Ivan Matias is an American

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

, producer,

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestrat ...

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

ghostwriter A ghostwriter is a person hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

, and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

. He is primarily known for writing and producing hit songs for artists like

En Vogue En Vogue is an American vocal girl group whose original lineup consisted of singers Terry Ellis, Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron, and Maxine Jones. Formed in Oakland, California, in 1989, En Vogue reached No. 2 on the US Hot 100 with the singl ...

("Don't Let Go (Love)"),

Angie Stone Angela Laverne Stone (née Brown; December 18, 1961 – March 1, 2025) was an American singer-songwriter, rapper, actress, and record producer. With a career spanning over four decades, she has been credited with revolutionizing the sound of Ol ...

("Wish I Didn't Miss You"), SWV ("You're The One"), and

Blu Cantrell Tiffany Cobb (born March 16, 1976), known professionally as Blu Cantrell, is an American contemporary R&B, R&B singer. Cantrell rose to fame in 2001, with the release of her debut single, "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)", which peaked at number two ...

("Breathe") among others which have sold over 44 million records worldwide and appear on over 100 greatest hits and compilation albums. Matias has also had four major label recording deals with

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

London Records London Recordings (or London Records and London Music Stream) is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London nam ...

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

, and Elektra Entertainment. Only his Arista artist album was released and produced a #1 Dance Single "I've Had Enough". Matias has been featured on several soundtracks including '' Dr. Dolittle'' ("Do Little Things"), '' Set It Off'' ("Set It Off"), ''

The Mod Squad ''The Mod Squad'' is an American crime drama series, originally broadcast for five seasons on ABC from September 24, 1968, to March 1, 1973. It starred Michael Cole as Peter "Pete" Cochran, Clarence Williams III as Lincoln "Linc" Hayes, Pegg ...

'' ("Messin' Around") and '' Sprung'' ("Since You've Gone Away").

Early career

Ivan began his career as a backing singer & dancer for many artists including

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey ( ; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Songbird Supreme" by ''Guinness World Records'', Carey is known for her five-octave voc ...

and

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after National Football League, NFL and Canadian Football Lea ...

. He went on from these humble beginnings to write and produce songs recorded by many of the industry's leading acts including Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z, Pink, Dr. Dre, Curtis Mayfield, Janet Jackson, Nelly, Lil' Kim, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Outkast, Queen Latifah, Toni Braxton, En Vogue, SWV, Angie Stone, Blu Cantrell, Sean Paul, Silk, Az Yet, Traci Spencer, Fatboy Slim, Chico Debarge, Ray J, Changing Faces, Tomcraft, Xscape,The Braxtons, Immature, City High, Another Level, Jody Watley, Eric Sermon and Bette Midler. Many of his songs have been featured worldwide on MTV, BET, VH1, NBC, FOX, ABC, CBS, BBC, ITV & performed on AMERICAN IDOL, THE X FACTOR (around the world), DANCING WITH THE STARS, THE VOICE, EMMY AWARDS, R&B DIVAS & SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE and many other commercial placements. Matias was signed to Warner/Chappell Music at the age of 19 making him one of the youngest and longest-running active writers in Warner's history. Matias has also had one of his songs appear on a newly released album for 18 consecutive years since his writing career began in 1995. His career has included collaboration with top producers and writers including Dr.Dre, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Arif Mardin, Diane Warren, Wyclef Jean, Rodney Jerkins, Narada Michael Walden, Mervyn Warren, Just Blaze, Full Force, Frankie Knuckles, Randy Jackson, Rhett Lawrence, CJ Mackintosh and others. Many of Matias' hits were written with longtime songwriting partner

Andrea Martin Andrea Louise Martin (born January 15, 1947) is an American and Canadian actress, best known for her work in the television series '' SCTV'' and '' Great News''. She has appeared in films such as '' Black Christmas'' (1974), '' Wag the Dog'' (1 ...

Recent News

In December 2013 Matias' song "Don't Let Go (Love)" soared back to #1 & #3 simultaneously on the iTunes chart after Little Mix performed on The X Factor UK. Australian singer Greg Gould’s version of the track topped the charts globally in 2017 and the music video has had over 20 million views. Matias put Gould in touch with En Vogue’s Maxine Jones and the two re-recorded Gould’s arrangement of the song as a duet and then embarked on a tour together in late 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matias, Ivan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American writers American hip-hop record producers American music publishers (people) East Coast hip-hop musicians Businesspeople from New York City Songwriters from New York (state) Writers from New York City Record producers from New York (state)