She has a quater Italian blood,while she doesn't have any African blood. Why her voice doesn't sound like singer's of " Canzone" but sounds like black singer's despite the fact ? (tough to see characteristics of Caucasian in her looks as well) I guess that's why she'd been practiced by authentic gospel music at her teens in Los Angeles. She came across a lot of gospel sigers those days.And they'd had a lot of influence on her.
