The music video that scandalized Italy in 2001, undergoing censorship, after an excommunication by the Vatican and a parliamentary question that made it disappear in absolute silence, has reappeared online these days! So much so that the original film of the video was publicly burned in protest, in the square of Campo dei Fiori, in Rome, under the statue of Giordano Bruno!
The video, after the censorship, became sought after and famous within a few weeks and its fame spread all over the world! So much so that Jean Paul Gaultier, wanted to be a guest in his most popular program in England, on Channell4, the protagonist of the video, we are talking about Maximo De Marco, an Italian artist, who at the time called himself MaXXimo with two Xs …
His story is so unique because in 2001 he was excommunicated by the Church for his video defined as “irreverent and blasphemous”, and in 2007 on the set of the historical religious film “Petali di Rosa” starring and directed by him alongside Claudia Koll and Antonella Ponziani, had a spiritual conversion and was even appointed on behalf of the Vatican by Bishop Domenico Sigalini, Art Director ad vitam of WYD and Frineds of Pope Francis, for World Youth Day!
So from excommunication he even went to work for the Pope!
De Marco himself after his conversion retired to a convent for 2 years, from where he founded the show academy “Star Rose Academy” with the Ursuline Sisters, discovering and launching Sister Cristina! The winning nun of The Voice Italy in 2014!
Maximo De Marco’s life looks like a movie but it’s actually a real story!
Maximo now lives in Barcelona, Spain, works in Spanish radio and TV and is President of the European Gay Network, an organization for the protection of the GLBT community against all forms of discrimination! Since 2018 he is an official member of UNESCO as Art Director.
But let’s retrace the history of the “Tormento” music video together, in name and in fact!
In 2001 Maximo De Marco was hired by Sony Music Italia and Columbia Records, thanks to his producer Libero Venturi, manager of artists such as Claudio Baglioni and Antonello Venditti, realizing after a first cd special, a second cd entitled “Tormento”.
The song, written by the artist himself, is about a gay love story between a priest, played by Maximo De Marco and a parishioner … of which a video is made, even shot inside the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, known throughout the world as the church of the mouth of truth!
In the video for the first time in musical history, two boys are seen getting married in church, united in marriage by a Cardinal, between living statues of saints and bleeding Madonnas!
Everything at the end of the video appears as in a dream, imagined by the priest!
The video is launched under the Roman high fashion event, in front of all the international press, which astonished and incredulous attends the screening of the film in the Modern cinema of Warner Bros, in Piazza della Repubblica in Rome! Scandal is immediately shouted!
The video remains on Italian music TVs for only 2 weeks, then the CD is withdrawn from the record market, and the video is censored and blacked out everywhere … even the Italian gay TV, Gay TV, refuses to broadcast it, for fear of retaliation. to the broadcaster!
A music video entirely shot on film, with a cast of international models and actors, including the actress Trans Juana Jimenez, actress of various Italian films with Banfi, Verdone, De Sica, in the role of the Madonna!
Maximo De Marco arrives to conquer the covers of all the Gay World magazines, being hailed everywhere as a new gay musical icon, and compared by the press to other sacred gay icons such as George Michael and Madonna!
But for the artist begins a path full of difficulties and total obstructionism in his country, he is thrown out of his record company, and no other major agrees to produce it, so much so that Maximo, determined to go forward artistically and not letting himself be demoralized by the many obstacles and closed roads he meets, he self-produces a new cd, called “Sex”, this time he lashes out against the exploitation of prostitution! Undergoing censorship again in Italy! At this point, I understood that it is without a doubt a personal persecution, of pure social discrimination, due to his public declaration of being gay! He decides to leave Italy and move to a more democratic and civilized country, choosing Spain,
country where he currently lives.
Here he continues his artistic work becoming one of the most important Art Directors at the international level, a member of Unesco.
The story of Maximo De Marco is a sad story of discrimination, due to his sexual orientation … of those stories that in Italy we are now used to hearing