During this period, he was part of some bands that performed in Italian nightclubs. One of these bands, called Santarosa, had a chart-topping song titled Souvenir, in whose production he also collaborated with Zucchero Fornaciari. Later on, he joined a new band, Taxi, in which Zucchero also played. During these performances in the nightclubs, Roberto was influenced by the first dance tracks produced in Italy and decided to start producing music, thus becoming one of the creators of Italodisco.

The first projects were created under pseudonyms and stage names, which was a common trend at the time, and they gained modest success in Italy, such as Capsicum by Stargo, Angelica by Joey Moon, and Starman by Claudio Mingardi. Soon after, he released Incantation by G.A.N.G., which brought him in contact with Severo Lombardoni’s Discomagic, one of the emerging labels at that time. In the second half of 1983, with Discomagic, he released Buenas Noches by Kamillo, Magic Carillon by Rose, and his first solo single Don’t Cry Tonight by Savage.

Robyx and Savage

From the very beginning of his career, Roberto’s professional life split into two personas. Robyx is the Author, Composer, and Producer—the real person behind every project, the creative force, and the engine of all his artistic intelligence. Robyx is the musician who travels to England to explore new sounds, new instruments, and new possibilities. He quickly became an expert in the world of synthesizers, creating his own sound, which would later become the successful sound for many artistic projects across different eras.

Emulator, Roland JP8, Roland Juno, Minimoog, Linn Drum, Roland 808 and 909, Yamaha DX7, Elka Shyntex, and Simmons Drums became the instruments that allowed him to transform his ideas into works, initially in a small home studio, and later in commercial studios such as Milano Studio, Baby Studio, and Scaccomatto Studio. He would later create his own Casablanca Recordings, which would become a key reference in the recording of Electronic Dance Music.

Savage is the artist, the singer, and the virtual character created by a computer. This duality appears right from the first Don’t Cry Tonight music video, where a girl asks her computer to create a man for her, and Savage materializes on the screen. The same Savage who, in the second episode, Only You, tries to stop a virtual marriage taking place inside a computer. The same Savage who sings Computerized Love with the first experiments of processed voice using a Vocoder. The same Savage who, on the radio, realizes that he is the last survivor in a world destroyed by a nuclear war.

Savage’s Early Successes

Don’t Cry Tonight was released at the end of November 1983. At first, it seemed like a very odd song for the time—dance tracks were usually very fast, while this one was only 105 BPM—but within a month, it became the biggest and most played hit in Italy, then throughout the rest of Europe. A new way of dancing to this slow Italodisco was even invented. For major Italian TV channels such as Discoring on RAI 1, Savage created a digitalized version of his image, which at the time was truly innovative. With the help of an Italian university, software was developed and installed on an IBM computer that tracked some of the movements Savage made with his hands and body. The computer was brought onstage, and the images appeared during his performance. This was still the dawn of image digitization, and it was impossible to create what we can do today. We can definitely say that Savage was truly innovative, not only in terms of sound but also in the world of images. The song became so popular that Savage was invited to promote it on some of the most important Italian and European TV stations. Roberto then decided to appear on stage to play the character of Savage and embarked on a long tour with at least 250 dates across the following two years, 1984 and 1985.

The first album was full of great songs, and several singles were released, all as maxi-singles. The second album, Only You, launched Savage into markets beyond Europe, becoming an anthem for several generations in Poland, Russia, and the Nordic countries. Savage’s major breakthrough in Eastern Europe came when he performed at the Sopot Festival, a festival watched by millions of people and broadcast across many countries. Thanks to that festival, Savage became one of the most famous pop artists in those countries. The singles Radio and A Love Again completed the Tonight album.

In 1985, he released a new single, much closer to the British electropop sounds that he was passionate about. Unfortunately, neither this nor subsequent singles Love is Death and Celebrate had much success. Italodisco was no longer in fashion, and Savage was put on the back burner for a while as Roberto focused on his role as Robyx, the producer.

Robyx and the 1990s

In the 1990s, Roberto focused on his alter ego Robyx and dedicated himself to writing and producing dance tracks for other artists. He achieved numerous hits, also founding his own record label, DWA Records, which became a cornerstone of European dance music. His first big hit was Easy by ICE MC, which reached number one all over Europe. In this collaboration, Roberto sang the chorus while Ice rapped the verses. It was 1989, and the single, along with the subsequent album 1990 (featuring the song Cinema), also enjoyed great success.

In 1992, another worldwide number one hit, Please Don’t Go by Double You, was released, along with the album We All Need Love. From that moment on, hits followed for ICE MC (Think About the Way and It’s a Rainy Day), Alexia (Me and You, Summer is Crazy, Number One, Uh La La La, The Music I Like, Gimme Love, Goodbye, Happy, Ti Amo Ti Amo), Corona (The Rhythm of the Night), and Double You (Dancing with an Angel), Netzwerk, Sandy.

Savage in the 1990s

Between the late 1980s and 1990s, Savage released only a few singles, mainly to satisfy fan requests, while his live activity came to a halt. The singles I’m Losing You, Goodbye, I Just Died in Your Arms, Don’t Leave Me, Strangelove, and Don’t You Want Me were released. Robyx was too busy writing and following the career of a producer, and for a while, he didn’t devote much attention to Savage or tour.

Savage in the 2000s

In 2004, Savage was invited to perform at a major festival in Moscow, Russia, the Autoradio Festival. It was a live festival with 25,000 people held every year at the Olympic Stadium and broadcast on Channel 1. After about 15 years, he returned to live performances and achieved immense success. Numerous requests for new shows followed, and he resumed touring, initially in Russia and Poland, and later in other Nordic countries, including Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, and Kazakhstan. In 2014, he returned to the USA, and in 2016, he toured the USA and Canada again. Thanks to social media, many young fans started to take an interest in the artist, and in 2019, he decided to produce and record a new album. Fourteen new songs were created, along with a symphonic version of Only You, forming the double vinyl Love and Rain, also released digitally and on CD. The album’s release date was February 2020, but unfortunately, all promotion was halted due to COVID. Fans loved the songs and continued to download and listen to them for a long time, making the album a classic for the artist. Live performances came to a stop, and despite many requests, he did not appear at shows or TV events.

Savage in 2025

At a certain point in his artistic life, in January 2025, Savage was inspired to create a new work reflecting his 80s roots, once again drawing inspiration from sounds and images derived from computers. A new album quickly took shape, accompanied by the figure of a dark, mysterious character, much like the Savage of 1983 at the beginning of his career. Virtual reality reclaims the one who was created by it, bringing him a new life with new songs. The sound is powerful, electronic, and blends perfectly with the artist’s melancholic melodies. The first single is a surreal story between a vampire and a virtual woman who meet in a castle on a full moon night to dance in the darkness. The track is called Dancing in the Dark and is released with a music video and several dance versions, many of which are Italodisco.