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 has earned a degree in History and Criticism of Cinema at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of the University of Turin. A creative and in-depth critique discussing the musical film “Yuppi du” by Adriano Celentano was among his final thesis topics. «He is and has been anything», as once he was defined by a journalist describing his eclectic thirty-year career.
He has been leader in the Nineties of the band Mao e la Rivoluzione, publishing two records for Virgin Records (“Sale” and “Casa”, attending Sanremo Festival with the song “Romantico” and performing the opening act for Oasis), presenter with Andrea Pezzi for tv shows broadcasted on MTV Italy (“Kitchen”, “Hot”, “Romalive”, “Tiziana”, “Tokusho”), speaker for radio stations since the high school (Rai Radio 1, Radio Deejay, Radio Città Futura, Radio Flash), actor both in long films (“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) and in short films (directed by Enrico Iacovoni, Nicola Rondolino, Igor Mendolia and Guido Norzi).
Over the years, he has collaborated with several musicians, among which, Delta V, Max Gazzè and Morgan, producer of his first solo record “Black mokette”, released by Sony Music, followed by the soundtrack for the film “500!”, released by Mescal. Together with Santabarba, he played as resident band for the music tv show “Scalo 76” broadcasted on Rai 2. Rai, the Italian national television, had him as well as resident musician for the radio show “Ventura Football Club” broadcasted on Rai Radio 1.
For over twenty years, together with his artistic collective CortoCorto, he has been organising showcases for the Turin nightclubbing scene through the soundtrack contests “Duel”, the song contests “LaBase” and the talk shows “Il Salotto di Mao”, formats which have hosted more than 1,000 artists. He was member for ten years of the trio Le Voci del Tempo, a band telling the Italian history in clubs and theatres with shows mixing images, readings and songs.
In 2010 published his third solo record, “Piume pazze”, distributed for free on internet, followed by two music novels “Meglio tardi che Mao” (Express Edizioni) in 2011 and “Olràit! Mao sogna Celentano e gliele canta” (Arcana Edizioni) in 2013. He is owner and manager of CortoCorto STUDIO, an audio-video recording and production studio located in the heart of San Salvario neighborhood in Turin.
Between 2019 and 2020 he returned on the record market with the singles “Nudi alla meta”, “Le cose” and the music video of “Scusa caro vicino”, born from the artistic collaboration with writer Enrica Tesio and produced by DJ Aladyn and Max Bellarosa from Radio Deejay. Also in 2020, in a duet with Il Tusco, he released the music video for “Velenosa”. In 2022, exactly twenty-five years after the release of the seminal album “Casa”, he surprisingly published the music video for “Stringimi #25”, recorded as a duet with Bianco and filmed at the Murazzi del Po in front of the historic Giancarlo club.
In 2025 he joins Delta V as the opening act for their tour presenting the new album “In fatti ostili”, performing in some of the most renowned music clubs across Italy. During the tour, he presents audiences with an exclusive preview of several unreleased songs from his forthcoming and highly awaited new album, scheduled for release in 2026.
