Punk singer to perform in Vatican Christmas concert

Patti Smith - Wiki image

Punk singer-songwriter Patti Smith will be performing in this year's Concerto di Natale, the Vatican's annual Christmas concert, held in the Auditorium Conciliazione, on 13 December. The newspaper Il Corriere della Sera suggests that Pope Francis invited Patti. The program, which will also feature Sister Cristina Scuccia, who won this year's TV show The Voice of Italy, will be broadcast on Christmas Eve across Italy.

Born in 1946, Patti Smith became a highly influential component of the New York punk movement with her 1975 debut album 'Horses'. She went on to produce many more hits by herself and in collaboration with other singers including Bruce Springsteen. Her most widely-known song is 'Because the Night'.

Patti was brought up in strict Jehovah's Witness family and rejected religion when she left home. In her song 'Gloria' she sang: 'Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine'. But recently she told Rolling Stone magazine: "I wrote the first lines of 'Gloria' when I was 20... I recorded it some years later for Horses, but really, it was a declaration of self, not so much about Jesus. He is the vehicle, but I was declaring my existence, my right to make my own mistakes, my right to make my own choices. I was defining the type of artist that was entering the domain of rock & roll and the type of artist that I was, one who was going to make her own decisions."

Throughout her career Patti has been involved in the peace movement, campaigning against the war on Iraq, the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, and the plight of the Palestinians. For many years Patti has been interested in Tibetan Buddhism. She said she studied the Bible as a child and is continuing to study it. Last year she attended a papal audience in St Peter's Square and met Pope Francis. After the encounter she told Huffington Post: "He is very interesting. I like him alot."

Source: Rolling Stone/Huffington Post/ICN