A Spanish Archbishop has apologised after a raunchy music video for a song called ‘Atheist’ that featured a naked woman was filmed in a cathedral, prompting outrage on social media.
The footage shows two singers dancing suggestively in the cathedral as a chorus chants: “I was an atheist, but now I believe, because a miracle like you had to come down from heaven.”
One scene shows the rapper suggestively tugging on the Argentina singer’s hair while another shot shows her naked while holding his decapitated head.
The Archbishop of Toledo, Francisco Cerro, has since said that he “deeply” regrets allowing the music video to be shot in the cathedral. He apologised to the faithful and to those who “felt justly hurt by this misuse of a sacred place”, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais.
The music video was directed by Anton Alvarez, 31, a Spanish rapper who is better known as C. Tangana.
The rapper also features in the music clip alongside Argentine singer-songwriter Nathy Peluso, 26.
The video was launched online on Friday and reportedly caused outrage on social media, especially from Catholics.
Despite the presiding counsel of the cathedral attempting to defend the music video and justify its recording, the Archbishop later apologised and rejected the clip, according to El Pais.
The Archbishop also said that he “was absolutely unaware of the existence of this project, its content and the final result”.
He has in the meantime promised to review its procedures so as to “prevent something similar from happening again”.
The official video of the music clip was shared on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9WJOopLYBQ) by C. Tangana, who has 1.9 million subscribers.
At the time of writing, the footage had notched up over 5.7 million views since its release on 8th October.