Chanting To The Charts

The Cistercian monks who sent their demo to Universal Music Group via YouTube have hit No. 9 on the U.K charts with their first album, Chant: Music For Paradise.

The brothers from the 12th-century Heiligenkreuz Abbey, which received a visit from Pope Benedict XVI last August, outsold Amy Winehouse and shifted nearly as many units as Madonna.

Universal signed the group, known as The Cistercian Monks Of Stift Heiligenkreuz, from the southern part of the Vienna woods following a worldwide search for the best practitioners of the ancient art of Gregorian chant, the oldest written form of music in the world.

The royalty income from the project will be used to further the education of Cistercian brothers from Vietnam and other countries.