Year 2001, the “Tormento” case breaks out … when one evening a musical video appears on the MTV Italia screens without warning: “2001 Church of S. Maria in Cosmedin, Rome” and you see a priest and a nun who in the sacristy consume a fleeting intimate encounter!
Soon after, the scene changes, and here is a priest in a confessional with a boy, and the sinful dream begins that culminates in a gay marriage in the Church, in the presence of a Cardinal!
Italy respectable, the following day, shouts to the scandal!
Catholic associations are mobilized, parliamentary interpellations, complaints start, and within a few days a dense silence falls, the censorship comes like a ruthless hit man, to put an end to the whole affair.
https://youtu.be/yg3OUj8sKd4
The disc is withdrawn from the shops, the video clip obscured by all the TV, the song deleted from radio playlists, and the singer banished everywhere, his record company, Sony Music Italy cuts off the record deal signed for 5 years with the artist , the whole Italy is lashing out against a single person, as if it were the worst of the killers, his name is Maxximo, with 2 x, and this is my story!
But since I have always been a rebel of nature, I have not been downed and I have continued my struggle for freedom and for the sacrosanct right to love, which belongs to every man on Earth.
The video is presented in an exclusive event at the Warner Bros Cinemas in Rome in Piazza della Repubblica, in front of a stunned and astounded public, in the presence of the entire international press and under the patronage of high fashion in Rome, there were also cameras Striscia la Notizia with the special envoy Dario Ballantini in the satirical clothes of the designer Valentino.
Thus a myth is born that will hail me as an artist in the rest of the world and will demolish me at home, in Italy!
The magazines around the world dedicate me entire covers and interviews, tv in England, Germany and Spain invite me as a guest star and the GLBT International community proclaims me a new gay musical icon, comparing me to sacred monsters like Madonna, George Michael, Boy George, Elton Jhon … artists like me who had always fought for the rights of homosexuals.
The paradox is that in Italy, however, even the gay media prefer to remain silent, intimidated by the censorship, the same Gay Tv, censors the video clip on its television network, the president of the Arci gay, which at that time was the honorable Franco Grillini instead of marrying the battle against censorship, he prefers to remain silent and ignore the case.
They have to spend almost 20 years to re-emerge the video and the song from the deepest depths, making it out of Spain, and ‘in 2018 that the video suddenly reappears online and in just 24 hours reaches over 1 million views on social networks! The press begins to talk about it, the radio to retransmit the song, slowly “Tormento” returns to life from the ashes like a Phoenix, and today I hope that the new gay generations can appreciate it and enhance it in the right way.
Tormento is a piece of history and conquest for the whole GLBT community, wherever they are, because Love is universal and it is a right for everyone!
Maximo De Marco began his career at an early age as a dancer, model, actor, singer, training and artistically perfecting internationally, winning a grant issued by the EEC (European Economic Community) that will lead him to study with teachers of World fame, later becoming author, director, choreographer, discographer, designer and writer, thanks to all these working experiences in the Entertainment World, today Maximo De Marco is one of the most important and internationally recognized Art Director , Nominated Art Director to Vitam by the Vatican, for the WYD and Friends of Pope Francis (World Youth Day), Official Member of the International Dance Council of UNESCO and Premio Cavallo D’Argento Rai (Italian Radio Television), Career of the Music Life Tv Awards (SKY) and of Cantagiro as best Artistic Director, Amen Prize for Literature with special mention at the International Exhibition the book of Turin in 2013 and winner of the Salerno International Film Festival in 2017 with his religious historical film “Petali di Rosa”. In his career as Art Director, he has directed Televisions, Radio, Magazine, Theaters, and great Star of Music and Performing Arts, including the English Pop Star Boy George, for his World Tour in the 90s “, the winner of The Voice of Italy Sister Cristina, and other artists such as: Franco Simone, Teo Mammuccari, Fabrizio Frizzi, Antonella Ponziani, Claudia Koll…