CHRISTIAN CHARITY

The song on the radio sounds familiar, but the voice is different, and the words aren’t about a devilish temptress, but rather the pull of piety.

It’s “Livin’ La Vida Christiana,” a rewrite of Ricky Martin’s big hit “Livin’ La Vida Loca” that’s being used as something of a theme song by the Christian youth-oriented radio network Sound of Light.

Jack Eason, who produces the programming for the Spartanburg, S.C.-based network heard on 130 stations nationwide, including KTLW-FM (88.9) in L.A., says the new lyrics were written by network host Britt Dillard and that the song is being used as a keystone in a campaign to connect Christianity with youth called Reclaim the Culture. A similar revision was done last year of the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe.”

But while Eason says permission was obtained from the songs’ owners to make the changes, the publishers of “Vida Loca” songwriters Robi Rosa and Desmond Child, who would have to authorize any such revision, had no knowledge of the Christian rewrite before being called by Pop Eye.

“If there’s any material changes to a song, that requires authorization,” says Susan Ranta, who supervises Child’s work at Universal Music Publishing. Adds Ranta, who also handles the Spice Girls’ songs in the U.S. and was unaware of that Christian reworking as well, “We very rarely let anyone change anything.”

While parodies of songs on radio and television programs can sometimes be excluded from such copyright restrictions, she did not think that this would qualify as parody.

“People don’t really understand what’s legal and what’s not,” she says. “And a lot of times they just do what they want to do.”

After being contacted by Ranta and Ellen Moraskie, who handles Rosa’s work at Warner Tamerlane Music, Eason said, “[Dillard] had talked to someone with the publishers and the person he talked to was excited. I told them whatever we need to do, if it’s not taken care of, we’ll take care of it. But if they say they don’t want us to do it, obviously we won’t.”