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Over a month ago we warned you about Sister Cristina Scuccia, the worldwide sensation from Italy who already had over 50 million views before the finals last night in Rome. Well if The New York Times does a major story on a Catholic nun that is news. So here is a reprint of the NYT report on the singing sensation from Italy. You have got to watch the video. (Be sure to click or double click on the video for larger screen.)
Singing Nun Wins Italian TV
Talent Show
ROME — She trilled and thrilled millions of
YouTube viewers with songs by Alicia Keys, Cyndi Lauper and Bon Jovi. She
belted out a duet with Kylie Minogue, both of them clad in black, albeit with
vastly different approaches to style.
And just after midnight Thursday, Sister Cristina Scuccia, the Sicilian
singing nun who has become a worldwide sensation, won the second edition of the
TV talent competition “The Voice of Italy” after singing a
rousing version of “What
a Feeling,” the Oscar-winning song from the 1983 film “Flashdance,'’
accompanied by a chorus line of dancers dressed as monks, who threw off their
habits to reveal pastel-colored suits.
“My dream is to recite Our Father together,” she said upon
winning, intoning the Lord’s Prayer, while the show’s judges shuffled their
feet and mumbled, visibly embarrassed. The show’s host noted her “very original
way” of accepting.
On the wave of the global success of her video singing Ms. Keys’s “No One,”
viewed online by 51 million people since it was posted in March, Sister
Cristina’s victory — with more than 60 percent of the votes cast — came as
little surprise, even as Italian media unfailingly jibed that she may have had
a little help from above.
The bigger question mark in a country where some polls suggest that a
majority of Italian women aspire to television fame is whether success will go
to the head of the 25-year-old nun, possibly leading her astray from her
calling. Winning the competition, after all, comes with a recording contract.
“There are plenty of people guiding her who will help organize her artistic
activity. I think she has a lot of support,” said Claudia Koll, an actress who
enrolled Sister Cristina at the drama school she runs at a nunnery in Rome after hearing her
perform. “She is supported by prayer and by people, so she’s not as much at
risk as people think,” Ms. Koll said in a telephone interview.
At a news conference on Wednesday with the finalists of ‘'The Voice,'’
Sister Cristina said that she would follow the orders of her superiors
regarding her future, which could include tours or recording contracts. She
said that if asked to, she was ready to return to the church choir where she
sang before becoming a sensation.
A spokesman for the show said Friday that Sister Cristina would not be
giving interviews.
Sister Cristina beat out four rivals on Thursday to arrive at the title,
and the final came down to the diminutive nun and a 28-year-old rocker
channeling a 1970s heavy metal look.
“I want to thank everyone who has helped me during this difficult period,
thanks for having protected me many times, " Sister Cristina said after
winning, citing her fans; the middle-aged nuns who have religiously followed
her performances in the audience; and her coach J-Ax, a 41-year-old rapper. The
odd couple was redubbed “the devil and the holy water,” an Italian idiom for a
most unlikely alliance.
“I hope you can make a change out there, and be an example,” said J-Ax,
although he professed that he remained an atheist.
In an interview in the Milan
daily Corriere della Sera, J-Ax expressed his hope that Sister Cristina would
make a record. “It’s a great opportunity,” he said. “But the earnings, all the
earnings have to be earmarked to build a hospital or an orphanage in Brazil,” where
Sister Cristina worked with poor children. “No one can earn a penny from it,”
he said.
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