Mao

Mao, stage name of Mauro Gurlino, was born in Turin, Italy, on 16 April 1971. As he likes to say, Turin is somewhere between Foggia and Aosta. He earned a degree in History and Criticism of Cinema at the University of Turin, with a thesis on Adriano Celentano’s musical film “Yuppi du”. «He is and has been anything», as a journalist once put it, describing his eclectic thirty-year career.

In the Nineties he led the band Mao e la Rivoluzione, releasing two records for Virgin Records (“Sale” and “Casa”), attending the Sanremo Festival with “Romantico” and performing the opening act for Oasis. He presented, with Andrea Pezzi, several shows on MTV Italy (“Kitchen”, “Hot”, “Romalive”, “Tiziana”, “Tokusho”), and has been a radio host since high school (Rai Radio 1, Radio Deejay, Radio Città Futura, Radio Flash). As an actor he appeared in “20 Venti” by Marco Pozzi, “500!” by Giovanni Robbiano, Lorenzo Vignolo and Matteo Zingirian, “Perdutoamor” by Franco Battiato, “A/R Andata+Ritorno” and “Passione sinistra” by Marco Ponti, “I solidi idioti” by Enrico Lando, as well as in short films by Enrico Iacovoni, Nicola Rondolino, Igor Mendolia and Guido Norzi.

Over the years he has collaborated with Delta V, Max Gazzè and Morgan, producer of his first solo record “Black mokette”, released by Sony Music and followed by the soundtrack for “500!” on Mescal. With Santabarba he played as resident band for the Rai 2 show “Scalo 76”, and was resident musician for “Ventura Football Club” on Rai Radio 1.