Sister Cristina: Bringing Soul To Pop
Sister Cristina Scuccia greets me in a plain parlour in her convent in Milan, seeming at first like just an ordinary nun. The brown sofa she is sitting on looks uncomfortable and there’s a Bible open next to her on a shelf. But beside the book is evidence of the glitzier side of Sister Scuccia – a shiny trophy, her prize for winning the Italian version of The Voice.
“Do people think nuns have to be lifeless, sad individuals?” she says. “Do they think we had a terrible past and had to become nuns to escape? My vocation wasn’t about giving something up, it was about taking something on.”
When Scuccia – whose versions of Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer andAlicia Keys’s No One have notched up millions of hits on YouTube – won earlier this year, she was branded a gimmick. Far from her triumph being due to “the man upstairs”, as she said, critics claimed that the sheer novelty of a habit-wearing nun jumping around on stage was what won over the audience and judges. Now, as she prepares to release her debut album, she’s under attack again, this time from her own church. It all centres on her choice of lead track: Like a Virgin, the sex-charged classic from Madonna, an artist who once invoked the Vatican’s wrath for performing a mock crucifixion in Rome. Scuccia’s rendition (which Madonna approves of) is slower and more thoughtful, but that hasn’t stopped Italy’s Religious Information Service calling it a “reckless and calculated commercial operation”, describing Scuccia ’s motives for recording it as “blessedly naive”.
When we meet, the comments have yet to be published, but she is already anticipating just such a backlash. “Traditionalists say I shouldn’t be doing this,” she says. “But I believe that if God gave me the ability to sing, there’s a reason for it.” As far as she’s concerned, she’s following the trend set by Pope Francis to make the church more accessible to ordinary people. “The Catholic church is going through a kind of makeover, and I am part of that. This pope isn’t removed or distant: he’s right here among us, and that’s what I’m aiming to be as well.” She is similarly sanguine when it comes to suggestions that her singing simply isn’t up to it. “If I wasn’t hitting the right notes, then I’d worry.”
The choice of the Madonna single, she says, was hers alone. “I’d call it counter-risque. I felt I was batting the song back. The lyrics spoke to me: I gave myself to God, and that’s what they say. I feel I’ve turned the song upside-down. I’m giving it a new interpretation from a faith standpoint. We can all feel incomplete. I felt that when I was touched by God, then I felt loved like I’ve never been loved before.”
Scuccia grew up in Sicily, in “a simple family”. Her father was a bricklayer and her mother took care of the home. Her parents were devout Catholics but she was not especially enamoured by her faith. Her “big dream” was to become a singer: she listened to Mariah Carey andCeline Dion and sang in the church choir. Then, when she was 19, her mother urged her to audition for a musical being performed to mark the centenary of the Ursuline order. “At first, I said no because I didn’t want anything to do with the church. But I could see it could be interesting, and it was an opportunity for my music. So in the end, I did.”
She was cast as Sister Rosa, the founder of the branch of the Ursulines to which she now belongs. “Playing her changed my life, because it drove me towards my vocation. In the show, I was wearing a habit and speaking the words of Sister Rosa, who encouraged others to engage with the church. Her words inspired me. I started thinking, ‘Could this be my future?’”
So six years ago, at the age of 20, she joined the order in Rome. “They sent me off to work for two years in Brazil, which was fascinating – it’s a very musical country and everything seemed to fall into place. I realised these two worlds, religion and music, can co-exist.”
She moved to Milan in 2012, to the convent where she still lives today. As we talk, the sound of children playing at the nursery school run by the order drifts into the parlour. Her usual job is to serve their lunches. She also helps with the running of a hostel for university students. Even on those busy days when she’s recording or doing interviews, she still takes part in convent life: prayer at 6.30am, mass, work, prayers before bed. Her life here is enjoyable, despite the fact that before she entered the convent she had boyfriends and admits to having maternal feelings. “But there are other ways of expressing that in your life, particularly for me as I work with children.”
It was at a Christian music festival that she got her big break, after being spotted by a scout from The Voice. “They invited me along for an audition and then everything happened.” How was stepping from the convent into the glare of one of Italy’s most-watched TV shows? “Traumatic. When you win, you suddenly feel very small in the face of this huge thing. But then I realised: it all happened not because of me, but because of God.” When her victory was announced, Scuccia insisted on reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
Her fellow Ursulines, she says, are supportive of her musical career, proceeds from which go to charities in Italy and Brazil. During her performances on The Voice, the cameras would pan to a row of elderly nuns jumping up and down excitedly. You get the impression that she’s the golden girl in the convent: until she arrived, the order hadn’t had a novice for 12 years. “They think it’s quite a miracle I’m here,” she says.
To promote her album, which also features covers of Coldplay and Keane, she was allowed to travel to Venice to make a video in which she dances on rooftops and jams in St Mark’s Square. There are no plans for a tour, she says, but she’d be open to the idea of performing to live audiences. Her biggest ambition is to get “a call from Pope Francis”, who is famous for making his own phone calls, and an invitation to perform at the Vatican. “I’d love to sing for him. I’d love to give him a copy of my album.”
Conservative voices in the Catholic church would probably say she’s been given far too much freedom by her order, who are a bit carried away by the bright lights of showbiz. But she is adamant that isn’t the case. “We have to free the singing side of life from its shackles,” she says. “It’s so attached to this ‘celebrity’ view of success. I’m a different kind of pop star.”
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/04/sister-cristina-scuccia-the-voice-italy
Check out a compilation of her songs on: