Artist from Pisa, born in ’96, he is a singer-songwriter, writer, actor and film director. After high school he enrolled at the “Oltrarno” Acting Academy in Florence, directed by Pierfrancesco Favino. He currently attends the University of Pisa, studying Contemporary History.
Music arrives in middle school, when he starts playing with friends in a caravan in the middle of a corn field, with a drum set, two amplifiers and a coffee machine. His first songs were born there, but it was during the three years in Florence that Toscano picked up the guitar again and began his adult compositions.
In 2018 he made his cinema debut in Paolo Virzì’s film “Notti Magiche”, presented at the Rome film festival. He is among the protagonists of “Studio Battaglia” by Simone Spada, a drama broadcasted on Italian national television. He also took part to “Romantiche”, a film by Pilar Fogliati with a screenplay by Giovanni Veronesi.
He alternates between music and his other artistic passions, he shoots documentaries, writes screenplays, and has texts in his drawer that tell of different worlds. On May 6, 2021, his debut novel, “Il guinaglio”, published by Fandango, was released which explores in words the themes that return in the songs, including insecurities, melancholy, thoughts and great loves and which was selected for “Guarda che storia , within the Torino Film Industry program.
Traveler, constantly searching for sounds and stories, he writes about his generation, constantly seeking new influences.
He loves Italian songwriting whose influences can be felt (Battisti, Tenco, Dalla, De Gregori, Fossati) and the international one (Nick Mulvey, Andy Shouf and DevendraBanhart). Not least in his songs is the reference to the South American sound of the 70s (Toquinho and Vinicius de Moraes, Jobim and Regina).
In summer 2022 his first singles “Stasera” and “Amore Mio” were released, with which he opened the concerts of Carmen Consoli, Max Gazzé and Daniele Silvestri. In March 2023 his first work “Arrogantissimo” was released (Latarma Records/BMG Italy), preceded by the single “Giornataccia”, which kicks off his journey in music living in contrasts: images and words, nature and city, meetings and farewells, poetry and madness. Later on, in summer 2023 he published the single “Spaghetti Gipsy”.
Scratched voice, music played, intimate lyrics, Giovanni Toscano’s songs cast their gaze on a melancholy generation that wants to stay.
As a movie director, he won the Honourable Mention Award at the Benevento Film Festival in 2024.
