THE RANDOM PASSENGER_EPK
Biography
I am originally from Valletta and started my singing and learning music at an early age at the Johann Strauss School of Music. My first performance was in a pantomime at the Manoel Theatre itself where I played the fox that leads Pinocchio astray at age 7. Just before my 10th birthday, my family emigrated to Sydney, were I auditioned and was accepted into the professional group ‘The Green Valley Young Peoples Choir’. I performed in numerous musicals even at a young age and toured extensively within Australia, Great Britain, America & Canada. Under the direction of Mr Rex Harris, the choir had many significant achievements and performances and supported artists like Marcia Hines, Jon English, and Peter Allen, with the original recording of ‘I Still Call Australia Home’. I toured and sang internationally with the choir right up to my 21st birthday.
Known as ‘Ozzy Lino’ referring to my upbringing in Australia, I started out my career in Malta as a resident singer and co-host of ‘RED,’ a music TV show. With regular radio appearances and with the release of my first hit single in 2003, combined with an extensive list of live performances, I quickly grew my reputation for live music in Malta which became my hallmark and gave me a very successful 21 years of live music. Whilst keeping a busy schedule of live performances, in 2007 I also released an album called ‘Taking it Easy’, under the alias ‘Jewls Verse’ derived from the lyrics of one of the original tracks meaning ‘Verses like Jewels’. I wrote, composed, recorded, and released the solo album in July 2007, subsequently two of the tracks from the album were included in a compilation called ‘bandunion VII,’ a label hailing from Austria.
I always enjoyed taking part in jam sessions whenever the opportunity arose, and it certainly came in handy when I earned the nickname ‘The Random Passenger,’ after being captured on video whilst singing on a moving train in Frankfurt, Germany. I went on to receive the ‘Frankfurt Tourism Award’ in 2017 for the viral video that to date has been viewed over 200 million times worldwide.
I also acted, sang, and danced in a Maltese musical style Cabaret as ‘il-Boqqu’ in ‘Balzunetta Towers,’ a script totally in Maltese with original songs which was a great challenge as I had never studied Maltese. This show also starred other local heavyweights like Davide Tucci, Chris Dingli, Joe Quattromani, Doreen Galea, and a host of others. The theatrical cabaret featured an original score by renowned jazz maestro Dominic Galea, whose family was born and bred in Balzunetta. The story, the satire and the comedy were penned by one of Malta’s literary stalwarts, Alfred Sant, and all the songs were lyricised by leading poet Albert Marshall. The work of these heavyweights was produced and directed by another household name, theatre- maker Sean Buhagiar, who presented a fresh take on the notorious Balzunetta myth.
As a local coordinator of a Citizens Orchestra, a take on ‘Ode to Joy’, playing on the 5 notes from the said Ode to Joy, alongside Composer Tim Steiner and Ricardo Baptista from Ondamarela at Pjazza Teatru Rjal, a project that was initially thought up for a small group of no more than 50 people suddenly took on a different trajectory due to a Facebook post and some TV promotion. With over 500 local and foreign amateur musicians & singers from all over Europe part of my task was to make sure that all participants made it to their workshops according to different instrument classes and at the same time organizing rehearsal spaces and times, preparing all the music sheets, and more importantly, getting everybody to each and every workshop as these were spread over a five-month period. The project ended up with over 200 people completing all the workshops, following which the show came to life on May 14th, 2017. This was the culmination of a community project hosted by the 2017 Maltese Presidency for the Council of the EU, for the Europe Day celebration, a dream that did come true. A smaller version of the group was invited back again to ‘G75’, the 75th Anniversary of the George Cross in October 2017 at Pjazza San Gorg.
I also released ‘KUN KBURIJA’ an original song to help raise awareness against domestic violence with Joe Brown & Darren Marmara. The song was commissioned by the NGO ‘Phenomenal Women Malta’ and the Commission for Domestic Violence.
- In January 2018 ‘V18’ or as Valletta was named Cultural Capital of Europe, Ozzy Lino took part in ‘TAL-LINO’ an event with ‘Random’ Bus hopping for a whole week all over Malta and Gozo and spreading the word that ‘All roads lead to Valletta’ leading up to the V18 celebration in Valletta.
This was then followed by the V18 opening ceremony in Valletta
where Ozzy Lino had the honour of once again performing with The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra The concert, directed by Sigmund Mifsud, and was a journey into electronic dance music starting from the 1970’s onwards and includes 17 iconic tracks that have shaped the genre of electronic dance music throughout the years in a show conducted by Maestro Roderick Bugeja, produced by Damian Mizzi and one of Malta's top DJ 'Tenishia' in the first ever edition of the show ‘TEMPO’ in St. George's Square Valletta, Malta's capital city.
- January 2021 Ozzy was very proud have been invited to sing together with some great artists from across the world like Konal,
Alicja Chrząszcz, Birjiwan, Inan Lima,Linda Linne Asker, Sunni AI,
Liane Evers & Ice Cream. All these artists came together to help commemorate Bangladesh as a republic for the last 50 years with the original song "Through The Tiger's Eye". This wonderful epic project was composed and produced by Robert Bartha.
- Currently singing with various big bands such as Brass House Unit, Versatile Brass, The Palace String Orchestra, DCapitals Band and
the Malta Concert Orchestra. Ozzy Lino has also performed with the Malta National Philharmonic Orchestra at Rockestra in 2016 & 2021.
