SPAIN: During her blind audition for the competition in 2014, Sicilian sister Cristina Scuccia stunned the judges, including the late Raffaella Carrà, by delivering an emotional rendition of the hit song “No One” by Alicia Keys.
When Scuccia revealed that she had quit smoking and was now a waitress in Spain, she astonished TV watchers once more. The nun had become a singing star after winning Italy’s version of The Voice.
Scuccia won the competition with her rendition of “What a Feeling,” the theme song from the movie Flashdance. At the time, she was one of the nuns at the Ursuline Sisters of the Holy Family convent in Milan. Later on, she created an album, which she presented to Pope Francis.
Eight years after, Scuccia announced on an Italian talk show that she had left the nunhood, some Italian bishops had even praised her talent.
She spoke to the Verissimo program while sporting high heels, a red trouser suit, a pierced nose, and long, dark hair that was free-flowing: “I believe that you need to listen to your heart with courage. Change is a sign of evolution, but it is always scary because it is easier to anchor oneself to one’s certainties than to question oneself. Is there a right or wrong?”
Scuccia insisted that her decision to leave the nunhood—which a psychotherapist assisted her in processing—did not signify that she had abandoned her religion and that she was still working toward her goal of a music career.
While Scuccia’s participation in the competition was encouraged by her mother’s superior, she was harshly criticised by more traditional factions of the Italian Catholic church, particularly after the release of “Like a Virgin,” which Italy’s Religious Information Service referred to as “a reckless and calculated commercial operation.”
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