The global financial crisis may have brought the eurozone to the verge of collapse, set stock markets tumbling around the world and pushed Greece to the brink of bankruptcy.
But these rolling economic stormclouds may contain a tiny silver lining: the downturn has reportedly prompted Silvio Berlusconi to delay the release of his latest CD of sentimental love songs.
Entitled True Love, the album – with words by the Italian prime minister and music by his long time guitarist partner Mariano Apicella – had been due for release in September, with a huge launch party planned in Milan.
But as he struggles to tackle Italy's massive public debt, hold together his crumbling coalition and defend himself in three trials, Berlusconi has been forced to push the release date back, according to the Italian daily La Stampa.
A former cruise ship crooner, Berlusconi teamed up on three previous albums with Apicella, who once worked as a Naples parking attendant before he was spotted playing guitar and invited by the prime minister to his luxury retreat in Sardinia to compose love songs.
Apicella and Berlusconi have since performed together at the Sardinian villa for guests including Tony and Cherie Blair, Vladimir Putin and George W Bush.
Apicella previously said the new album was ready in October 2010. On Wednesday Italian online music retailers were listing the latest release date as November 22. A spokesman for the prime minister declined to comment on the CD.
Angelo Valsiglio, another musician who has worked on arrangements, told an Italian music magazine Viva Verdi the album was a "really elegant and refined production with Brazilian hints". Touches of Neapolitan dialect are mixed into the lyrics and one track is inspired by Greek folk music, he added.
Berlusconi, who is currently on trial for paying for sex with an alleged underage prostitute, and has reportedly held "bunga bunga" parties for scores of young women at his villa outside Milan, has made no secret of his love of female company.
A sneak preview in La Stampa of one song, titled Music, reveals Berlusconi's lyrical style has lost none of its trademark passion.
"Listen to these songs, they are for you," it begins, "listen to them when you have a thirst for caresses, sing them when you are hungry for tenderness."
