Estrella Morente
When I experience something really overwhelming I usually need a lot of time digest it and take it all in. I suppose that’s true for everyone but I think the process could be a little faster. It may take a week, it may take six months, it can even take years. Then when the time is right I can sit back and think wow, that actually happened. Then it ceases to appear to me as some sort of fuzzy dream.
This is what happened when I saw Estrella Morente, my favourite flamenco singer or favourite singer overall, almost two weeks ago. It has now somewhat accured to me that this was no dream. I went to Helsinki to see her perform at Helsingin Juhlaviikot and I had been preparing for it for months. I was so excited and full of unparallelled suspense that when she finally came out on stage I just burst into tears from the release of tension. I was exstatic the whole concert. It felt so unreal that she was actually on that stage in the flesh. I kept thinking about the absurdity of it; only hours earlier I was listening to her in my dorm room and now we were under the same roof. The show was absolutely amazing. Her presence was so dominating and her voice flawless. The way she sings is extremely powerful and gut wrenching.
You may be familiar with Estrella Morente through Pedro Almodóvars movie “Volver”, to which she provided the main theme of the original soundtrack. She is the daughter of renowned flamenco singer Enrique Morente, a groundbreaking artist in contemporary flamenco. He has pushed the limits through continuous innovative merging of traditional flamenco with various music styles. In 1996 he released one of the most important albums in contemporary flamenco, entitled “Omega”. An album which is considered a reference point for flamenco fusion.
On this album he collaborates with Spanish punk rock group Lagartija Nick and several top flamenco artists, amongst them his daughter Estrella. The album is based on texts by Spanish poet Federico García Lorca and songs by Leonard Cohen, fusing rock and flamenco in a previously unmatched way.
It is thus no surprise that Estrella Morente is following in her fathers footsteps, on a path that leads towards a modernisation of flamenco music. Although flamenco may just be one of the finest preserved historical treasures in the world, I think it’s important to push the envelope.
I dare you to listen to a song by Estrella called “En Lo Alto Del Cerro”. This one of my all time favourite songs. It gives you an idea of what it would feel like to be struck by lightning.
Mp3: Estrella Morente – En Lo Alto Del Cerro (zShare)
I also wanted to include a download link to aforementioned album by Enrique Morente:
I am also a big fan !!
Her debut as a singer when she was just 16 years old at a sky championship at Sierra Nevada, Granada, Spain.
She also did the music for the movie “Sobreviviré”
She is married to a bullfighter “Javier Conde” she has 2 sons.