María Rosa García was born in 1978 in the town of San Fernando in Cadiz. The youngest of five siblings and only daughter of a military man (José García) and flamenco singer "La Pastori" García.

Her stage name is "Niña Pastori" because among her siblings of four older brothers, she was the only woman and she was referred to as "la niña", she was also "la única hija de la Pastori" (the only daughter of la Pastori) and when she went on stage people remarked “va a cantar la niña de la Pastori” (la Pastori's girl is going to sing). Her initial name was "La niña de la Pastori", but she later changed it to "Niña Pastori".

She started her artistic career at a young age singing in Andalusia. At the age of six she accompanied her mother in the flamenco tablaos of "Barrio de la Pastora", and a year later won a singing contest at the "El Chato" club in San Fernando, where she sang bulerías (a flamenco style) and won first prize. In doing so, she showed that she had skills despite her early age.

Among her first mentors was Camarón de la Isla, also from San Fernando (Cádiz), whose purist flamenco style she followed in her early years. Later she added a more commercial, pop tone to her image and style without losing her flamenco roots. Artists Paco Ortega and Alejandro Sanz helped her produce her first album, Entre dos puertos, when she was seventeen and with whom sold more than 150,000 units, achieving commercial popularity. Part of this was due to the single Tú me camelas, which was a hit in Spain in summer 1996. Since then, she has recorded ten albums and has sold two million records.