Amparo Cortes is the daughter of the well known singer and dancerGitanillo de Marchena. Her uncle, Gitanillo's brother, was the worldfamous guitarist Melchor de Marchena. He is still known as one of thegreatest and most influential 'tocaores' of all times. Needless to say,with this kind of family background, Amparo was immersed in Sevillianflamenco gitano atmosphere from the time she was a small child. Amparois a real flamenco. The fact that she no longer lives in Sevilla, butin Brussels, Belgium, hasn't changed that fact.

Amparo is a flamenco singer with en incredible duende, astage presence which easily captures any audiences she is performingto. She writes poetry almost daily and integrates this into her cantes.Her lyrics are usually autobiographical, very emotional, show a greatamount of vulnerability and are mostly beautiful. They are rooted in anoral poetic tradition bearing witness to a surprising fluency in hernative Sevillian dialect.

Enrique de Melchor, who plays on Amparo's first album Suenos,is her cousin and the son of Melchor de Marchena. Enrique is just asfamous in Spain as his father ever was. Together with Paco de Lucia andManolo Sanlucar is Enrique on the top of modern generation flamencoguitarists. His talent and virtuosity are admired by professionals andaficionados alike. Enrique is an excellent accompanyist and playsregularly with the great cantaores, such as Jose Menese, Jose Merce andeven classical greats as Monserrat Caballe and Jose Carreras, with whomhe played for the United Nations in New York. He is also an impressiveconcert guitarist and has won a number of important prizes includingthe 'Premio de la Catedra de Flamencologia de Jerez' and the'Castillete de Oro de la Union'.