Despite his 34 years Ovi is now entering for the most important part of his musical life. Early 2009 he will be ready for the release of his album "This Gig Almost Got Me Killed", a solid result of hard work with help and influence from experienced professionals from the music business. Still, this is not all new for Ovi. Ovi's talent was noticed while he was just a kid. He proclaims that he at early age realized that music sounded "different" in his ears, and no doubt about it. In his early years he listened actively to music and he actually discovered his voice "by accident" while imitating everybody from "We Are The World". Ovi was born in the north of Romania, in a town named Botosani, in the last years of communism. The access to western music was limited if not impossible to get hold of, so most of his first musical influences was gained through summer camp and music schools. When he was only 14 years old Ovi earned his first prize in a national singing contest called "Florile Dragostei" and that was probably all he needed to be sure that it was a musician “he was meant to be”. The following years, he spent playing in different bands. First with his father and then with his former music teacher. In the early 90's Ovi was old enough and able to record a demo with a friend, and together they went out to chase the big dream - first stop was Germany. Unfortunately the tour didn't give them the dream start they were hoping for as they illegally tried to cross the border and got caught. Luckily they only had to spend a few hours in prison. As an obvious observation, Ovi has always been very dedicated to his dreams. Back in Romania Ovi began to play in a band with professional musicians, among them was one of Romanias most famous composers Virgil Popescu. When Ovi was 18 years old he travelled with this band to Tokyo, Japan, where they stayed for a year. Ovi describes this as his "music school" period. They practiced every day, sat the standards high while playing at The Hiltons and not least; Ovi got the opportunity to see his biggest heroes play live. After a year in Japan the band dismantled and Ovi got a job offer to play in Norway. Both his first music teacher and several other musician friends already lived in Norway so for Ovi it was almost like coming home. He made new friends, found love and have since that become a real Norwegian. Over the years there has also been a number of small musical projects abroad. For instance he made the "Nanu Disco" project in Greenland together with the Danish producer Morten "Starman" Stjernholm. This was Greenland's first dance album and became a huge successes – in Greenland. In Norway Ovi continued to play music at piano bars. He could play up to a hundred gigs a year and he liked the personal contact with the audience. By doing this he has become very comfortable and good at communicating with the audience while playing. This is the same way Ovi's big idol Billy Joel worked for years, as he was traveling around playing in bars under the name Bill Martin. Billy Joel has been - and still is - a big inspiration for Ovi, and this you can hear and see in his music and performance. Despite all experiences and adventures, Ovi describes the past years as the most important period of his life. He has competed in the Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 with the song "The Better Side Of Me", ironically represented Norway in the Romanian "Golden Stag" in 2005. Springtime of 2006 he and his management in Mentor Promotion AS went to Los Angeles with the intention to record the ultimate album. Ovi says it was very educational to work with the famos American producer Preston Glass, he was the producer for Whitney Houston and Natalie Cole. However there was so much misunderstandings and broken promisses with the record company that Ovi and his manager decided to cancel the project in Hollywood. Back in Norway Ovi got back in touch with Simen M. Eriksrud, the producer of Ovi's entry to the Norwegian finals for Eurovision Song Contest and also the producer behind national Norwegian entry Hold On, Be Strong sung by Maria Haukaas Storeng two years later. Ovi's debut album was recorded in Livingroom Studios in Oslo with good help from Simen and Espen Berg. He did also receive good help from Simen's girlfriend, D'Sounds songwriter and lead vocalist Simone, who wrote the song Seven Second for his debut album. On this album a lot of the inspiration is gained from the 70's big piano and keyboard based singer-songwriters such as Billy Joel, Elton John and Stevie Wonder. Without a deadline or set rules the album has developed naturally - a process that has taken two years. For Ovi "This Gig Almost Got Me Killed" is the start of something new, and finally he's ready to release his work. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.