This is Sister Cristina, the young nun who’s rocketing to stardom on the Italian version of
The Voice. As a teenager, Cristina had enrolled in a drama school sponsored by nuns, but just
before she was about to sing for the Pope, she broke her ankle. Then Cristina felt the call
and became a nun, leaving Italy to work among the poor in Brazil. Then she returned to a
convent in Milan and entered a Christian singing competition, which led to her appearance
on The Voice. This video has been viewed over 41 million times, and Cristina is still on
the show.
I think my favorite things about this video are the closeups of Cristina’s sensible
shoes, the shots of the other nuns rocking out, and Cristina’s eyeglass frames.
All of the stories about Cristina tend to mention Sister Act, and Whoopi Goldberg
has praised Cristina on Twitter.
I originally wrote Sister Act for Bette Midler, and in one of the many drafts there
was a scene where Bette, in a habit, sang Try A Little Tenderness to a newlywed
couple, while trailing the microphone cord over her shoulder, Vegas-style. If you’d
like to know more about how Sister Act came to be, there’s an article spilling the
beans in my book I Shudder; this article originally appeared in The New Yorker.
