IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Italy's Singing Nun Cristina Scuccia Covers Madonna's 'Like a Virgin'

Sister Cristina Scuccia, who became famous when she won "The Voice" contest in Italy, is making waves with a rendition of Madonna's "Like a Virgin."
ITALY-MUSIC-RELIGION-NUN
Sister Cristina Scuccia performs during the Italian State RAI TV show final "The Voice of Italy" in Milan on June 5, 2014.AFP/Getty Images

ROME — Reviving Madonna’s blockbuster “Like a Virgin” may not seem an obvious pick for Italy’s singing nun, Sister Cristina Scuccia. After all, it's not entirely clear if Madonna was fully referring to the Holy Spirit when she belted out the words “touched for the very first time.” But Scuccia, who is set to release her debut album on Nov. 11 after winning Italy’s “The Voice” singing competition earlier this year, claims she only had the purest of intentions when she chose the track. “Reading the text, without being influenced by previous interpretations, you discover that it is a song about the power of love to renew people [and] rescue them from their past,” the nun told Italian newspaper Avvenire.

“We have transformed this song from the pop-dance piece, which it was, into a romantic ballad ... something more similar to a lay prayer than to a pop piece,” she added. Both videos are set in Venice, but while the American singer rolled around sensually in a gondola, the nun sings in various landmarks wearing a habit. Scuccia said she did not think Madonna had heard her rendition, adding: “I’d like to see her face when they tell her it’s a nun singing.”

IN-DEPTH

- Claudio Lavanga