In 1980, Loredana Bertè left Italy for New York, entering a downtown scene where music, fashion, nightlife, and art moved through the same rooms. Already established in Italy, she found herself around Elio Fiorucci, Studio 54, Electric Lady Studios, and Andy Warhol’s circle.

In New York, between studio sessions and nightclub nights, Bertè began work on Made in Italy, her 1981 album recorded at Electric Lady Studios. The sessions included Italian collaborators Mario Lavezzi and Alberto Radius, along with members of the American funk outfit Platinum Hook. For the first time, she contributed directly to the lyrics, marking a more independent phase in her work.

During this time, she became something of a fixture in the city’s downtown social circuit, moving between Fiorucci’s design parties, Studio 54, and the remaining Factory world. Warhol reportedly called her the “Pasta Queen,” a joke about her habit of making a lot of pasta.

Bertè continues to tour, mostly in Italy, and remains one of Italian pop’s more unmistakable figures: theatrical, restless, and difficult to separate from the image she built around herself.