MAMA ft. Antonella are a British alternative band from Wolverhampton, founded in 2022 by writer Antonella Gambotto-Burke and multiplatinum producer Gavin Monaghan.MAMA ft. "Antonella, multiplatinum producer Gavin Monaghan's first band, to play its first gig at Feel the Noise," Birmingham World, April 1, 2025 Their 2024 debut single, "A River Running Wild", was self-released."Mama feat. Antonella - A River Running Wild," by Mikko Ihalainen, EmotionZine, September 27, 2024
Apex Predators, their debut album, was released one month after their first gig."MAMA ft. Antonella, multiplatinum producer Gavin Monaghan's first band, to play its first gig at Feel the Noise," Express and Star, April 2, 2025 Described by critic Kris Needs as "phenomenal", and, in Electronic Sound magazine, as a "riveting stone killer","MAMA ft Antonella, and WRF," by Kris Needs, Electronic Sound magazine, November 2024 it has been described as having elements of Robert Johnson and Led Zeppelin."MAMA ft. Antonella, multiplatinum producer Gavin Monaghan’s first band, to play its first gig at Feel the Noise," Express and Star, April 2, 2025"MAMA featuring Antonella – Apex Predators", by Mikko Ihalainen, EmotionZine, May 30, 2025"First album by the woman Alan McGee wanted to sing with the Jesus & Mary Chain creates international buzz", by Emily Jones, Edinburgh Evening News, May 18, 2025"MAMA ft Antonella: APEX PREDATORS – Album Review", by Lee Eccie, Louder than War, May 26, 2025"Mama ft. Antonella – Apex Predators", by Nicole Mendes, The Other Side Reviews, May 21, 2025Electronic Press Release, accessed June 25, 2025
MAMA ft. Antonella have cited various bands and artists as influences, including Amy Winehouse, Nirvana, Anita Lane, the Sex Pistols, and Nina Simone.- "MAMA ft. Antonella - electronic press kit," accessed April 13, 2025
In October 2025, MAMA made the GRAMMY Awards longlist in two categories: Best Rock Album for their debut album Apex Predators and Best New Artist.Personal Instagram
History Early lives Antonella Gambotto-Burke Antonella Gambotto-Burke was born in Sydney to Northern Italian parents. Her mother was a singer who emigrated to Australia at the age of nineteen; in her youth, she performed on the Australian hit show Bandstand (TV program)."MAMA ft. Antonella - electronic press kit", accessed April 12, 2025 Gambotto-Burke's father was a businessman who made the Australian front pages and international legal news when he single-handedly changed Australian corporate law."WCP LTD V Gambotto: An Opportunity for the High Court to Set Some Corporate Law Norms," by Saul Fridman, Federal Law Review, Cambridge University Press, January 24, 2025, pp. 205 - 212"A roar deal for corporate mice," by Chris Merritt, Australian Financial Review, March 9, 1995"Legal Studies Research Paper No. 537: What Do You Do With a High Court Decision You Don't Like? Legislative, Judicial and Academic Responses to Gambotto v WCP LTD," by Ian Ramsay and Benjamin Saunders, Melbourne Law School, Melbourne University, accessed April 12, 2025"Gambotto v WCP 182 CLR 432," Oxbridge Notes, accessed April 12, 2025
At the age of eighteen, Gambotto-Burke left Australia for England, where she worked for the NME and other music magazines."Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? NME's return dismays fans," by Kieran Gair, The Times, August 11, 2023"Apple: Sex, Drugs, Motherhood and the Recovery of the Feminine," by Antonella Gambotto-Burke, p20, Pinter and Martin, 2022
The following year, the NME was sued over Gambotto-Burke's review of a Cliff Richard gig,Law Council of Australia - Business Law Section Corporations Workshop, August 2015: After Dinner Speech," by Reginald Barrett, August 2015"ESSAY COLLECTION: An Instinct for the Kill by Antonella Gambotto," by Airlie Lawson, Australian Book Review, February–March 1998, no. 198 Nick Cave wrote a misogynistic song about her after she told the truth of his addiction in a Zig Zag cover interview ("He was actually a horrible person," Gambotto-Burke said in a podcast),"The O.F.I. Monday Show-The One Where A River Runs Wild," OFI Monday podcast, November 3, 2024Nick Cave: "'I have to spend hours talking to fucking idiots like you'," by Jack Barron, The Guardian, July 2, 2014"Scum: The Inside Dope," by Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Men's Style, September 2006"Apple: Sex, Drugs, Motherhood and the Recovery of the Feminine," by Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Pinter and Martin, 2022, pp.20 - 21"North Shore girls understand their value," (cover story) by Doug Conway, The North Shore Times, April 29, 2018 Martin Amis made her his (unconsenting) muse for the iconic character, among others, of Nicola Six in London Fields - the letters Amis wrote her now belong to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin"Martin Amis stole my life,' by Antonella Gambotto-Burke, UnHerd, February 14, 2025 - and, notably, she was befriended by Alan McGee, who would later found Creation Records and discover Oasis.
McGee wanted Gambotto-Burke to sing with the Jesus and Mary Chain, but she was "too shy" and preferred to focus on her writing."Riots, raves & running a label: special guest Antonella Gambotto-Burke", by Alan McGee, Boogaloo Radio, May 29, 2019"Kath Stanczyszyn interviews Antonella Gambotto-Burke," BBC Radio, May 19, 2024"Antonella Gambotto Burke: An artist who with courage and passion faces everything that concerns the world we live in," (Italian language) by Alessandra Izzo, Extra!, November 2024 "The idea of performing then filled me with terror," Gambotto-Burke said."MAMA ft. Antonella - interview," by John Robb, Louder than War, August 13, 2023
She told another interviewer, "I’ve always been really, really shy - not intellectually, but emotionally. Intellectually, I'm fearless. In high school, I was always singing solos - I deeply loved music - but my life hit the wall at 16 when my grandmother, who lived with us, died. She was the most beautiful woman, and her death was drawn-out - cancer - and deeply traumatic. So the singing just stopped. Boom. I started wearing black. The grief was profound.""She wants. She gets: Antonella Gambotto-Burke finds a voice - hers," by Bernard Zuel, Bernard Zuel: Music Journalist (blog), July 7, 2023
In late 2019, McGee took her out to dinner in London with a Grammy Award-winning producer, who, over dinner, turned to her. "'You should sing,' he said unprompted. 'The way air moves over your larynx. I work with voices all the time, and you'd be really good.'" Gambotto-Burke said that the producer's tone was so authoritative and Alan "just looked so happy that for the first time in my life, I felt brave enough to try."
A few weeks later, Gambotto-Burke was offered a contract for Apple: Sex, Drugs, Motherhood and the Recovery of the Feminine, which took her 18 months to write. "Then lockdown happened, so it wasn't until late 2021 that I started writing songs."
Monaghan told an interview, "I understand why McGee asked. Antonella's voice is pure emotion and her lyrics are up there with the best – Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, you name it.""Multiplatinum producer Gavin Monaghan joins forces with acclaimed feminist," by Natalie Key, Female First, December 5, 2024
Beginning to make music was, in its entirety, a "really unexpected" process for Gambotto-Burke, who said in an interview, "I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing – life was shoving me in a new direction, and I finally decided to just roll with it."
In 2025, Gambotto-Burke also announced that she would be launching a podcast called "The Wild Ones", leaking a teaser from her interview with drummer Lol Tolhurst of The Cure."The Wild Ones 01," accessed April 13, 2025
Gavin Monaghan Gavin Monaghan was born in London to a British mother and Irish father. In his youth, he was a reserve in the British Commonwealth Games karate team and supported various bands, including The Cult and Zodiac Mindwarp, playing major stadiums around the world. Gambotto-Burke revealed that he "hated the whole scene - the drugs, the endless tour-bus anal sex loops, the parade of women, the emotional destabilisation."
The first recording studio Monaghan founded was Clockwork in London."Magic Garden Studios - The Team," accessed April 12, 2025"MAMA ft. Antonella - electronic press kit," accessed April 12, 2025
Monaghan, who has worked on 30+ gold and platinum records, has since worked with Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley estate, Duane Eddy estate, Grace Jones, Editors, Paolo Nutini, Aurora, The Twang, The Holloways, Ocean Colour Scene, Tony Christie, The Cult, Sly and Robbie, Jimmy Somerville, Aswad, Elvis Costello, Terry Hall, Kirsty MacColl, Femi Kuti, Meredith Brooks, Goldblade, Nizlopi, Scott Matthews, Lemmy, The Destroyers, Stone, Headshrinkers, The Sherlocks, The Blinders, House of the Dragon's Paddy Considine, and JAWS, among hundreds of others.
His music is featured in innumerable advertisements and multimillion-dollar productions ranging from the Austin Powers and Twilight franchises to American Horror Story, Gangs of London, Luther, and Peaky Blinders. BBC presenter Robin Valk said that Monaghan "commands massive respect worldwide"."Gavin Monaghan on Lives in Music. A great producer; one of the good guys," Lives in Music podcast, February 21, 2020
Similarly, BBC and Rolling Stone writer Susan Hansen said of Monaghan's studio, "This place is called Magic Garden for a reason. Extraordinary records continue to be made here and the level of creativity that goes into it really is something else. A fascination with and a need for contrast and balance might hold the key to understanding what Magic Garden is about. But whether that holds the key to getting to know the studio's owner and founder, producer legend and mixer extraordinaire Gavin Monaghan, who works there, remains a question to be answered.""Industry Focus: INTERVIEW with ... Gavin Monaghan," by Susan Hansen, It's All Indie, September 20, 2018
In 2024, Monaghan was commissioned by Robert Plant to "reimagine" two Led Zeppelin tracks, Kashmir and Whole Lotta Love, for the Wolverhampton Wanderers football team."New Led Zeppelin mix set for Molineux debut," Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, May 10, 2024"Robert Plant is working on a ‘reimagined version’ of a ‘classic Led Zeppelin song’,", LedZepNews, April 25, 2024
Monaghan is a two-time winner of the BMA Producer of the Year and his studio, Magic Garden, is a two-time winner of the BMA Studio of the Year Awards (2019, 2022/23)."Magic Garden Recordings launches with jaw-dropping first signing: Lydons set to shake up the scene," by Ronan O'Connor, Birmingham World, January 14, 2025
"I’ve represented and supported other people's art for decades and continue to do so with infinite love, but exploring my own art without any commercial pressure has been exhilarating," Monaghan told MSN News. "The fact that Antonella is such a phenomenal singer and lyricist has made the process super easy.""MAMA ft. Antonella, multiplatinum producer Gavin Monaghan's first band, to play its first gig at Feel the Noise," MSN News, April 1, 2025
2022–2025: Band beginnings and MAMA ft. Antonella Gambotto-Burke first met Monaghan at his studio, Magic Garden, when she went in to record the first single by her first band. After a 16-hour stint in the studio, she decided, on Monaghan's advice, to dissolve the band. "I was devastated – I'd worked on that song for months," Gambotto-Burke told an interviewer. "Gavin wanted me to change genres on the basis that I needed a 'bigger framework' for my voice. So we decided to go with dance, which we both madly love.""FIB Chats: Antonella spills the tea on MAMA ft. Antonella," by Holly-Beth Quinn, Fashion Industry Broadcast, July 28, 2023