Zemfira Ramazanova is a Russian rock singer, composer, producer and songwriter. One of the most shocking, extraordinary and commercially successful singers in the history of Russian rock music. Zemfira is called the founder of "female rock" and "Kurt Cobain in a dress." Her love life and orientation is a mystery to her fans. Zemfira's music and songs are filled with genuine sincerity, lively touchingness and rocker emotions.
early years
Musical career
Personal life
Interesting Facts
early years
Zemfira Talgatovna Ramazanova was born on August 26, 1976 in the city of Ufa, the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The singer's nationality is Tatar. Her parents had nothing to do with music. Father Talgat Talkhoevich Ramazanov taught history, and mother Florida Khakievna Ramazanova is a specialist in physiotherapy exercises. Zemfira's elder brother, Ramil Ramazanov, died in 2010 in an accident. Thanks to Ramil, Zemfira fell in love with rock music from childhood. Together they listened to the bands Queen, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Aquarium and Kino. Seeing their daughter's interest in music, her parents sent her to a music school at the age of five. There she learned to play the piano and was a vocalist in a local choir. At the age of seven, Zemfira wrote her first song.
At school, the girl was an excellent student, attended many circles, studied vocals and basketball. After leaving school, Zemfira chooses a musical career. She enters the second year of the Ufa College of Arts, the department of pop vocal. During her studies, the future singer moonlights as a presenter in the Ufa branch of the Europe Plus radio channel.
Musical career
Zemfira wrote her first songs, which made her famous throughout the country, while still working on the radio. In 1997 she created her own musical group "Zemfira". For the first time the group performs at the "Silver Rain" radio birthday party in Ufa. By a lucky coincidence, the cassette with her songs goes to the producer of the Mumiy Troll group Leonid Burlakov. Seeing a real star in the young singer, Burlakov invites Zemfira to Moscow with her team to record an album.
In the fall of 1998, the singer's first studio album, entitled "Zemfira", was released. The sound engineer is Vladimir Ovchinnikov, and the music producer is Ilya Lagutenko (vocalist of the Mumiy Troll group).
The songs of the first album - "Speed", "Rockets" and "Arivederchi" become real hits, and Russian listeners have a new rock idol in a female guise. Then Zemfira goes on her first tour of the CIS countries, where she gathers huge halls of listeners.
In April 2000, the Zemfira group received an award from the Fuzz magazine in two nominations: Best Group and Best Album (for their debut work). The aspiring singer was awarded the State Youth Prize of the Republic of Bashkortostan in the field of culture named after Shaikhzada Babich for 1999.
In the spring of 2000, the group's second studio album, "Forgive me, my love", was released. The filmed video clip for the song "Iskala" is included in the five best clips of MTV, and also sounds in the cult film by Alexei Balabanov "Brother 2".
Such songs as: "Ripe", "Dawn", "Want", "Don't let go", "I hate", from this disc become "folk". This album became the best-selling album in Russia in 2000 and sold over one and a half million copies. The band is nominated for the 2001 Ovation Award in the Rock Band of the Year category and many other awards. Zemfira's next albums "Fourteen weeks of silence", "Vendetta", "Thank you" were not so successful.
In 2004, Zemfira decides to get a higher education. She enters the philosophy department of Moscow State University. But due to the recording of a new album, they could not finish their studies. In October of the same year, Ramazanova received an invitation to perform the hit "We Are The Champions". She performed alongside legendary band Queen Brian May and Roger Taylor at the MTV Russia Awards.
In the same year, the singer began to collaborate with the director and actress Renata Litvinova. They met on the set of Litvinova's film "The Goddess: How I Fell in Love". Ramazanova was invited to write music for the picture. Zemfira's composition "Love is like an accidental death" was included in the soundtrack to the film. In the future, the actress was more than once the director of the singer's clips ("Results", "Live in your head", "Walk", "We are breaking up", "In me") and many of her other projects.
Zemfira's next successful record was the album "Live in Your Head" (2013). The proceeds from the sale of the album amounted to two million rubles, which is an absolute record in Russian rock music.
In the fall of 2015, Zemfira went on a tour called "Little Man". During the tour, the singer visited 20 cities in Russia, and also sang for residents of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus. For her creative work, Zemfira has released six studio albums. In 2013, 2014 and 2015, the singer was included in the list of "One hundred most influential women in Russia."
In the list of the main albums for ten years (according to the magazine "Russian Reporter"), Zemfira's album "Forgive me, my love" takes first place.
Personal life
Zemfira's personal life is covered with secrets, fictions and rumors. The singer really does not like to touch on this topic, and sometimes she herself spreads gossip about herself. All the romantic relationships that the media ascribe to her are based mainly on guesswork and unconfirmed facts. It is only known for certain that Zemfira has no children, and she is not officially married. But still, let's take a closer look at some versions of the singer's personal life.
The only story that Zemfira does not hide is the story of her first love. It was a saxophonist musician with whom they studied together at the Ufa School of Music - Vladislav Kolchin. They were bound more by passion than love. But their relationship ended when Vladislav left to build a musical career in St. Petersburg.
After that, there were rumors about the singer's romance with the head of the Europe Plus radio station, Sergei Anatsky. But Sergei was married and Zemfira realized that such a relationship had no prospects either personally or creatively. Now she has left Anatsky, having moved to Moscow. With the leader of the group "Dances minus" Vyacheslav Petkun Ramazanova herself invented the legend about their wedding. Then it turned out that it was just another PR move. The wedding never took place.
In 2008, a documentary film by Renata Litvinova "Green Theater in Zemfira" was released. The film tells about the singer's musical creativity. After this picture, rumors spread in the press about Zemfira's unconventional orientation and her not quite friendly relations with Renata. Although both celebrities deny this, calling each other simply close people and kindred spirits.
To date, Ramazanova says about her personal relationships in one word: "In love."
Interesting Facts
Zemfira knows how to play the guitar, piano and saxophone.
The singer's wardrobe contains mostly only black and white clothes.
Ramazanova is engaged in charitable activities. She takes care of one of the orphanages in Ufa.
Zemfira is an atheist.
In 2004, the Russian history textbook for grade 9 mentions the music of Zemfira Ramazanova as a "completely different" musical direction of youth culture.
The actress Lyudmila Gurchenko was very fond of Zemfira's work. She sometimes sang her songs and called her "the only decent Russian singer."
