the one over whom time has no power

In August, Zemfira will celebrate her 44th birthday. She devoted most of her life to music – for more than 20 years she has been one of the most iconic and popular non-pop singers in the country. All this time, her image remains almost unchanged. It seems that the girl has forever frozen in the form of a rude student.

How did the legendary artist change and how did she manage to win the hearts of thousands of fans?

Childhood and the emergence of love for music

Zemfira Talgatovna Ramazanova was born in Bashkiria, in the city of Ufa. Even then, she wore a short haircut and side bangs. At the age of five, the girl entered a music school – there she learned to play the piano and was a vocalist in the choir. Then the teachers noticed the phenomenal abilities of the baby: once she even sang solo from the school on local television.

Around the same time, Zemfira fell in love with rock music: all day long she listened to Queen, Nazareth and Black Sabbath, and even dedicated her first song to the latter.

At school, the girl was also active and capable. She studied at the same time in seven circles, but was especially successful in music and sports: soon she graduated with honors from a music school and became the captain of the Russian women’s junior basketball team. And after graduation, she immediately entered the second year at the Ufa School of Arts. Zemfira graduated with honors.

Finding success at the very beginning of the journey

In May 1999, the girl’s debut album was released, which included 14 tracks. In a matter of weeks, the songs found success – probably then all the youth of the country learned them. This was partially due to its producers Ilya Lagutenko and the manager of Mumiy Troll Leonid Burlakov.

The image with which Zemfira was published remained with her. It seems that the girl does not change at all over the decades: all the same short hair, slanting bangs, dark hair, “boyish” style of clothing and a complete lack of makeup.

They began to watch Zemfira with interest: will she become a legend in the world of Russian music or will she disappear from the stage after a sharp take-off, as is often the case with young stars?

“Boy” and her burnout. The downside of popularity

Over time, the girl became more and more confident: she stopped pushing her panama over her forehead and made her haircut shorter. There is not a single photo on the Internet in which Zemfira would be with long hair!

The tracks reflected her daring nature. Now no one doubted: despite the hate, the girl will not adjust to the expectations of the audience and will continue to go forward with new ideas.

Less than a year later, listeners discussed Zemfira’s new album “Forgive me, my love”. Then she had already abandoned the producers, taking her career into her own hands: now she could fully develop independently, not being limited to the themes of the compositions.

The first tour in support of the new album was given to the young performer extremely hard. She, unaccustomed to daily performances, constant attention to her personality and life “on suitcases”, was literally on the verge of a nervous breakdown!

“I just needed to rest. Otherwise, something bad would have happened to me … It may be wrong that I admit it, but the last three or four concerts I played with hatred. I hated songs, speakers, the audience, myself. I counted the number of songs remaining until the end of the concert. When it was all over, I did not leave the house for two or three months, but just stupidly sat on the Internet, ”the musician said.

Experiments on appearance

But a talented girl loves her job too much. After a short break from the tour, she began her third album, Fourteen Weeks of Silence. It came out only in 2002. Then Zemfira decided to change her style: she dyed her hair light blond and became inseparable with glasses with colored glasses.

In 2004, the girl decided to change her old tattoo. Previously, on her right forearm flaunted the Latin letter Z, surrounded by flames. Zemfira called the drawing a mistake of youth, but decided not to reduce it, but simply to cover it with a laconic black square.

By 2007, the artist’s image had changed dramatically. But not external, but rather internal: from a daring and sometimes chopping she turned into a calm and contemplative girl. She said that she finally found happiness and harmony, and wished to express her gratitude to the world and fate in the new album. “Thank you”.

“As a result of some internal storms, I understood a lot. If the “Vendetta” album was restless, I was looking for something, then here I found it, ”she explained.

Shortly before that, the girl changed her hairstyle to a “torn pixie”, which she still hasn’t parted with. The only thing that has changed since those times is the singer’s hair color and her weight. Soon she lost a lot of weight and regained her natural black color, and on this she decided to complete the experiments with her appearance.