ESTRELLA MORENTE. FESTIVAL DOCK DES SUD 2006, MARSEILLES

Estrella shines in her French début

Nadia Messaoudi. Marseilles (France), October 21st, 2006
Cover photo: Bárbara Alonso

‘Mujeres’. Cante: Estrella Morente. Guitar: Alfredo Lagos. Clapping and baile: Victoria Carbonell, Remedios Heredia Carbonell, Soledad Morente Carbonell. Choruses: Ángel Gabarre. 15th Festival Docks des Suds. La Passarelle. Marseilles (France), October 21st, 2006

Though it might seem hard to believe, Estrella Morente still hadn’t made her début in France. And for her first concert in said country, the cantaora wanted something special. She got it. Invited to the fifteenth edition of the world music festival Les Docks des Suds in Marseilles, which already had Diego el Cigala in 2004 as a representative of the jondo, the Granada-born cantaora gave a performance charged with energy and passion before over five thousand people.

Estrella Morente on 'Mujeres' (Archive photo: Daniel Muñoz)

The artist from Granada admitted her enthusiasm before the performance: “I feel something special for France; it’s a country full of history, art and culture. It’s the first time I’ve performed in this country and I haven’t come to do a tour, but rather I’m here for this so special event. I like the glamour of France but I wanted to come to a place like Marseilles to break away from that image. And sharing a bill like that of the Suds Festival with Cesaria Evora, Gotan Project and Nigerian Ayo is important to me”. The artist explained that “Marseilles is a city I like because it’s a mixture of cultures, people, colors... And that’s greatness. I’m glad it’s an outdoor concert for the flamenco to linger in the air. I want this first concert in France to be very flamenco”.

Estrella’s concert lasted an hour and a half at the festival’s largest stage, La Passerelle, an open-air venue set up under an expressway. Before over five thousand spectators, the artist performed several songs off her latest album, ‘Mujeres’. Dressed in a suit with a white shirt and black trousers, she got up on stage with a fan in her hand and a shawl over her shoulders. To the right, guitarist Alfredo Lagos, who she shared a lot of knowing glances with. Not in vain did she point out that “I really felt like performing again with Alfredo. We hadn’t worked together for a long time. He’s a guitarist with a lot of art”. But she also wanted to be surrounded by her people. To that end, on her left, she had the clapping and voices of Victoria Carbonell, Remedios Heredia Carbonell, Soledad Morente Carbonell and Ángel Gabarre.

In front of a crowd of admirers, Estrella devoted all her flamenco soul and her affection. Standing while singing the tangos flamencos ‘En lo alto del cerro’, off the album ‘Mi cante y un poema’, she was able to get across emotion with her voice, one of the most beautiful ones of today’s flamenco. She paid a tribute full of tenderness to her husband, bullfighter Javier Conde, present in the audience that night. Though he wasn’t the only one. She also remembered a Frenchman who “brought a lot of art to the bullfighting in France”, the director of the Nîmes Bullring, Simón Casas. But one of the most intense moments of this concert was the song ‘Volver’, awaited by the crowd in Marseilles and well-known thanks to the film of the same title by Pedro Almodóvar, whose actresses received an award at the latest edition of the Cannes Film Festival (France). A large portion of the audience couldn’t resist singing it. Marseilles lived a night of flamenco which left a new star in its heavens.

magazine@flamenco-world.com