Silvio Berlusconi has been named Rock Star of the Year by the Italian edition of Rolling Stone magazine.

In 2009 the Italian prime minister has had to endure allegations of sex with a prostitute and a divorce after photos emerged of him at an aspiring model’s 18th birthday party. Rolling Stone’s editor Carlo Antonelli said that for his editorial staff, a rock star is someone with a strong attitude and an excessive vitality, and that Berlusconi fits the bill. The former double bass player and cruise ship crooner has written anthems for AC Milan football club and his Forza Italia party as well as two Neapolitan song albums. That gives him more musical credibility than counterparts such as Barack Obama, who came second in the magazine’s rock star list. Third was Pope Benedict XVI, who will release a prayer album entitled “Alma Mater” later this month. But the Pontiff was deemed by Rolling Stone to lack the Rock ‘n’ Roll pedigree of Berlusconi, whose antics the magazine said made Rod Stewart, Brian Jones and Keith Richards “look like schoolboys”.More about: Italy, Silvio Berlusconi

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