Camarón de la Isla

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José Monje Cruz, better known as Camarón de la Isla, was born in San Fernando (Cádiz) on 5 December 1950 in a humble house of the popular suburb of the Callejuelas. He is considered one of the best flamenco singers in the history of flamenco.

The eighth of 8 brothers, was very soon given the nickname of Camarón (prawn) from one of his uncles because, although he was from gypsy ethnic, he was also blonde and had fare skin.

As a youngster he studied very little (in the section of beneficiary of the Carmelitas), but he learnt to play the guitar and he was left to be influenced by his mother, la Perla da Cádiz, the Chaqueta and Manolo Caracol, flamenco singers that he met at his own house. Very soon, at the age of 7, he started to earn a bit of cash singing in the market places in the villages surrounding his hometown and on the trains.

When he was only 12 years old, and he after the falsification of his age, he acted for the first time professionally in Seville and, later on, in Malaga and won the Flamenco Festival Competition of Montilla (Córdoba). Afterwards, he formed part of various companies, between them the standout is the one of Juanito Valderrama, which took him on tour through Europe and America.

Later on, he transferred to Madrid, where he worked for 12 years in the tablao, a flamenco bar, of Torres Bermejas, stage that served him as a trampoline to various important festivals and also in particular of the ‘Casa Flora’ film, starring Lola Flores.

In this tablao also with Paco de Lucía, in which, between 1968 and 1977, recorded a number of albums (of the 19 that he recorded in his life). It is in this phase in which Camarón evolved and defined his own style, particularly emotive and communicative.

In 1976 he married Dolores Montoya, better known as La Chispa (The Spark), and three years later he recorded the album that revolutionised the flamenco world: 'La leyenda del tiempo' (The Legend of Time). In this era he started to collaborate with the guitarist Tomatito.

On March 1988 he acted, for three nights straight, in the Cirque d'Hiver en París, packing the venue full and one year later he published 'Soy gitano' (I Am Gypsy), the best selling flamenco album sold in history.

He died on 2 July 1992 in Badalona, when he was only 41 years old, due to a lung cancer. About 50,000 people were united for his funeral, celebrating it in his place of birth.

On 2005, the director Jaime Chávarri took the flamenco singer to the big screen with the film 'Camarón', starring Óscar Jaenada.