They sang in the Church choir and at all the local weddings and christenings

They sang in the Church choir and at all the local weddings and christenings. If you grow up with gospel, then you become aware, from an early age, of the fusion of sensuality and spirituality Passion, in any form, is transferable. It therefore makes perfect sense that someone who has spent their life singing such passionate music is going to be a passionate performer. If that involves wearing cropped tops and push-up bras, then so be it.”When we first started out we were so innocent,” laughs Vernie “Everything was ‘Uhhh! Uhhh!’ [mimes hyperventilating]. But half the people we were shocked by at the start, we’re now friends with.”Easther adds: “We do our own styling for videos now. If anyone made me wear something or do something that I didn’t feel comfortable with, I would just stand still and it would be a rubbish video. From the very start, we’ve never once done something or worn something that we weren’t perfectly comfortable with.”White pop stars are fairly lousy at interpreting the sensuality inherent in Christianity: Cliff Richard, Sam Fox, Pat Boone, The Osmonds The list, unfortunately, is endless.

Probably the only white girl to make Jesus seem attractive is Madonna. Her religious beliefs have been a constant theme of her lyrics and videos, but worked to most intoxicating effect in “Like a Prayer”. Singing with a gospel choir, she danced around the church with her bosoms popping out of a black slip dress, before developing stigmata and then making love to Jesus, who was six feet tall, black and incredibly gorgeous.The very notion of believing in God is sexy. You have to be an imaginative and artistic person to put your faith in something so unbelievable. The religious have a certain pulse and a certain madness that the cynical atheists among us often don’t.

To believe in God so flies in the face of where we are now, that you can’t help but be impressed. At its best, you get a song as astonishingly brilliant as Donna Summer’s “State of Independence” which is, at its core, a hymn with a disco beat.However, it is a very delicate balance. In concert recently, Summer displayed a bizarre God / Jezebel look (gold sequins on a tight lycra dress, but the skirt came down to the floor and the neckline went up to her nose) There was too much God and not enough sex. Nowadays the only adrenaline Summer is likely to get pumping is that of angry homosexuals, outraged by her born-again-Christian outbursts. And public opinion says that Yazz has lost her edge since finding her faith.Eternal’s latest single “Don’t You Love Me”, although musically as funky as a Sean “Puffy” Coombs production, is too heavy on lines like “Why does granny have to walk the streets?”. The post-apocalyptic video, dotted with businessmen breaking down on glass strewn streets, presents a potentially interesting dissection of faith after Thatcher and belief approaching the millennium.Kelle acknowledges that the teen magazine reviews are wary of the pin- ups developing a social conscience.