Ilya Salmanzadeh

Biography

Ilya Salmanzadeh (Persian: ایلیا سلمان‌زاده; ; born 19 September 1986), known mononymously as Ilya, is an Iranian-born Swedish songwriter, producer, and singer. He rose to prominence outside of Sweden after co-writing and producing Ariana Grande's hit single "Problem" for her second studio album, My Everything (2014). He is a six-time Grammy Awards nominee, including three nominations for Album of the Year: Grande's Thank U, Next (2020), Justin Bieber's Justice (Triple Chucks Deluxe) (2022), and Lizzo's Special (2023).

Career

Ilya Salmanzadeh was born in Iran, raised in Denmark, and moved to Sweden at age 11. In 2005 at the age of 19, he signed 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". In 2026, Salmanzadeh composed and co-wrote on the Ariana Grande album “Petal”.

Singles

As lead artist
2007: "Used To Be"
As featured artist
2009: "Get You on the Pool" (Kocky & Trash featuring Ilya)
2011: "Got It Like That" (Lazee ft. Ilya)