Cristina Scabbia Addresses Fan Outrage Over Lacuna Coil’s Silent Livestream Show

Lacuna Coil singer Cristina Scabbia has shared a video message in which she explained why the band agreed to take part in ‘L’Ultimo Concerto’ (English translation: ‘The Last Concert’) where rather than performing a livestream show, more than 100 Italian artists at venues across Italy stood onstage in complete silence to commemorate one year since venues were ordered to close down amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The move was met with a divisive reaction among the Lacuna Coil’s fans, many of whom lashed out at the band for deceiving them and never actually performing.

Since the onset of the pandemic, live entertainment venues around the world have been shuttered, leaving hundreds of thousands of employees out of work and the venues without any stream of revenue. In Italy and elsewhere around the world, some venues risk the chance of never being able to open their doors again if concerts do not make their return.

For these reasons, Lacuna Coil felt it was pertinent to take part in this “strike” of sorts, where she also apologized to the incensed fans and stressed she understood why they felt hurt or betrayed.

The singer also singled out obvious clues that signaled that ‘L’Ultimo Concerto’ was not a standard event.

“What we did was taking part in an Italian strike,” said Scabbia, “and I’m here explaining it in English because a lot of you guys probably couldn’t read what was written on the web site and couldn’t figure out that this event was already really strange from the beginning, because more than 120 Italian bands playing from different clubs at the same time was already something very unusual — let alone the fact that we never really promoted it, we never really talked about it, we never reposted some of your posts, and if you think about [the band’s 2020 livestream concert] ‘Live From The Apocalypse,’ we always did that.”

Scabbia noted that the entire project hinged on secrecy in order to be effect. “The purpose was to make noise,” she said, referencing traction across social media and news outlets, not the noise from pounding drums, distorted guitars and the like.

“So I absolutely understand your frustration, I absolutely understand your anger, and believe me, all of us [in] Lacuna Coil wanted to be on that stage to play a real concert for you,” Scabbia divulged, noting that even putting on a livestream show comes with its own difficulties, organizational hurdles and costs.

“The point of the Italian strike that happened yesterday was to bring attention to the fact that clubs have been closed for a year because of the pandemic, and we don’t know when they are gonna be reopening again,” she continued, “So I want to thank you guys, because even with your angry messages, even with your disappointment, you helped us to scream even louder.”

In response to the fans who felt betrayed by silent protest, Scabbia clarified, “Some of you guys wrote it is useless to ‘attack’ or ‘use the fans,’ which is something that we never did intentionally. Well, think about the fact that the band is followed by a lot of journalists as well, so your angry comments are even more helping the music scene, because people will see this and will see that music without live clubs is missing a huge part.”

Ultimately, the frontwoman came off as understanding of the situation and that there was no perfect outcome that could have been obtained, especially in regards to the fans, but was hopeful that the bridge would be rebuilt when Lacuna Coil can step on a stage and play in earnest.

“So I’m here to thank you guys and to tell you that we’re really hurt by some of the comments, but we know that this will be worth it. So we want to thank you. [We’ll] hopefully see you in a real club, in a real show very, very soon. And thank you for the understanding. We] love you guys,” added Scabbia in closing.

Italy, and the rest of the world, awaits the return of live music when it is safe to do so. Unfortunately, countless venues will remain closed, unable to whether the financial repercussions of the pandemic..