José Luis Picón I Málaga, (EFE).- The cantaora Estrella Morente feels that she is in a moment of “maturity” that she lives with “a wonderful feeling”, giving her the impression that she is “at the beginning of the path” and that he still has “more things to learn”, which is why he maintains “the illusion and the expectation”.
«If you think you know everything and you are smart and encyclopedic, life becomes something repetitive and tiresome. Emotion is in the risk,” he says in an interview with EFE Morente, who opens the third edition of the “Flamenco in Soho” cycle on February 9 at the Antonio Banderas Theater in Malaga.
When asked about the debate between flamenco purists and renovators, she stresses that she is not here “to give opinions”, but “everyone should do what they feel like” and asks “that Rosalía, El Niño de Elche, be respected Silvia Pérez Cruz and people who are doing interesting and beautiful things».
«I start from the base of respect. Young people have to be given the freedom to do whatever they want, because you don’t know where it’s going to end up», underlines the artist, who then asks herself: «Who establishes a canon of what pure flamenco is? I do not know. Each one will have a scale ».
«When I hear a version of Rosalía singing the tangos from ‘Juro que’, I know they come from my house and I feel proud, that they have served as a bridge or inspiration, and that’s nice», she adds.
No controversy with Rosalía
And that there have been those who have asked her why she did not denounce it if it was “practically a plagiarism”, but Estrella Morente does not see it that way, and also, she adds, Rosalía has named her when talking about the authorship of her songs.
«She is a friend and companion, and I cannot throw dirt on her. She has been inspired by my work and my version is inspired by other cantaoras. It’s okay, it’s music. Controversies are not useful to me, because it would bother my partner Rosalía », she settles.
She feels “happy and proud” to “have been born under the wings of a genius”, her father, Enrique Morente, for her “a synonym of art, culture, respect, new paths and new hopes.”
His entire career «was a pioneer in linking flamenco and poetry, and it is impossible to find a shadow for a surname like Morente», because his father «was not exaggerated, he did not like being given his ear and he did not take part in absurd leading roles, having been the greatest creator of flamenco art».
«At school we were normal children, without the feeling that our father had turned the Royal Theater or the Maestranza Theater upside down the day before».
It was therefore a “very special” relationship with her father and her brothers, who were “her biological children”, but there are also “many other children from various generations who will continue to see him as the great father of flamenco”.
“Paul from Malaga”
«I am a singer out of necessity, not to gain any status or because of the feeling of having to surpass my father. I need that way of expressing myself because it is the one with which I express myself best. I don’t have to be fashionable or up to date, I believe in naturalness, uncorseting and in everyday life, which is as inconstant as rivers».
His next project, “Pablo de Málaga”, which he is developing together with his brother Enrique, means continuing the work of his father when he put music to Pablo Picasso’s texts, and Estrella is “very excited”.
«It would be the tour that my father would now be preparing to sing Picasso, because it was one of the works that most marked his career and they said of him that he was the first Cubist singer and the Picasso of flamenco».
He advances that they will approach him “in the most respectful way” and will stick “as much as possible to the structure, knowing that he was unique”, and with the “moral and artistic obligation to continue with that legacy.”
«When the Picasso Museum in Malaga was inaugurated, he presented it and began to project it, but what he had in mind, the dance, was not done, because it was a project that went beyond music».
Soho and Banderas
At the Teatro del Soho, she will offer “an intimate concert” with which she will take “a little musical journey through Argentina, Mexico or Cuba, with tangos, rancheras and boleros, in the most sincere and honest way possible”, and in which she will be accompanied , among others, by his son Curro on percussion.
«He is becoming a great professional, specializing in the world of percussion, which is wonderful because we are percussion, from the beat of our hearts. The doors have been left open and the freedom to do what he wanted, but with the love, honesty and dedication necessary for each job ».
He does not “promote” his children because he wants them “to be free people and not pay for the popularity of their parents or their grandparents”, and they “are clear that the doors of art are always open, but they are not obliged to enter through them.”
Estrella Morente is grateful that Soho makes room for flamenco art on its agenda, and highlights that «Antonio Banderas is a great fan of flamenco, he knows that it is one of our main musicians and, when he went abroad, they considered him flamenco, they called him the gypsy has that Latin aspect and they understand him as flamenco because of his accent and his way of being».
When asked about the future, the cantaora answers that “I have no idea” and quotes a fandango by her father: “I’m not afraid of death because dying is natural, I’m more afraid of life because I don’t know where I’m going to end up.” with this head of mine.”
“I will continue singing that fandango until that fandango takes me where it has to take me,” says Estrella. EFE
