| Zameer Rizvi | |
| Background: | person |
| Birth Date: | 5 February 1981 |
| Occupation: | Technology Entrepreneur |
| Years Active: | 2002–present |
Zameer Rizvi (born 5 February 1981) is a technology entrepreneur and innovator of AI software.[1] Before finding success in the tech business, he pursued a music career as a singer/songwriter.[2] He founded Odesso Inc in 2017, a rapidly growing tech start-up that makes enterprise SaaS software.[3] [4] [5]
Rizvi was born in Lahore, Pakistan. He was raised in Libya, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, England and finally Canada. In 1995, Rizvi and his family immigrated to Canada, and currently reside in Mississauga, Ontario. Rizvi is the youngest of four siblings, who later formed their own band. In 1998, Rizvi and his two brothers, Ali and Hussain, released their first EP as the band Dead Shyre.[6] Although it received moderate success, Rizvi credits Dead Shyre for teaching him the basics of recording and production.[7] They also have one sister, Tara.[8] Both of Rizvi's parents are university professors.[9] Rizvi holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Western Ontario.[10] Zameer has travelled quite a lot which is reelected in his music.
During 2002–2004, while attending the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Rizvi studied the mathematical ingredients of some of this era's hit music, using auditory scene analysis. His research paper, titled "Auditory Scene Analysis of 20th Century Popular Music", was published by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Western Ontario.[11]
In 2005, Rizvi moved back to Toronto to pursue his music career. He formed a band and performed at local Toronto open mics and bars, including Lee's Palace and the Horseshoe Tavern.[12] Over the next two years, Rizvi steadily moved up Toronto's live music food chain, performing at bigger and better venues including the Opera House, Hershey Centre, and ultimately the Skydome (Rogers Centre).[13]
It was around this time that Rizvi wrote and released his debut single "Win or Defeat", and was nominated as 'Best Artist' at the Toronto Independent Music Awards.[14] He was also ranked amongst the top 10 live acts in Toronto by the world's largest music festival, Emergenza.[15] Record labels and producers started paying attention, and Rizvi was approached by multiple Grammy Award winning producer, Steve Thompson.[16] Steve later went on to re-produce "Win or Defeat", which Rizvi debuted for 30,000 spectators during a sporting event at the Skydome in Toronto.[17]
The message of "Win or Defeat" is to overcome all obstacles to pursue a dream, which resonated with the Canadian Paralympic Committee. The Committee subsequently licensed "Win or Defeat" to use as a song promoting athletes with disabilities. The Paralympics produced the video for "Win or Defeat", which featured Canadian Paralympic gold medalists Brad Bowden and Paul Rosen.[18] Soon after the video's release, "Win or Defeat" was in rotation on MTV, MuchMusic and over 45 radio stations nationwide.[19] Rizvi went on to perform the song at the 2010 Vancouver Games in Whistler, British Columbia.[20]
Rizvi announced plans to release a new album called "Her" during a 19 January interview on Open Chest TV with Raj Girn,[21] part of the Anokhi Magazine network. Rizvi revealed he has been working with drummer Johnny Fay of The Tragically Hip and 13-time Juno winning producer Gavin Brown (musician).[22] Rizvi's first single "Crazy" ft. Mia Martina came out on 28 April. It debuted at No. 5 breakout on the Billboard Hot Dance Club charts on 18 July 2015.[23] It spent 6 weeks in the top 50, peaking at No. 42.[24] [25] On 30 June 2016 Zameer released the album Her while on tour with Ali Noor as his guest guitarist.
Zameer started off 2016 with the release of the song and music video "Oh Yea!". In July 2016 Zameer went on tour to promote his album Her.[26] During the course of the tour Zameer live streamed several sessions of him and Ali Noor working on new music.[27] In early 2017 Zameer teased a song and music video entitled "Walk Away"[28] which was later revealed to be the song they worked on while on tour in 2016. After teasing "Walk Away" several music videos released which included "Endless Summer" and "Uh Oh". On 28 July 2017 Zameer released the album Digital Summer which featured "Walk Away", all the songs from the recent music videos, and B-sides and EDM remixes from the Her recording sessions. In November 2017 Zameer released the music video for "Walk Away".
On 30 November 2018 Zameer released his 4th studio album Nomad which featured the singles "Hope", "Don't Stop Movin (feat. Lily Kincade)", and "Origin (feat. Holly Pyle)", along with 8 more previously unreleased tracks. One of the new songs "Who's to Say" was previewed previously during live acoustic performances and live streams on social media, but wasn't produced and mastered until its debut on Nomad. This album was fully produced and orchestrated by Zameer Rizvi. While most of the album is carried by Zameer's vocals and guitar performances, he also tapped several other instrumentalists including string musicians from the LA philharmonic and a trumpeter who has played on multiple Grammy winning and Billboard No. 1 albums.
Zameer founded and became the CEO of Odesso, a tech startup that builds software automation solutions used by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) [29] [30]
In November 2023, Odesso Health introduced its Clinical Data Connector (CDC) to the athenahealth Marketplace and the Appian Community AppMarket, as Odesso Health continues efforts to utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the automation of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) workflows, to expand their solutions to a wider audience within the healthcare sector.[31]
| Year | Artist | Album | Song | Peak Chart Positions | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BillboardCanadian Hot 100 | Billboard Hot Dance Club (US) | Billboard Artists ( CAN) | Billboard Social Media (US) | CanadianiTunes Sales | Billboard Digital Sales | |||||
| 2011 | Zameer | From Under the Bleachers | "Glory of Love" | 73 | – | 5 | – | – | – | |
| 2012 | Zameer | From Under the Bleachers | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | |
| 2015 | Zameer Rizvi | Her | "Crazy (feat. Mia Martina)" | – | 42 | – | – | – | – | |
| 2018 | Zameer Rizvi | Nomad | "Don't Stop Movin" | – | – | – | – | 50 | – | |
| 2019 | Zameer Rizvi | Nomad | "Hope" | – | – | – | – | 18 | 33 | |
Rizvi has released fourteen music videos to date:[35]
| Year | Single | Director | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | "Win or Defeat" | Marc André Debruyne | From Under the Bleachers | |
| 2009 | "With You" | Nelson Navarro Navarro | From Under the Bleachers | |
| 2010 | "Teri Yaad" | Isaac Elliott-Fisher, Awais Jaffery | Saath | |
| 2010 | "My Hometown" | Mark Araujo | From Under the Bleachers | |
| 2010 | "Classical Jind Mahi" | Isaac Elliott-Fisher | Saath | |
| 2011 | "Mind Over Murder" | Randall Lobb | From Under the Bleachers | |
| 2012 | "Tatti" | Awais Jaffery, Isaac Elliott-Fisher | TBA | |
| 2014 | "Shut The World Out" | Ali Noor, Isaac Elliott-Fisher | Her | |
| 2015 | "Crazy" | Sloane Berry | Her | |
| 2016 | "Take" | Mandana Zaidi | Her | |
| 2017 | "Oh Yea!" | Nicholas Jurand | Digital Summer | |
| 2017 | "Endless Summer" | Nicholas Jurand | Digital Summer | |
| 2017 | "Uh Oh" | Nicholas Jurand | Digital Summer | |
| 2017 | "Walk Away" | Nicholas Jurand | Digital Summer | |
| 2018 | "Shalalalalalala" | Nicholas Jurand | Digital Summer | |
| 2019 | "Hope" | Nicholas Jurand | Nomad |
In 2006, Rizvi founded his own imprint called Rizvi Records through which he releases his music. He also founded ZRG, a provider of communications and technology consulting services to a client roster which includes Bell Canada and Research in Motion.
Rizvi is a multi-instrumentalist and plays the guitars, drums, and keyboards on most of the songs on From Under the Bleachers.
Rizvi has founded several charitable initiatives for various causes. In 2007, Rizvi partnered with MuchMoreMusic to spearhead Sing For South Asia, a charity concert to raise funds for victims of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.[36] In 2008, Rizvi decided to donate partial profit from the sales of his song "Win or Defeat" to the Canadian Paralympic Foundation, an organization dedicated to enriching the lives of Canadians with disabilities through sport.[37] Between 2009 and 2010, Rizvi participated in a series of performances for Hands Up Canada, a charitable initiative to support Paralympic Sports across 30 shopping malls in Canada.