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Singing nun wins Madonna's backing

Singing nun wins Madonna's backing

Suor Cristina covers legend's first smash for debut album

Rome, 24 October 2014, 18:48

Redazione ANSA

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- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

-     ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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(By Denis Greenan). Italy's singing nun has won Madonna's backing in a row over the sister covering her 1984 pop classic Like A Virgin.
    The music legend on Thursday night 'liked' on Facebook Suor Cristina's slower and more hymn-like version of her first smash hit, whose video famously portrayed her in a saucy wedding dress lolling suggestively on a Venice gondola.
    "Like A Virgin? #bitinghard", said the pop icon on her FB profile, adding Sisters for Life! #Touchedfortheveryfirsttime and posting two montage pictures of herself with the winner of Italy's The Voice competition.
    Suor Cristina - or Sister Cristina Scuccia - chose the Madonna classic to help launch her debut album.
    She said she had decided to scale back the boppy backing and opt for the soulful over the sensuous.
    "If you read the lyrics without being influenced by what has gone before, you discover that it is a song about the capacity of love to make people new again. To release them from their past, and that's how I wanted to interpret it" the sister said. "That's why we've transformed it from the pop-dance track it was into a romantic ballad a bit in the style of (US singer-songwriter) Amos Lee", said the nun.
    Suor Cristina said the sexy song, famously deconstructed in Quentin Tarabntino's Reservoir Dogs, was now "more of a secular prayer than a pop song".
    But the choice did go down well with the Italian bishops' new agency. An editorial by SIR called it a "reckless and calculated commercial operation".
    "The public is always intrigued by the devil versus holy water theme, but not even the American nuns in Sister Act would have thought of something like this," the editorial said.
    It said the singing nun's claim it was a sort of prayer was a "blessedly naive" comment.
    SIR stressed it was speaking for itself, not for Italian bishops.
    Suor Cristina signed a contract with Universal for an album due out in November.
    In so doing she apparently went back on a vow, made after winning the The Voice singing competition on June 5, to return to her life of prayer, school-teaching and preaching.
    The 25-year-old nun thanked God after prevailing in the final of the popular talent show on State broadcaster Rai.
    "My presence here is not down to me, it's thanks to the man upstairs," said the Sicilian nun, who has become a household name in Italy.
    Scuccia became an Internet sensation after winning over the judges at a blind audition in March with her version of Alicia Keys' No One - the clip of which has received more than 50 million hits on YouTube.
    On the way to the final she wowed viewers with performances of hits including Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want To Have Fun and Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer.
    The Ursuline sister performed four songs in the final, including a duet with her coach, bad-boy Italian rapper J-Ax.
    After crushing her nearest rival by claiming 62% of the popular vote in the final, she led the audience in reciting the Lord's Prayer.
    Her victory gave her the recording contract with Universal.
    "I'll discuss everything with my superiors," Scuccia said at the time, leaving the door open to a possible career.
    "Nothing is ruled out in evangelization and we'll take our message out on the streets if necessary.
    The nun, who grew up with a love of music in a small town called Comiso near Ragusa, got her first little break when she was offered the starring role in the Ursuline Order's musical about their founder St Ursula, in Palermo in 2008.
    The then 18-year-old became a novice the following year and took her holy orders two years ago, while continuing to take signing and dancing classes.
    The unlikely TV contestant was even praised by Alicia Keys herself after her rendition of No One.
    "Now, THAT'S what beautiful, pure energy looks like! Sing it, sister Christina!" the US singer posted on Twitter, along with a link to the nun's video.
    American actress Whoopi Goldberg, who portrays a Cabaret singer disguised as a nun in the film Sister Act, also heaped praise on Scuccia after her breakthrough.
   

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