Estrella Morente: "Rosalía has not been respectful to me"

Barcelona"I'm very upset because they didn't let us sing at either of them," says Estrella Morente in a relaxed, almost amused tone, in an interview. The afternoon from Catalunya Ràdio, which aired this Friday. "I'm very surprised, I'm embarrassed," she continues. "We were so eager to sing," she insists. And suddenly her tone turns more serious as she says: "I am respectful, and she hasn't been respectful to me. And now I'm being serious," adds Enrique Morente's eldest daughter, who performs at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on February 15.

The disappointment stems from how the collaboration between Estrella Morente and Sílvia Pérez Cruz on the song turned out. The rumba of forgiveness, included on the album Lux by Rosalía. In the song, the artist from San Esteban Sesrovires acknowledges two touchstones of his art: the legacy of Morente and the influence of Pérez Cruz's vocal musicality. It's not that their voices don't appear in the song, but rather that Rosalía barely inserts them in a fragment where they combine with her own; they almost merge, and it's difficult to distinguish them. In any case, it's far from a conventional duet or trio. "Everyone does the work as they wish, but I'm surprised," says Estrella Morente, who recalls that years ago she defended Rosalía when she was attacked by the "most reactionary" wing of flamenco. "Dolguda? No. In fact, at home we dance Lux", says.

According to Estrella Morente, Rosalía called her to propose "a duet," which was later to become a trio with the addition of Pérez Cruz. "She told me: 'Sing, sing, do whatever you need, whatever you feel, Estrella, because I admire you and I want to hear you.' And I had a wonderful time in the studio; I played around, I even did a polyphonic vocal arrangement," says the singer from Granada. "Let it be clear that I respect the work she has published and delivered." A few months ago, Sílvia Pérez Cruz posted a two-minute video on social media with the material she had recorded for The rumba of forgivenessBut Estrella Morente says she won't do the same with her own work.

Without being harsh, but without hiding her opinion, Estrella Morente believes that "music should prevail over the interests of producers and oneself, and if two colleagues have worked on something for several days, it must be respected." "You can't just throw it away, Rosalía; not everything goes," she says. She's speaking out now to "do some justice" to her work, which, according to Estrella Morente, is being called into question. "'Oh, so you've started singing backup for Rosalía? Are things going that badly for you?' It's a good thing I just received the Medal of Fine Arts, otherwise they'd think I was following Rosalía around to sing a couple of backing vocals," she says. And she concludes: "Everyone has the right to make mistakes, just as we all do. I'm sure that if at some point she corrects herself or decides to do another song, I'll make sure, above all, to listen to what she's done before it's published; lest instead of a sentence she leaves a single word."