Estrella Morente, daughter of famed singer Enrique, has rapidly made a name for herself as a flamenco artist. But, like her father, she’s not too worried about playing by the rules

"Flamenco's going through a wonderful period," says Estrella Morente. "It's reaching out into every corner of the world, and every one of us who is doing their bit to make it universal is proud of that."
Estrella Morente herself is in the vanguard of those responsible. Still only 28, and with only three albums behind her, she will be appearing at Sadler's Wells as part of the 2009 London Flamenco Festival. She sounds distinctly unfazed by the prospect: "When you're onstage, you put a bandage over your eyes and you give yourself up to the moment just the same, wherever you may be."

Estrella was born with a silver microphone in her mouth. Her mother was the dancer Aurora Carbonell: and, more importantly, her father is the renowned singer Enrique, a semi-legendary figure who straddles contemporary cante like a colossus. Born in Granada in 1980, Estrella is full of the memories of her childhood home, in which flamenco luminaries like Pepe Habichuela and Vicente Amigo came and went. It was, she explains, pretty much music round the clock.

"I knew when I was a little girl that I wanted to devote myself to el arte,” she says ("El arte" is how flamenco people refer to it, as though there were no other.) But it was when I was 15 that I got really hooked, when I did backing vocals on one of my father's records and he took me on tour." This involved being invited by him, entirely unexpectedly, on to the stage at New York's Carnegie Hall to improvise a version of the traditional song La nana de los pastores. What emotions does that provoke in a teenage girl? "Enthusiasm – and surprise at seeing how people treat you like a musician without thinking that you're just starting out."

They were auspicious beginnings, but Morente has still come a long way in a short time. Her first album, Mi cante y un poema (My Song and a Poem), received rave reviews from pretty much everyone, the power and range of her voice provoking comparisons with the late, great Pastora Pavón, "la Niña de los Peines".

There have been two more albums since, with Mujeres - nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2006 - a celebration of great women singers that she describes as both a celebration and a call for their recognition. It featured versions of several non-flamenco songs, including a stunning rendition of Jacques Brel's Ne Me Quitte Pas in honour of Nina Simone, which caused some clicking of tongues amongst the flamenco purists.

Read the full article in our March 2008 edition.