Gianmaria Testa was born near Cuneo (in Italy’s Piedmont region) in 1958. He grew up in a family of farmers and taught himself to play guitar, writing his first songs as soon as he learned his chords. Gianmaria played and sang in several local rock bands before discovering his true, solitary vocation. In 1993 and 1994 he won first prize at the Recanati Festival for emerging singer-songwriters, where he met a French producer who took a liking to his demo tape.
