First steps

Professional sports

In an interview, the girl admitted that her first love was fellow student saxophonist Vlad Kolchin, with whom she performed together in cafes and nightclubs.

Career start

A trip to visit friends in the Russian capital brought unexpected success. A cassette with 15 songs by a little-known singer was listened to by the producer of the Mumiy-Troll group, Leonid Burlakov. He liked the recordings. A talented author and performer is invited to Moscow. Producer Ilya Lagutenko and sound engineer Vladimir Ovchinnikov actively participated in the creation of the 1st album “Zemfira”. The final version of the first audio album was made by sound engineer Chris Bandy in London.

In February 1999, the radio version of the song “AIDS” broke into the top songs of many Russian radio stations (“Nashe Radio”, “Russian Radio”). Then her song creations “Rockets” and “Arivederchi” became hits. In mid-March, Zemfira released the first video clip for the song “AIDS”.
The first solo tour to the cities of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and the Baltic states began in September and lasted 5 months.

In the spring of 2000, another collection of the singer’s “Forgive Me, My Love” was presented, which won recognition from listeners (1.5 million copies). The artist’s first performance at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex in Moscow was very significant. The fans stubbornly refused to leave, having received a lot of emotions after the two-hour concert.

On August 26, 2000, in Bashkortostan, Zemfira was awarded the State Youth Prize in the Field of Culture named after. Sh. Babich.
In 2002, the group’s third album, “14 Weeks of Silence” (number of songs -13), was completed.

At a concert in Ufa on August 26, fellow countrymen saw rock stars new clip for the song "Macho". Following the results of the musical year 2003, Zemfira’s third album became a bestseller, and the singer received the title of laureate of the Russian Triumph Prize for her work in the field of culture and art.
On October 16, 2004, the musical dream of a girl from Ufa came true. She sang the song “We Are the Champions” in a duet with Queen. In 2004, Ramazanova was a student at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. Takes a leave of absence to record another album. As a result, student Ramazanova was expelled in 2006.

Creative achievements of the past decade

Based on its results, in the fall of 2006, a concert version of the collection “Zemfira. Live" (number of songs -10).
On February 14, 2007, a collection of clips “Zemfira. DVD". The limited edition disc includes a video for the song “Itogi”, filmed by Renata Litvinova.

In 2008, Zemfira earned a music award in the field of rock and roll in two categories: “Soloist of the Year” and “Music” (the song “We Are Breaking” from the audio collection “Thank You” was awarded).

Premiere of the film-concert " Green Theater in Zemfira” took place on February 19, 2008, said the director of the film, Renata Litvinova. "It's a daring act to capture an outstanding performer in outstanding form," the director said.

In the summer of 2008, the singer became a two-time winner of the Steppenwolf Award.

In 2010, she received the title of laureate of the honorary prize “For Contribution to the Development of Science, Culture and Art” of the Russian Society of Authors.

In 2010, Ramazanova's debut album became one of the "50 best Russian albums of all time."

In 2011, several information media included Zemfira in the “100 Super influential women Russia."

In 2012, Zemfira and Renata Litvinova are working on the film "Rita's Last Fairy Tale." The girls have known each other for a long time and together they filmed Zemfira’s videos, a concert film about her, and Zemfira herself was the composer of Litvinova’s films. This is what the performer said about her friend: “Renata is an extraordinary person, but it’s very easy to communicate with her. There are people who think she's weird, but nothing like that."

End of career?

On February 4, 2016, the singer began her last tour " Small man", which was reported at a concert in Novgorod. The Zemfira group organized 20 concerts in Russian cities and abroad. In the fall, a concert was held in Yekaterinburg. Then the tour part of the tour covered cities far abroad.

Many people associate the end of their singing career with personal tragedies in the Ramazanov family. Not long ago, the girl’s brother and father passed away. True fans of Zemfira are confident that the singer has temporarily retired from music and will soon again delight her fans with yet another masterpiece.

She is the face of youth music of the late 90s and the standard of a new style. A singer who quickly burst into the world of Russian music and became the idol of millions. It is with her name that the birth of “female rock” in Russia is associated. She still does not allow the media and people who are eager to know at least something about her orientation and connections into her personal life.

All this is about the singer, the outstanding musician Zemfira, whose biography is filled with a rocker mood of protest, seriousness and not at all rocker-like subtle female feelings, resulting in songs that have not lost popularity for more than 17 years.

Zemfira still attracts huge audiences; she is interesting to her fans, who unconditionally accept their idol without a modern, fashionable appearance or details of her personal life. She is who she is: alive, sincere and feeling.

The beginning of the way

The future rock star Zemfira Ramazanova was born in the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, the city of Ufa, at the end of August 1976 into a family that had nothing to do with music. Her father was a historian, and her mother was a specialist in physical therapy.

In addition to her, there was another child growing up in the family - son Ramil, with whom Zemfira was very close. It was her brother who instilled in her a love of rock; they listened to the bands Queen and Black Sabbath together. In addition, as a child, the girl loved to listen to the songs of Viktor Tsoi, whose work influenced Zemfira’s development as a singer. The singer’s nationality is not Bashkir, as many people think, but Tatar.

At school, Zemfira was an excellent student. Studying came easily to her. That is why the girl had plenty of free time and hobbies. Except secondary school she also studied at a music school in the piano department and sang in the choir.

The girl also had achievements in sports, as at school she loved to play basketball. Despite her short stature, she became the captain of the Russian junior team. However, when the time came to choose what to connect her destiny with after graduating from school, Zemfira decided to plunge headlong into music. And she entered Ufa School of Music to the pop vocal department.

Of course, like most students, the girl worked part-time during her studies. Her main source of income was performances in restaurants, where Zemfira did not sing, but played the piano, and her friend Vlad Kolchin accompanied him on the saxophone. In addition, the girl worked for some time in her hometown at radio Europe Plus, where she voiced commercials and was a sound engineer. Her first songs were written during that period.

A work colleague helped her record her first demo disc, who encouraged the singer to create a group. This is how the Zemfira group appeared. The tracks recorded in the mid-90s “blew up” the youth of Bashkiria. They not only began to sing about Zemfira, but they also began to write about her. Many local newspapers wanted to interview the young musician, whose songs captured the youth. And a year later, Zemfira decides to leave to conquer Moscow.

Path to the top

Zemfira conveyed her first works through familiar journalists personally to the lead singer of the Mumiy Troll group Ilya Lagutenko, who was delighted with the young, few famous musician. And soon, thanks to Ilya and the producer of his group, Zemfira’s debut album of the same name was recorded. This happened in 1998.

And two months later, her songs were in rotation on many radio stations. The first video was shot at the same time. Thus, the country has a new idol with a female face.

And six months later, Zemfira went on her first tour of the CIS countries. True, the singer did not want to reveal her soul to journalists even then. She conveyed all her feelings exclusively through music and symbolic objects at concerts: a daisy, a guitar, a butterfly.

A year after the presentation of the first album, the second, “Forgive me, my love,” is released. The girl once admitted that it is especially difficult for her to give names to her songs, which is why it often turns out that tracks have two names. Songs from this disc again topped the country's charts, and some became film soundtracks.

At the end of 2000, singer Zemfira, after another concert in Yakutsk, was accused of riots that occurred in the city square. So many people gathered to look at the idol that a stampede began, as a result of which many people were injured.

The singer was accused of this incident, but Zemfira said that the organizers should be blamed. After this, Zemfira disappeared from the stage for some time and did not contact anyone, including the press. In the same year, the singer received her first prize in her native republic of Bashkiria for her significant contribution to art.

However, by 2002 the singer returned again with a “bomb”. The third album, entitled “14 Weeks of Silence,” was released, which sold a record number of copies – more than a million copies.

Zemfira has seven albums in total:

• "Zemfira".
• "Forgive me, my love".
• "14 weeks of silence."
• "Vendetta".
• "Thank you".
• "Z-sides".
• "Live in your head."

Personal life

As already mentioned, Zemfira does not let strangers into her life. Therefore, little is known about her relationships with men. However, some facts did leak to the media.

Her first love was a musician, with whom the girl was still in student years performed in restaurants. However, their relationship cannot be called romantic - rather, there was passion between the young people. Would Zemfira and Vlad have brought their union to marriage? No one knows this. The reason for their separation was the guy’s departure to St. Petersburg.

This may seem strange, but the rock singer was also associated with Roman Abramovich. Rumor has it that the oligarch was the sponsor of the then aspiring singer. Whether this is true or not is not known for sure.

Renata Litvinova is of great importance in Zemfira’s life. Although the girls claim that they are just friends, their frequent appearances together give the media a reason to talk about more. There is a rumor that Renata and Zemfira secretly got engaged in Sweden. Despite her age of 41, Zemfira has no children.

2009 became a tragic year for the singer’s family. The girl lost her father, who died of a heart attack. However, this was only the beginning; a year later her dear and beloved brother Ramil drowned. And in 2015, not recovering from the loss of her husband and son, Zemfira’s mother died. Since then, the singer herself has been trying to take care of her twin nephews, left behind after the death of her brother. Together with them, the singer created music project"Uchpochmak."

Today Zemfira does not like to appear on television and tells practically nothing about herself to the press. She places the main emphasis on her lyrics and music. Her wardrobe contains only black and white clothes and a permanent short haircut, symbolizing minimalism, seriousness and steadfastness. Author: Anastasia Kaykova

For years now, the capital's crowd has been discussing the passionate romance between singer Zemfira Ramazanova and actress Renata Litvinova. Every step of the stars causes a violent reaction. Meanwhile, Zemfira’s personal life before meeting Renata was so eventful that intriguing facts are still emerging. “ZhG” recalled the singer’s most high-profile novels.

I tried men first

As soon as she appeared on the capital's stage, the homely girl from Ufa fell in love with half of the country's teenagers. Representatives of gay people treated Zemfira especially tenderly. And this is not surprising - the songs and image of Ramazanova were very close to them. Having gained popularity, Zema plunged headlong into lesbian novels. But the singer never talked about her personal life “before Moscow.” Like, I didn’t have time for this nonsense, I was busy with my studies and music. Meanwhile, Zemfira dated men for quite a long time.

“Ramazanova’s first love was her classmate at the Ufa College of Arts, Vlad Kolchin,” Ufa guitarist Jalil Mukhametshin once revealed Zema’s secret. “In the mid-nineties, they earned their living with him at the fashionable restaurant “Zhespar.” Kolchin played the saxophone, and Zemfira sang and played the guitar.

Close friends of the singer recall that Ramazanova looked at Vlad with moist eyes and dedicated songs to him. But her feelings remained unrequited. Subsequently, Kolchin left for St. Petersburg, but did not invite Zema with him.

Second love future star Sergei Anatsky became the director of the local radio station. But love affair at work was doomed from the very beginning. Sergei was happily married and did not want to exchange his wife for a capricious employee.

Soon Zema became interested in sound engineer Arkady Mukhtarov. Young people even lived in a civil marriage for a short time. When Zemfira moved to Moscow, Mukhtarov followed her. They broke up due to Arkady's addiction to alcohol.

Stole Kalmanovich's wife

A couple of years ago, news broke that Zemfira had an affair with... Roman Abramovich. This version is supported by the fact that Roman Arkadyevich secretly came to Zemfira’s concerts, and also ensured her participation in prestigious European events and even in football matches. Supporters of this version are still confident that Zemfira owes her resounding success to Abramovich. They even said that PR people specially came up with a story about Zema’s lesbian inclinations in order to divert people’s gaze from the real state of affairs. These conversations died down when the oligarch met Daria Zhukova, and Zemfira became close to Anastasia Kalmanovich.

Having been burned by the men, Zema told them a firm “no!” A woman's love entered her life. Anastasia Kalmanovich became Zemfira's producer thanks to her influential businessman husband Shabtai Kalmanovich. Then no one could have imagined that Nastya and Zemfira would be physically attracted to each other. Kalmanovich had cameras built into his home and office, which once recorded the singer and her producer in such expressive poses that her husband could not stand it. Shabtai and Nastya divorced. Around the same time, Lena Perova fell in love with Zemfira.

Perova remembers with tenderness

“Lena was simply blown away,” Perova’s friends recall. “She went so far as to give her gifts for no reason or reason.” Lena monitored Zemfira’s website chat all day long, went to meetings of her fan club, where she drank endlessly. At one of these gatherings, she got so drunk that she pestered almost all the female representatives there.
Unlike Kalmanovich, Lena Perova still speaks of Zema with tenderness: “Our communication with Zemfira was imbued with fun and youthful recklessness. We went to visit each other. Played computer game“How to become a millionaire”, went on rides in the cultural park and generally had fun. At some point she gained weight and was so unhappy with herself that she drank only water for a whole month. She could take a sip of cognac, but nothing to eat. Of course, she is a difficult person, but I am very glad that fate brought us together. Why did we break up? Just as she doesn’t remember, neither do I.”

After breaking up with Perova and Kalmanovich, Zema began to develop complexes that forced her to see a psychiatrist. At that time, more than one oligarch offered sponsorship and other help to Zemfira, but the singer found a cure for heart wounds in the house of Renata Litvinova. And now Zemfira and Renata live and work together. Litvinova made a film about her friend. And Zemfira is working on the music for Renata’s new film “Rita’s Last Fairy Tale.” According to rumors, the stars even got engaged in Holland a year ago. Zemfira's mother Florida Khakievna considers Litvinova her second daughter, and her daughter Ulyana her granddaughter. The actress never tires of confessing her love to the singer.

– I love Zemfira so much! – Renata says without a shadow of embarrassment. – She is actually close to me. She is part of my biography.

The only thing that complicates the union of two women is wild jealousy Zemfira, who is haunted by rumors about Litvinova’s affairs with students. The latest scandal occurred due to intimate photos of Litvinova hugging the young actress Renata Piotrovsky leaked onto the Internet. They gossiped about Zemfira's departure, but in vain: the other day the paparazzi again captured Zema leaving Litvinova's house.

Now, probably, there is no person in the country who would not listen to the singer, composer and poetess Zemfira. Many are interested in her personal life.

Brave, daring, more like a guy than a feminine girl, she became the creator and personification of a new trend in music called “female rock.” Her songs are like herself: free, bold and daring. Her life will be discussed in the article.

Zemfira Ramazanova is one of those people who hides her personal life. Her biography began in 1976 in Ufa. The girl was born into a Tatar-Bashkir family. Her parents are intellectuals. My father taught history at school, and my mother was a therapeutic gymnastics coach. Zemfira had an older brother, with whom they were very friendly.

The girl started studying music early. At the age of five she was already attending music school and was a soloist in the children's choir. Once she even appeared on local television.

At the age of seven, the future celebrity composed her first song. IN school years the girl was fond of the works of Viktor Tsoi and Thom Yorke. This significantly influenced her further development as a musician.

The future singer learned to play the guitar and performed songs by the Kino group right on the street.

Along with music, Zemfira was fond of basketball. She was the team leader, despite the fact that she was shorter than the other girls. This passion for sports was so strong that after graduating from school, the girl chose her future path between music and sports. Music won!

Zemfira entered the music school in the pop and jazz department. She was accepted straight into the second year. While studying, the girl began to earn extra money, performing songs in Ufa restaurants. She was accompanied by a classmate on the saxophone.

The beginning of a creative career

After receiving a honors diploma from the College of Arts, Zemfira went to work as a sound engineer at the Europe Plus radio station. At the same time, she sings in the group “Spectrum Ace” as the second vocalist.

At night, Zemfira composed her songs and recorded them on the computer. In her personal words, she went to a friend in Moscow and took her songs recorded on CDR. Here for the first time in her life she showed her songs.

In the capital, she ended up at the Fili recording studio. But they refused her, saying that they only accepted cassettes. Zemfira left, but left the notes with her friend. A few days later, her friend showed the recordings to the producer of the Mumiy Troll group. He liked Zemfira’s songs so much that he called her in Ufa. I had to go back to Moscow.

The singer arrived in the capital with her newly formed group. How she collected it is a different story. They rehearsed in the building of a teenage club (Zemfira persuaded the director). The only thing missing in the group was a lead guitarist. It was Yuri Tsaler from Mumiy Troll.

Producer Leonid Burlakov gives the aspiring talented singer to record her first disc, which was called “Zemfira”.

In her personal words: “I have so much music in my head that there’s nowhere to go!” The singer's first disc was released in 1999. The only song not included in this album is “Don’t Let Go!” It will be included in the second album.

It was a real success in creative biography singers! Video clips were shot for many songs.

Rise of popularity

Soon after this, the newly formed group went on tour. The concerts were completely sold out! Zemfira was simply covered by a wave of sudden popularity.

On March 24, 1999, the singer gave a press conference at a Moscow club. Moreover, she answered questions only in Bashkir. The audience immediately fell in love with the unusual, strange star.

In May, the presentation of the group's album took place. There was grass scattered on the stage. The singer herself wove a daisy into her hair and used it to tell fortunes during the song “Daisies.” It was unexpected and amazing!

In December of the same year, the group began preparing to record a second disc. The singer admitted that song titles were always difficult for her. It's like naming a child!

At the beginning of the new year, stunning news swept across the country. Zemfira and her group won in the OM magazine categories: “Best Performer of the Year”, “Brawler of the Year”, “Breakthrough of the Year” and “Album of the Year”.

In March, the group's second album, “Forgive Me, My Love,” premiered. He still had greater success. The singer gave a big solo concert, which was also sold out. Her song “Iskala” was performed in the new film “Brother 2”. But popularity tired the singer more than it pleased her. Therefore, she took a short vacation, taking part in only one project dedicated to Viktor Tsoi. There she performed his song “Cuckoo”.

Glory was not without victims and sad incidents. During one of her concerts, a tragic incident occurred. People were injured as a result of a stampede at the stadium where the singer performed. The authorities and police blamed Zemfira, but she did not understand what was her fault if more tickets were sold than the stadium could accommodate people.

This tragedy greatly upset the singer. She said that fame prevents her from working normally. She would like to cancel her popularity, that there is no need to make a guru or idol out of her. This prevents her from working.

The singer's creativity

The singer's creative style can be called rock or pop rock. Some have dubbed it "girl rock". In this style, recognizable different trends that existed in different time in music. This is Tsoi, and Susan Vega, and Alanis Morissette, and Bjork. Her singing is close to Aguzar's vocals. Sometimes you get the feeling when listening to her songs that they were recorded in the 80s.

The singer owns many musical instruments, this makes it possible to diversify her performances.

As for the lyrics of her songs, that’s a separate topic. It raises topical issues of the time. Therefore, they are relevant and find a wide response in the hearts of listeners. For example, sometimes the problems of teenagers are visible in songs (lack of money, desire for love and self-realization, etc.). Then the singer raises the topic of the terrible scourge of time - AIDS. The following conclusion suggests itself: sometimes you have to pay for love with illness and death.

Unusuality, brightness, creativity, courage, audacity - these are the characteristics in a few words creative direction, created by the singer. It can’t be said that no one sang like that before. But something about her catches you, leads you into ecstasy, makes you think.

Personal life Russian singer Zemfira is shrouded in mystery. Few people know, but she (bold, strange and talented) was credited with a relationship with billionaire Roman Abramovich. She sings passionately about love. Her poems are imbued with love. And it seems that Zemfira’s songs are a cry from the soul, recognition, revelation. Perhaps the recording studio is the only place where she does not speak, but screams about her feelings. In other places, with other people and under other circumstances, it is impossible to force her to talk out loud about personal things.

Zemfira also became a producer of a musical film Green Theater in Zemfira(2008), which received many positive feedback from critics. Together with director Renata Litvinova, Zemfira became a co-producer of the film Rita's last tale(2012), for which she wrote the music. The film took part in competitive program 3rd Odessa International Film Festival and 34th Moscow International Film Festival. She also wrote music for Renata Litvinova’s films “Goddess: How I Loved” and others. Several of Zemfira’s songs from the album “Thank You” are heard in Kira Muratova’s film “Melody for an Organ-Gurdy”, and in the film “Eternal Return” a concert recording appears repeatedly in the frame “ Songs of the Duke" from the opera "Rigoletto" performed by the singer.

Since her appearance in show business in 1999, Zemfira has undergone numerous changes in appearance, manner of behavior on stage and communication with journalists. Her behavior in public was often shocking and caused rejection by the press.

Zemfira is also distinguished by perfectionism in her work and severe disagreements with music producers. Therefore, she often produces her albums herself. Musical style Zemfira belongs to the rock and pop-rock genres. Her music is influenced by both guitar pop and the harmonies of jazz and bossa nova.

In 2004, a Russian history textbook for grade 9 included a mention of Zemfira in the section “Spiritual Life” as the founder of a “completely different” musical youth culture (the author of the manual is a professor at the Moscow Pedagogical University state university Alexander Danilov). Zemfira provided big influence on the creativity of young groups of the 2000s and on the younger generation in general. In November 2010, her debut album was included by Afisha magazine in the list of “50 best Russian albums of all time.” Choice of young musicians”, where he took fifth place. The rating was compiled based on a survey among representatives of several dozen young musical groups Russia. The list also included the album “Forgive Me, My Love” (43rd place).

In 2012, 2013 and 2014, the singer was included in the rating of “One Hundred Most Influential Women of Russia” compiled by the radio station “Echo of Moscow”, news agencies RIA Novosti, Interfax and Ogonyok magazine.

Biography

1976-1995: Childhood and youth

Zemfira went to Ufa kindergarten No. 267. From the age of five she studied piano at a music school, where she was accepted into the choir as a soloist. At the same time, the singer made her television debut: she sang a song about a worm solo on local television: “Once upon a time there lived a worm, a lazy worm. I went to sleep on my side...” At the age of seven I wrote my first song, which I performed at my mother’s work.

Already in preschool age Zemfira became interested in music. At school, Zemfira managed to study in 7 clubs at the same time, but placed the main emphasis on music and basketball; she graduated from music school with honors, and at the beginning of 1990 she became the captain of the Russian women's junior basketball team, despite the fact that she was not very tall (Zemfira's height is 172 cm). “I was the point guard. I was the smallest, but the most important,” said the singer, adding that she had been involved in this sport since the third grade. National team coach Yuri Maksimov recalled: “Zemfira was very passionate about basketball, she was the best player and captain of the team. In 1990-1991, we won the Russian youth championship, and, of course, I was a little upset when she decided to quit the sport.”

At the same time, Zemfira learned to play the guitar and, according to one version, performed songs from “Kino,” “Aquarium,” and “Nautilus Pompilius” right on the street. According to another version, she performed hits foreign performers in the original language, in particular, George Michael and Freddie Mercury. After graduating from school, Zemfira faced a very difficult choice for herself: music or basketball. The girl chose music and immediately entered the second year at the Ufa College of Arts, which she graduated in 1997 (class of A.K. Masalimova) with honors in the specialty " pop vocals" After college, she worked part-time in Ufa restaurants, performing songs to the accompaniment of her classmate, saxophonist Vlad Kolchin. A year later, Zemfira got tired of it, and she stopped performing.

1996-1997: Beginning of career

I was sitting in Ufa, worked for four years in restaurants and was tired. I went to the radio station “Europe Plus Ufa”... Then I fell in love with the computer and the opportunity arose to write some songs at night. I mastered a couple of music programs and moved on... I wrote at night, drove home in the morning, listened... I sat like that for about nine months, and accumulated thirty to forty songs. Then I went to Moscow - just to relax, to visit. And I took these songs with me on the CDR, as they say, just in case of fire. The friend I stayed with liked it and asked me to rewrite it. I went to the Fili recording company, but they told me that they wouldn’t take the CDR, I needed a cassette. So I left. I didn’t go anywhere else - I didn’t like it. And my friend handed over the tape she had rewritten on Maxidrom to the producer of Mumiy Troll, Leonid Burlak. Lenya called me in Ufa that same day. I barely scraped together the money for a ticket and returned to Moscow.

Zemfira talks about the first stage of her career

Since 1996, Zemfira worked as a sound engineer at the Ufa radio station "Europe Plus" - recording commercials (jingles). At the same time, she is trying to write songs in the Cakewalk program, which will later be included in her first album (“Snow”, “Why”, “Forecaster”, “Rockets”). Participates as the second vocalist in the then popular band Spectrum Ace. Zemfira's backing vocals can be heard in the song “What a pity that he is not a black man.”

Sound engineer Arkady Mukhtarov worked on his material at the radio station's studio. Together with him, Zemfira records her first demo disc. Arkady was determined to record his own songs, but the performer convinced him to record her material: “I, of course, was sure that my own creativity was much more important... but [her] rock-solid character... did its job. And with a lot of hassle, we still recorded the first demo disc,” the musician later said. At the same time, Zemfira is forming her own group. The first musician with whom she began to work was bass guitarist Rinat Akhmadiev. Together they decide to record a program minimum of songs. Rinat brings drummer Sergei Sozinov, and they begin joint rehearsals, at which Zemfira alternates playing guitar and keyboards. Zemfira persuades the director of the Orange teenage club, Liliya Khrabrina, to provide the group with rehearsal space.

In 1997, the press wrote about the group for the first time. Journalist Svetlana Rutskaya wrote an article about the group for a regional newspaper and later recalled: “It was 1997, two years remained before the release of her first album, and the future celebrity was then just a talented Ufa girl, unknown to anyone even in her hometown. But you can’t hide charisma, and the songs that the heroine of the material gave me to listen to were attractive. That’s when we decided to tell the whole republic about it. I remember that even then Zemfira made a policy statement: “I have so much music in my head that there is nowhere to go.”

Zemfira continues to recruit musicians for the team. With the arrival of keyboard player Sergei Mirolyubov, the group is almost completely assembled, only missing a lead guitarist. They become Vadim Solovyov, who joins the group after one of the concerts. Zemfira borrows money for a trip to Moscow and begins to “promote” the team. At the annual Maxidrom festival, the cassette on which three songs were recorded (“Snow”, “-140” and “Scandal”), through the journalists whom Zemfira gave to listen to demo recordings, falls into the hands of the producer of the group “Mumiy Troll” Leonid Burlakov. He decides to take a risk and record an album.

In parallel with her studies at the university, the girl began to earn extra money, performing popular songs in Ufa restaurants. However, she quickly became bored with such activities, and in 1996 Zemfira got a job on the radio: she recorded commercials for the Bashkir branch of the Europe Plus radio station. Then she recorded her first demos.

Zemfira: music

Zemfira's biography changed dramatically in 1997, when at the annual rock festival "Maxidrom" a cassette with her songs fell through familiar journalists into the hands of the then producer of the Mumiy Troll group, Leonid Burlakov. Leonid decides to give the talented performer a chance, and at the end of 1998 Zemfira records her first album at the Mosfilm studio "Zemfira".

In 1996, Zemfira went to visit a friend in Moscow where she met Leonid Burlak, who was the producer of the Mumiy Troll group. At the same time, the singer began recording her first demo disc and at the same time assembled her group.

In 1997 about new group first mentioned in newspapers. In 1998, recording of the first album began at the Mosfilm studio, Vladimir Ovchinnikov became a sound engineer, and singer Ilya Lagutenko from the Mumiy Troll group became a sound producer.

and finally -

The couple lived together for some time, and when Zemfira moved to Moscow, Mukhtarov followed. Arkady worked on the official website of Zemfira, and later starred in leading role in the video "Macho".

In 1999, Zemfira and her colleague Vyacheslav Petkun decided to promote themselves and even shared plans for their upcoming wedding with the press. However, after 5 months, the inept PR move was exposed by journalists.

Zemfira: biography - on the wave of fame

On May 10, 2005, a tour started in support of the fourth album “Vendetta,” which included 15 tracks. WITH new program and an updated lineup in the person of session musicians Boris Livshits, Andrey Zvonkov and her protégé Vladimir Kornienko, Zemfira visited a number of cities near and far abroad. The final point was the concert on December 23 in Moscow, at the Gorbunov House of Culture, where Zemfira jumped from the stage into the crowd.

On February 14, Valentine’s Day, a DVD with clips “Zemfira.DVD” was released, which included most of the singer’s clips released at that time, except for clips for the songs Speed ​​(the singer doesn’t like this clip) and Traffic (due to disagreements Zemfira with video director Irina Mironova). The deluxe version of the collection also includes a video for the song Itogi, filmed by Renata Litvinova.

After a short break, in the spring of 2007, Zemfira again delights fans with new concerts. The tour, called “De Jà Vu,” features well-known compositions from previously released albums, but in a new arrangement. The songs, changed beyond recognition, are performed again by session musicians: Dmitry Shurov, Konstantin Kulikov, Alexey Belyaev, Denis Marinkin. The tour ends with a concert in Moscow, at the Green Theater on Pushkinskaya Embankment, where visitors could see fireworks in honor of the performer at the end of the concert.

IN last years the press hints in every possible way about Zemfira’s unconventional orientation and writes about her special friendship with the actress and director Renata Litvinova. Zemfira and Renata Litvinova have a number of commonalities creative projects- movies Goddess, Green Theater in Zemfira, clips.

Discography

She sings her songs this way and writes her music this way, as long as she loves it so much.