Success within the music trade typically brings admiration, however for Lacuna Coil‘s frontwoman Cristina Scabbia it additionally led to unsettling encounters with stalkers—a lot in order that the FBI needed to get entangled.
In a current interview with Metal Hammer, Scabbia mirrored on the highs and lows of rising to mainstream metallic fame within the 2000s. Among the many darker moments was the presence of obsessive followers who adopted her and even despatched disturbing messages.
She remembers one fan who gave her his marriage ceremony ring. “That was to inform me he had ended a poisonous relationship,” she says, “and to thank me for someway saving him from one thing unhealthy with my voice.” Whereas uncommon, that interplay paled compared to the extra troubling experiences that adopted.
“That was peculiar, however I did have precise stalkers that had been probably harmful and would comply with me round,” she reveals. “I keep in mind them sending me bizarre photos of me lined in blood or sending me photos of a fetus.”
The scenario escalated to the purpose the place regulation enforcement needed to intervene. As a precaution, authorities assigned FBI brokers to watch her security throughout Lacuna Coil‘s North American tour.
“I reported it, and for one full tour I had an FBI agent in each city checking on me,” she explains. “It was not solely disturbing, it was additionally boring for me as a result of I needed to be confined on a tour bus daily.”
Regardless of the challenges, Scabbia additionally acknowledges the perks of fame. She weighed in on the once-popular observe of rating the “hottest ladies in metallic” in magazines, a pattern now extensively criticized as outdated and sexist.
“I do not see the negativity in these lists in any respect,” she says. “I do know lots of people are in opposition to this as a result of they see it as sexism, however I believed it was only a solution to say ‘stunning.’ I did not see it as one thing that objectified me.”
This is not the primary time Scabbia has spoken on the topic. In a 2022 interview – additionally with Metal Hammer – she famous that such recognition may be “empowering” if the artist is in “full management” of how they’re introduced.
Nevertheless, she did draw a line: “I hate when the picture of a girl is totally sexualised, particularly if there’s expertise behind her. There’s nothing incorrect with liking your self or feeling attractive and exquisite and displaying it. Put it this fashion: within the music world, if being attractive is the one factor that it’s important to provide, that is form of unhappy.”
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