Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire Italian entrepreneur and former prime minister who died Monday (June 12) in Milan at age 86, will be remembered as one of Italy’s most controversial leaders. But before his career in politics, record labels he formed in the 1980s and 1990s helped launch the careers of popular Italian artists like Cristina D’Avena, Sabrina Salerno, Ambra Angiolini and Francesco Salvi.
In the 1950s, Berlusconi performed as a young crooner on cruise ships, where he met his friend and lifetime professional partner Fedele Confalonieri, who would later become chairman of Mediaset, Berlusconi’s…
