A CD of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi singing Neapolitan love songs may still make it onto the shelves in time for Christmas, his song-writing partner said Monday.
Neapolitan musician Mariano Apicella had warned the premier at the beginning of August that he needed to take a break from politics to focus on his musical career in order to finish the CD.
''We are working hard,'' Apicella confirmed Monday from Berlusconi's villa in Sardinia. ''I'd like this CD to come out in December, but it won't be easy considering all of the premier's commitments,'' he said.
Apicella, who accompanies Berlusconi's croonings on guitar, said there will be 14 new songs on the new CD, and gave a taster of the album opener, 'There's Love', which, like the others, was penned by the premier.
Fans can thrill to lines such as 'There's love which lights up, like a star lights up, which makes you feel beautiful by the power of kisses' and 'There's love that confuses, that leaps in your chest, there's love that seeks you out only to spite you'.
''We haven't mentioned a single political theme in the whole CD,'' Apicella stressed. ''It's about lots of love stories''.
Apicella complained earlier this month that even when Berlusconi was on holiday in Sardinia ''he's always working because he receives an average of 40-50 telephone calls a day''.
A former car park attendant, Apicella has made a living from playing traditional Neapolitan ballads and first met Berlusconi when the premier dined at a Naples restaurant where he was performing in 2001.
The relationship soon blossomed and two years later the pair released their first album, ''Meglio Una Canzone'' (Better A Song), which sold about 45,000 copies.
The two have frequently put on mini-concerts for friends and visiting heads of state at the premier's villa.
Apicella says the premier is an expert in Neapolitan music and a talented songwriter.
Before his careers in business and politics, the media mogul sang on a cruise ship for holiday-makers in his youth.
