Nun who won Italy’s ‘The Voice’ has a new career as a waitress

A nun who won the Italian version of The Voice has shocked fans again – she announced her decision to give up her religious lifestyle to move to Spain and become a waitress.

Cristina Scuccia, 34, aka Sister Cristina, stunned the judges at her blind audition for the reality show in 2014 with a cover of Alicia Key’s “No One.”

One of the judges, Raffaella Carrà, “was unable to speak for several minutes” after discovering that the voice belonged to a nun. Scuccia was then a nun with the Ursulines of the Holy Family in Milan.

She won the show with her rendition of Irene Cara’s 1983 song “What a Feeling.” Scuccia then produced an album that included a cover of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” — and she even gave Pope Francis a copy.

On Sunday she went on Italian talk show Verissimo to announce that she had officially left nun life, according to the Guardian.

“I think you have to be brave and listen to your heart. Change is a sign of evolution, but it’s always scary because it’s easier to anchor to your certainties than to question yourself. Is there a right or wrong?” she said, wearing a red pants suit with high heels and a nose piercing.

She explained that the decision to leave the nun was because a psychologist helped her and that it didn’t mean she had given up her faith. She also said that her dream career is still in the music business.

“I never doubted God, God is life. But I couldn’t grow anymore while following the rules. My father died and I decided to take a sabbatical, a year of silence and travel,” she said.

Scuccia now lives in Spain as a waitress “with a smile”.

“I chose to follow my heart without thinking about what people would say about me,” she said. “I took a leap of faith and worried about ending up under a bridge, I kept repeating that to my psychologist.”

Though no longer a practicing nun, Scuccia still holds tight to those nearly 15 years of her life.

“Sister Cristina is in me. I had a wonderful journey, but also a complex and difficult one. They were the best years of my life.”