Italians React In Beautiful Way To Coronavirus Quarantine

This Italian neighborhood is deserted due to a government-imposed
coronoviris quarantine, but residents insisted on making things
beautiful anyway

Italy, as you have probably heard in the news, is pretty much locked down because of the corona virus.

That means 60 million or so Italians have been told to stay in their houses. Italians have a reputation of being very social animals, so this has to be painful for all of them. No matter how physically  healthy they feel.  

To boost each other's spirits, residents in city neighborhoods have been singing to each other from windows and balconies, even as the streets below are deserted. A viral video of this, which you can see at the bottom of this post actually made me cry a little.

When there's big calamities hit, there are sometimes awful moments of cruelty. Or moments of absurdity - witness the great Toilet Paper rushes of this week.  But also great beauty emerges from humanity in times of crisis.  This is video is just one manifestation of that.

Let this being an example of how we should behave, moving forward:

Update: "Singing Nun" Sister Cristina Scuccia Wins Italy's "The Voice"!

Some weeks ago I told you in this blog thing here about Sister Cristina Scuccia, the unlikely contestant on Italy's version of "The Voice."   

Sister Cristina Scuccia sings her way to victory
on Italy's version of "The Voice"  

That's the show that begins the season when judges listen to singers with their backs to the performer, so they can't make assumptions based on their looks.

If the judges like what they hear, they press a button, their chairs turn and they face the singer.

The season progresses from there until one singer is crowned the champion

In this case, we have good news from Italy this morning: Sister Cristina Scuccia was the big winner!

And good for her!

She got a recording contract with Universal.

According to Variety, this was Scuccia's reaction to the win:

"My presence here is not up to me, it's thanks ot the man upstairs," she said before reciting the Lord's Prayer onstage."

Variety said Scuccia is a member of the Ursuline Sisters of the Holy Family, and was inspired to audition for The Voice by Pope Francis, who wants people to "get out onto the streets" in his call for the Catholic Church to come closer to the common people and their everyday lives.

At the same time, she's helping us understand that many Catholic priests and nuns really do want to make the world a better place. And they can have fun.

As proof, here's this great video of a "battle round" in the voice in which Scuccia sings with another contestant to see who can do a better job with Cindi Lauper's classic, awesome song "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

The video is wonderful. Love the contrast between Scuccia and the other contestant. Watch:

Best Roman Catholic Nun EVER Rocks "The Voice"

Some of you might be old enough to remember that strange 1960s show, "The Flying Nun"    

Sister Cristina Scuccia knocks it out of the park
in Italy's version of "The Voice."  

I've got something better for you and it's (mostly) reality: The Singing Nun.  And it's a lot of fun. And surprising.

I'm a sucker for some of those competitive "reality" talent shows and my favorite is "The Voice" 

During the audition rounds, four celebrity judges, all singers and musicians sit in big chairs and listen to contestants perform with their backs to the performer, so the appearance of the singer doesn't influence their decisions.

If the judges like what they hear, they push a big button on their chair, their chair swings around 180 degrees and they get to see what the performer they enjoyed looks like.

Many nations have their own The Voice franchise, including Italy.

This week, all four judges on the Italian "The Voice" LOVED want a performance of Alicia Keys' "No One" as done by a 25 year old women.

All four judges hit their buttons, their chairs swung around and there was the performer, Sister Cristina Scuccia, a Roman Catholic nun. 

When more than one singer turns around, the contestant has to choose which singer will be her coach, to help with future battle rounds and face offs as the ultimate winner is chosen.

Sister Scuccia chose J-Ax, an Italian rapper to coach her, because he was the first to turn his chair around

J-Ax was visibly moved by Sister Scruccia and the fact that she chose him. He said: "If I had found you at Mass I would always be in church. You and me are like the devil and holy water."

I bet even Pope Francis really enjoyed this. Her performance certainly fits in with the Pope's outreach, in making Catholicism relatable to everybody and not just some rich, robed dudes being weird and pompous in the Vatican.

News of Sister Cristina Scuccia's success is going viral today, big time, so we haven't heard the last from her.

Here's the really fun video of the event. It's in Italian, of course, except for the song. But the language is no barrier to understand what is going on: