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Italy’s singing nun works on debut album

A charismatic Italian nun who won a television singing contest after wowing viewers with her lively dance act and soulful renditions of 80s classics is now working on her debut album.

Italy's singing nun works on debut album
Sister Cristina in the recording studio. Photo: Universal/YouTube screengrab

Sister Cristina, a reformed rebel from Sicily, won a record contract with Universal for her victory in The Voice Italy in early June.

The music company has released a video snippet of the soul sister in the studio, working on a recording of Alicia Keys' "No One", the song that won over the show's judges during auditions in March. 

Watch the video here:

No other details of the album were given other than that it would be “coming soon”.

Preparations for the debut album come after Sister Cristina hinted hat she did not want a musical career.

"I'm not here to start a career but because I want to impart a message," she said after winning The Voice Italy, adding that she was following Pope Francis's calls for a Catholic Church that is closer to ordinary people.

The nun wowed viewers with her versions of songs like "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and "Time of My Life" from the film "Dirty Dancing".

But it was her performance of "No One" that first drew attention.

Fame brought media scrutiny to her past, including interviews with an ex-boyfriend and with Claudia Koll, the director of the musical academy where she trained – herself an ex-starlet who is now a lay sister.

"Cristina's personal journey has brought her to maturity and artistic fullness thanks to a mysterious and special force. By giving herself to the Lord, she has enriched her art," Koll said in an interview.

Sister Cristina said she used to rebel against religion when she sang in a band but was inspired to be a nun when she auditioned for a part in a musical about the founder of the Ursuline Order, Saint Angela Merici.

She became a novice in 2009 and worked for two years with poor children in Brazil before formally joining the order and still has to take her final vows. 

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ACCIDENT

German tourists among 13 dead in Italy cable car accident

Thirteen people, including German tourists, have been killed after a cable car disconnected and fell near the summit of the Mottarone mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

German tourists among 13 dead in Italy cable car accident
The local emergency services published this photograph of the wreckage. Photo: Vigili del Fuoco

The accident was announced by Italy’s national fire and rescue service, Vigili del Fuoco, at 13.50 on Sunday, with the agency saying over Twitter that a helicopter from the nearby town of Varese was on the scene. 

Italy’s National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps confirmed that there were 13 victims and two seriously injured people.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that German tourists were among the 13 victims.

According to their report, there were 15 passengers inside the car — which can hold 35 people — at the time a cable snapped, sending it tumbling into the forest below. Two seriously injured children, aged nine and five, were airlifted to hospital in Turin. 

The cable car takes tourists and locals from Stresa, a resort town on Lake Maggiore up to a panoramic peak on the Mottarone mountain, reaching some 1,500m above sea level. 

According to the newspaper, the car had been on its way from the lake to the mountain when the accident happened, with rescue operations complicated by the remote forest location where the car landed. 

The cable car had reopened on April 24th after the end of the second lockdown, and had undergone extensive renovations and refurbishments in 2016, which involved the cable undergoing magnetic particle inspection (MPI) to search for any defects. 

Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Twitter that he expressed his “condolences to the families of the victims, with special thoughts for the seriously injured children and their families”.

Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini told Italy’s Tg1 a commission of inquiry would be established, according to Corriere della Sera: “Our thoughts go out to those involved. The Ministry has initiated procedures to set up a commission and initiate checks on the controls carried out on the infrastructure.”

“Tomorrow morning I will be in Stresa on Lake Maggiore to meet the prefect and other authorities to decide what to do,” he said.

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