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Originally from Valletta, Lino started singing and learning music from an early age at the Johann Strauss School of Music in Valletta, Malta. His first ever live performance was in a pantomime at the Manoel Theatre where he played the fox that leads Pinocchio astray. Just before his 10th birthday, his family emigrated to Sydney, where he later auditioned and was accepted into the professional singing group called ‘The Green Valley Young People's Choir’ alongside his younger sister Claire. Performed in numerous musicals at a young age and toured extensively within Australia, Great Britain, America and Canada. Under the direction of Captain Rex Harris, the choir, founded back in 1968, had many significant achievements and performances and also supported well-known Australian artists such as Marcia Hines, Jon English and Peter Allen, with the original recording of ‘I Still Call Australia Home’. Lino had toured and sang internationally with the choir right up to his 21st birthday. Throughout his years growing up in Australia, Lino had many great musical experiences but none of them could match being a part of his first band known as the 'B.C. Rebels'. The band were already together for a year and Lino was approached in his last year at Ashcroft High School to be the keyboard player and backing vocalist. That year they went on to win 'The Battle of the Bands' completion in N.S.W. and they were invited to play at the Sydney Opera House, a truly magical experience.
Today known as ‘Ozzy Lino’ referring to his upbringing in Australia, Ozzy started out his 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 his first hit single back in 2003, combined with an extensive list of live performances, Ozzy quickly grew his reputation for live music in Malta which became his hallmark and gave him a very successful 24 years of live music. Whilst keeping a busy schedule of live performances, in 2007 he 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’. He 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.
Ozzy always enjoyed taking part in jam sessions whenever the opportunity arose and it certainly came in handy when he earned the nickname ‘The Random Passenger’ after being captured on video whilst singing on a moving train in Frankfurt, Germany. Ozzy Lino went on to receive the ‘Frankfurt Tourism Award’ in 2017 alongside Heidi Joubert and Kiddo Kat for the viral video that to date has been viewed over 200 million times worldwide.
He 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 he 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 and singers from all over Europe, part of 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. The Orchestra was also invited to perform at the ‘G75’ celebrations, the 75th anniversary of the George Cross in October 2017 at Pjazza San Ä orÄ¡ in front of The Grand Master's Palace in Valletta, Malta.
In 2017 Ozzy released ‘KUN KBURIJA’, an original song to help raise awareness about domestic violence against women, a song composed by Maestro Joe Brown and lyrics by 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 'The 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 was directed by Maestro Sigmund Mifsud and was a journey into electronic dance music starting from the 1970s 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.
In January 2021, Ozzy was very proud to have been invited to sing together with some great artists from across the world like Konal, Alicja ChrzÄ…szcz, 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.
In March 2022, Ozzy Lino was given the opportunity to direct and produce his very first show called ‘Stones to Peppers’. This was a take on the 90s MTV unplugged sessions we had grown up watching. The show featured lead singers Klinsmann Coleiro, Claudia Faniello & Ozzy Lino and was held at the famous Manoel Theatre in Valletta, one of the oldest theatres in Europe. The Manoel Theatre was built by the Knights of St. John back in 1731 A.D.
‘Stones to Peppers’ featured songs from The Rolling Stones right through to The Red Hot Chili Peppers and everything in between. The show was very well received at which point Ozzy Lino produced the 2nd edition, ‘Stones to Peppers II’ featuring Ben Purplle, Janice Debattista and Ozzy Lino on Lead vocals and was also held at the Manoel Theatre. Ozzy was now itching for the 3rd and final chapter of the ‘Stones to Peppers’ saga but then took a different approach and produced and directed a concert of original songs entitled ‘Melodrama’ The disappearance of the Jewls Verse Project. This show featured songs that Ozzy had written under the alias Jewls Verse and a host of new tracks that would have been released under that stage name. But on that moving train in Frankfurt back in 2016, ‘Jewls Verse’ had been all but forgotten when Ozzy was dubbed as ‘The Random Passenger’ in that viral video.
Currently, Ozzy Lino is working on a new album but when he's not doing that, he rocks the stage as the frontman of the Brass House Unit and also as a guest singer with DCapitals Big Band and The Palace String Orchestra. Ozzy Lino has also performed with the Malta National Philharmonic Orchestra at the Prime Ministers Playlist, the 'V18' closing ceremony 'Tempo' with Tenishia and also Rockestra in 2016 and 2021.
