“Stereo Love” is a song by Romanian musician Edward Maya featuring Moldovan-Romanian musician Vika Jigulina. It was released as their debut single on 23 February 2009 for radio airplay in Romania, and was later included on Maya’s debut studio album, The Stereo Love Show (2014). The song was written by Maya and Jigulina, while the production was handled by the two alongside Ilie Alexandru; Azerbaijani musician Eldar Mansurov is listed as a composer for the interpolation of the 1989 song “Bayatılar”. Mansurov’s contribution was initially uncredited, but was later acknowledged through a contract signed between him and Maya in January 2010. It is a Eurodance, techno and trance song with lyrics about lovesickness, and also follows the Romanian popcorn music trend popular around the time of release. The song prominently features an accordion hook.
Music critics gave generally positive reviews of the song upon its release, noting the universal appeal. At the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, the track was awarded “Top Dance Song”. Commercially, “Stereo Love” peaked at number two on the Romanian Top 100 in August 2009 and became a worldwide sleeper hit over the next two years. The song was a number-one in Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden, and further peaked within the top five in several other countries including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It has peaked at number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100, standing as the best-performing Romanian song there. An alternative North American version of “Stereo Love” released with Mia Martina was a top ten hit in Canada. Maya was alleged not to have approved the release of this version and ended up in a lawsuit with the label Cat Music.
An accompanying music video was released on YouTube on 6 July 2009. Directed by Dragoș Buliga, it was shot in Mykonos, Greece, and sees Maya and Jigulina searching for each other through the streets of the island. For further promotion, the two performed the song at multiple events, including at Spanish award show Los Premios 40 Principales 2010, and on a tour visiting India and the Americas. Among other usage of “Stereo Love”, Indian label T-Series released the Hindi “Love Stereo Again” by Tiger Shroff and Zahrah S. Khan in July 2023, which is based on the song.
