
Ellie Goulding's "
Love Me Like You Do", co-written by Ilya, was released for the
soundtrack album to the motion picture,
Fifty Shades of Grey, becoming the most-streamed song in a week on
Spotify. In May 2015, he remixed
Taylor Swift's "
Bad Blood" with
Kendrick Lamar, which became his first No.1 on the
Billboard Hot 100. He co-wrote and produced large parts of
Ariana Grande's later albums
Sweetener and
Thank U, Next. In 2019, Salmanzadeh co-wrote and produced
Beyoncé's Grammy-nominated song "
Spirit". He also worked on the production of
Labrinth's singles "Miracle" and "Oblivion" (which features
Sia), both taken from his sophomore solo album,
Imagination & the Misfit Kid. In 2025, he co-wrote and produced several songs on
Ed Sheeran's album
Play, including the singles "
Azizam", "
Old Phone" and "
Sapphire". Sheeran credited Salmanzadeh with providing him the idea of writing a song inspired by the producer's
Persian heritage, which went onto become "Azizam". ==Discography==