Singer Zemfira: biography, personal life, photo. The Zemfira phenomenon: unknown facts about the singer Collaboration with Litvinova
“Scandal Girl” Zemfira quickly burst into Russian show business in the late 90s and immediately won a place at the top of the stellar Olympus. Her songs, which differed favorably from those that sounded then on the domestic stage, took the top lines of the charts, and the singer’s very name became the personification female rock. Time passes, but Zemfira does not lose her popularity. The biography and personal life of the performer today are still of interest to her fans as before. Let's take a closer look at the fate of this unique singer, which has become a real idol for several generations of youth.
Zemfira's family
The rock music star was born in the capital of Bashkortostan, the city of Ufa, on August 26, 1976. The girl was born in intelligent family: her father, Talgat Talkhovich, taught history at a high school, and her mother, Florida Khakievna, worked as a doctor specializing in physical therapy. In addition to their daughter, the couple had an eldest son, Ramil. For Zemfira’s father, marriage to her mother was already the third. From his previous wives he had 2 sons.
Childhood
Childhood future star took place in Chernikovka, a residential area located in the northern part of Ufa. The Ramazanov family lived here until the very end of the 90s. Little Zema visited kindergarten No. 267 and even then showed interest in the songs. At the age of five, her parents took her to a music school. There she studied piano and sang in the choir. Zemfira's passion for writing songs appeared very early. At the age of seven, she composed her first creation, which was listened to by her mother’s work colleagues. Brother Ramil’s passion for rock music was passed on to the singer. Since childhood, her idols were Queen and Black Sabbath.
IN school years Zemfira Ramazanova, whose biography is discussed in this article, was an excellent student. In the third grade, in addition to music, Zema developed another serious hobby - basketball. The girl managed to achieve good success in this sport. She was best player on the team, and in 1990 she was appointed captain of the Russian junior women's basketball team. But in high school, to the great chagrin of the coaches, Zemfira decided to quit sports and focus on music school, from which she graduated with honors.
Further education and first part-time jobs
After high school Ramazanova entered the Ufa College of Arts to major in " pop vocals" After music school she was accepted straight into the second year. Educational institution the girl graduated in 1997 with honors. While a student at the college, she simultaneously mastered playing the guitar and earned extra money by performing songs of Russian and foreign rock performers on the streets. In addition, Zemfira, together with her friend and classmate Vlad Kolchin, performed for some time in Ufa restaurants and nightclubs: the young singer sang and played the keys, and the guy accompanied her on the saxophone. Such part-time jobs lasted 4 years, and then the girl got tired of them and she abandoned them.
Background to success
In 1996, while still a student at the College of Arts, singer Zemfira got a job as a sound engineer at the Europe Plus radio station in Ufa. From that time on, her biography began to change dramatically: having mastered several music computer programs at work, the girl began writing songs that later made her famous throughout the country. Then such hits as “Why”, “Snow”, “Forecaster” were created. At night, sitting at work, Zemfira composed songs, and in the morning she drove home and listened to them. In 9 months she collected about 40 works.
Her colleague Arkady Mukhtarov helped the singer record her first demo disc. At the same time, the girl began creating her own group “Zemfira” and recorded songs not using computer programs, but in a real recording studio. The future rock star rehearsed with his musicians in a room belonging to the Orange club for teenagers.
In 1997, they began to write about the talented girl in local newspapers, and already on next year the singer borrowed money from friends and set off to conquer Moscow. By this time, her group was already fully formed. It included keyboardist Sergei Mirolyubov, bass guitarist Rinat Akhmadiev, lead guitarist Vadim Solovyov and drummer Sergei Sozinov. In the capital, the girl, through a journalist friend, managed to transfer a cassette with her songs to the producer of “Mummiy Troll” Leonid Burlakov. After listening to the compositions, he suggested talented singer cooperation.
Debut album and rise to popularity
Since 1998, Zemfira moved to Moscow. Her biography was updated during this period the most important event— working on recording the first studio album. It began in the fall of 1998 in Moscow and ended in January 1999 in London. The creators did not hesitate over the title of the album and gave it Zemfira’s name. Its sound producer was the leader of “Mummiy Troll” Ilya Lagutenko.
The official release of the album took place in May 1998. By this time, the singer’s name was already well known throughout the post-Soviet space, and her songs “Arivederchi” and “AIDS” managed to become hits. The album sold out at lightning speed. It was a real triumph, marking the beginning of an impressive star trek. Already this fall, singer Zemfira is going on her first tour. Her biography is beginning to interest all fans of rock music. But the girl is not very frank with journalists about her personal life and pours out her soul only in songs. Following her old hits, she has new ones. “Why” and “Daisies” are listened to even by those who have never been interested in rock music before.
Continuing a stellar career
In the spring of 2000 the second one was released studio album group "Zemfira", called "Forgive me, my love." It sold 1.5 million copies, breaking sales records in Russia and neighboring countries. Songs from this album “And the girl is ripe”, “Do you want?”, “PMML”, “Goodbye” topped the country’s charts, and the composition “Iskala” became the soundtrack to the film “Brother-2” with Sergei Bodrov Jr. During the same period, he agrees to appear for a glossy cover fashion magazine"OM" Zemfira. The biography and photos of this girl, placed in the publication, attracted millions of readers to it.
In April 2000, the singer gave a big solo concert in Moscow and soon after that she went on a new tour. In December 2000, a stampede occurred at her performance in Yakutsk, as a result of which many people were injured. The incident was widely discussed in the media; Zemfira was called the culprit. The singer, in turn, blamed the concert organizers for the incident. Tense tour schedule and the scandal in Yakutsk exhausted the artist so much that she canceled all performances planned for 2001 and disappeared from the sight of fans for many months.
The singer's subsequent albums
In the spring of 2002, Zemfira appeared in public again, presenting her next album entitled “14 Weeks of Silence.” He was greeted with delight music critics and fans of the singer. In the first day after the presentation alone, about 180 thousand copies of the album were sold, which was a record for Russian show business. In total, “14 Weeks of Silence” was sold among admirers of Zemfira’s talent in quantities exceeding 1 million copies. After that, from 2005 to 2013, the singer released 4 more albums (“Vendetta”, “Thank You”, “Z-Sides” and “Live in Your Head”), which were met with the same positive reviews, like her first works.
Collaboration with Litvinova
In 2008, the star, together with her director friend Renata Litvinova, produced the musical film “Green Theater in Zemfira,” the basis for which was video footage filmed at the singer’s concert in Moscow. The film received high marks from critics and won the Steppenwolf Award. In 2012, Zemfira and Litvinova became producers of the film “Rita’s Last Fairy Tale”. The singer wrote the soundtrack for the same film. She is also the author of the music heard in other films by Renata Litvinova.
Rumors about personal life and orientation
Zemfira attracts public attention not only with her creativity. The biography and orientation of the singer sometimes interest them much more than her new songs. Over the past few years, there have been rumors in the media about the star’s unconventional sexual preferences, and Renata Litvinova is credited as her lover. Although both Zemfira and her no less famous friend have repeatedly denied this information, journalists do not let up and continue to look for evidence love affair between women.
Zemfira does not like to be frank with journalists, so not much is known about her personal life. In her youth, when the star performed in Ufa restaurants, she had an affair with her stage colleague Vlad Kolchin. The young people dated for several years, but the guy’s departure to St. Petersburg put an end to their relationship. After Ramazanova became a celebrity, she was credited with an affair with Vyacheslav Petkun (leader of the group “Dancing Minus”), but this information was subsequently not confirmed.
Later there were rumors about romantic relationships between Zemfira and oligarch Romanov Abramovich. People close to the billionaire claimed that he was a fan of the girl’s talent and invested a lot of money in her promotion. The secret relationship between the singer and the governor of Chukotka continued until he met Dasha Zhukova. After this, Zema fell into depression, lost a lot of weight and found solace in the face of her best friend Renata Litvinova. It was then that they began to accuse her of lesbian tendencies.
The fate of the star's relatives
Zemfira owed her popularity largely to her parents. The singer’s biography and family once again attracted media attention after her beloved father passed away in April 2009. 77-year-old Talgat Talkhovich died of a heart attack. The father always rejoiced at his daughter’s successes and, as long as his health allowed him, he attended all her concerts in Ufa. A year after the tragedy, fate took another one from Zemfira loved one- brother Ramil. A 43-year-old man drowned at the Pavlovsk Reservoir during spearfishing. In March 2015, Zemfira buried her mother, whose health was severely damaged by the deaths of her husband and son. Florida Khakievna was ill for a long time, and the singer even wanted to take her to her place in Moscow, but did not have time.
In 2004, a school history textbook was published in Russia, in which the singer was mentioned as the founder of a new direction in the Russian musical culture. In the same year, Ramazanova was enrolled as a student at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University, but due to a busy work schedule she had to quit her studies.
The singer Zemfira is not a Bashkir, as many people think. Biography, her nationality in which for a long time was not specified, did not shed any light on this issue. The answer was given by the star herself. In 2013, at a concert in Kazan, she announced that she was Tatar.
In 2011, Zemfira took 26th place in the top 100 influential women Russia. The rating was compiled jointly by the radio station “Echo of Moscow”, news agency Interfax, Ogonyok magazine and RIA Novosti.
Throughout the existence of the Zemfira group, its composition has changed several times. In 2013, the singer took her nephews Artyom and Arthur (sons of her deceased brother Ramil) into the band as musicians.
17 years have already passed since Russian stage Zemfira appeared. The biography and personal life of the singer have been under close media attention all this time. Because of his complex nature the star found herself at the center of scandals many times, but this did not make her any less popular. Zemfira continues to work fruitfully, and fans of her talent can be sure that in the near future the star will delight them with new hits.
“We were preparing to meet you. And you were getting ready - all the tickets were sold out a long time ago. Now we’ve met - and we’re all looking at each other, looking closely... And the concert, by the way, will end soon.”.
Kyiv has always been special for Zemfira. So this time, the singer prepared for the meeting with the Ukrainian capital in a special way, rehearsing songs that no one else on the tour would probably hear.
Because Zemfira knows very well how crazy Kyiv can be. And Kyiv knows very well how crazy Zemfira can be if the public rushes towards her. Fortunately (unfortunately?), there is something to compare with: in 2008 there were 36 songs sung “to bursting”, and for the last encore (fifth?) the singer came out with an acoustic guitar already when the technicians had dismantled part of the stage, and gave "Infinity" last couple hundreds of spectators.
But this time something didn’t work out completely, somewhere there wasn’t enough chemistry - neither Zemfira nor Kyiv were in a hurry to get closer for a long time.
...The start was delayed by about 50 minutes, because many, of course, arrived at the Sports Palace in last moment and again there was a taffy at the entrance. In the hall, meanwhile, the monotonous electronic beat of the warming up DJ was playing - not bad, but not entirely appropriate, which made the waiting seem even more agonizing.
When the baptism with the “tuber” ended, Andrei Matveev, Zemfira’s concert manager, came on stage and personally apologized to the public for the delay.
And then, finally, it began. The first emotion for most is delight from the show, the lights, the intense and varied stage light. Decoration was handled by a German lighting designer, a top-class professional, Bertil Mark - he performed at Russian concerts with Zemfira, and then flew off to work on other projects, but the singer persuaded him to make an exception for Kyiv. It’s a pity that, unlike the Russian tour, he wasn’t the opening DJ - his sets were a stylish decoration of those concerts.
The sound was also great. The maximum that can be squeezed out of the Kyiv Sports Palace. No wonder, because Zemfira’s current sound engineer is Michael Bauer, a master with 25 years of experience, including 14 years of close collaboration with Rammstein.
From these names alone it is clear that Zemfira took the tour seriously and assembled a technical team that was revolutionary, as for the CIS. And this is not a flash in the pan - no domestic artist has achieved such sound and light. It’s not for nothing that 50 personnel are involved in the concert, and the equipment is carried by five huge trucks.
The singer and her team worked on this tour for six months, including honing the entire production during rehearsals in the famous Berlin studio Black Box Music. Most of equipment was also purchased in Germany.
In this European-level environment, with this amazing light and sound, musicians appeared on stage with an instrumental intro.
Rhythm section - Dan Marinkin (drums) and Alexey Belyaev (bass). They have been with Zemfira since 2007, so at concerts they receive the most applause from the audience and good jokes from the singer herself. Additional reels and acoustic guitar— Vasily Yakovlev (ex-member of Mooncake).
Guitar - Dmitry Emelyanov. A striking example constant “tags” and changes in the composition of smart groups in the CIS and the fact that good musicians- in great demand. Emelyanov plays keys in InWhite, played with Zemfira’s ex-guitarist Korney, temporarily replaced Shurov in Esthetic Education while he performed with Zemfira, and now he himself has become the singer’s guitarist.
Zemfira appeared on stage to the stormy, but not deafening delight of the fans. Perhaps the audience was exhausted by the delayed start. Perhaps there was too much of a “leftist” audience, and it turned out to be a concert “for everyone,” and the most devoted fans had already had a blast in Odessa. Perhaps the people of Kiev were counting on the singer to make the first move, to blow things up, but she expected the same from Kyiv.
The singer sounded a little tired, but looked, as always, magical. Her makeup for the Kyiv concert was done by Slava Chaika, which he managed to boast about on social networks.
The concert opened with the songs “Without a Chance” and “Money” from the new album and the old “Sensations” - loudly, backhanded. Instead of showing themselves and their emotions, too many viewers began filming the singer on their mobile phones. The moment of pompous start was lost.
Next came the most emotionally difficult block - the songs “Buried”, “River”, “Somersault”. A bunch of Zemfira’s very personal experiences. It seems that at concerts she sings them not for you, not for us. She withdraws into herself as much as possible, which is necessary.
When during the song “Buried” several bouquets of white roses flew towards the stage, and even in cellophane, it looked not just strange, but deadly creepy and shameful.
“It’s strange... Odessa is twice as small and twice as loud,” Zemfira was sadly surprised. — I sang and realized that Kyiv and Odessa- uhit’s like we have Moscow and St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg concerts“does” myself, but in Moscow you need... to work. It's the same here. Okay, we don't mind."
The singer dedicated the performance of the song “Live in Your Head” to her Kyiv friends and colleagues - the group “Okean Elzy” ( “We have been friends for a long time and hopelessly”). Line "and listened to the Pacific Ocean" with a gentle smile changed to "and listened to Elsa's ocean". A rapturous song that sounds almost as fragile and reverent live as it does on record.
Zemfira traditionally dedicated “In the Metro” to fan zones. And again white roses, broken and shredded, soared up above the audience.
At “Breathe,” after dozens of discarded and damaged flowers, the ill-fated flash mob finally took place - fans gave Zemfira white roses, some one at a time, some in bouquets. By the end of the song, the singer had a huge armful of beautiful thorns and petals gathered in her arms. “The Seagull” is one of the emotionally bright moments of the concert, a feeling of airiness.
Zemfira dedicated the song “If” to another Ukrainian friend and colleague - keyboardist Dmitry Shurov, with whom she had previously performed many excellent concerts. "Dimon!"— she winked at the podium on the last lines.
“City” and “Walk” went by too quickly, but at least the audience had already warmed up, the fan zones were applauding and dancing en masse. “Well, how did you live here without us? How do you like it today, sound good, light good?— Zemfira asks the audience with light, good-natured mockery. — Well then... I'm leaving, leaving a mountain of cigarette butts.". And the main part of the concert ended with the song “Itogi”.
The wait for the encore was as long as possible, quite in the spirit of Zemfira, but the audience was fully rewarded. What many hoped for came true - the singer returned to the stage not only with her current musicians, but also with Dmitry Shurov at the keys.
The concert really began only now, during the encores. Zemfira and Shurov were fried together like in the good old days. It took time for the keys to reach the desired sound level, in “Why” they were lost, but in “Do You Want” they gave those notes that the fans had missed so much since the “Thank You” tour.
It seems that Zemfira herself takes particular pleasure in performing a cover of “Dolphins” by the Mumiy Troll group. Smiling, chanting, and on the second verse the singer let the crowd sing, but the crowd messed up. Emelyanov saved the situation - unexpectedly even for Zemfira, he rescued the audience and sang almost the entire text into the microphone.
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"Love is like accidental death"with the extremely tragic keys of Dmitry Shurov and the driving "Splashes" were performed for the first time during the entire tour - and, most likely, the last. A special gift for Kyiv, maximum emotional lows and driving rock and roll highs. But did languid, complex Kyiv deserve all this? The next song “Arivederchi” gave up hope that yes. It was a powerful, harmonious fan choir - perhaps the only one of its kind during the entire concert. There was also an attempt at mass lighting of lights mobile phones under "Do you want"?
Zemfira dedicated “Blues” in the second encore to her Moscow friends who flew specially to the concert - Renata Litvinova and Pavel Shevchuk. The once depressing song at this concert suddenly sounded lighter, with hope.
By the third encore, several hundred people remained in the hall. The most real and devoted people, capable of taking the rap for the entire Sports Palace due to the intensity of their passions. The security - for which she and the organizers are grateful and respected - without any problems let everyone into the first fan zone, and even distributed water.
And then the “obviously incredible” happened - that’s how Zemfira herself put it and called the leader of “Okean Elzy” Svyatoslav Vakarchuk to the stage. To the accompaniment of Shurov and other musicians, the musical couple embraced and performed “Let It Be” The Beatles. They read the text from sight, and Vakarchuk, an avid Beatlemaniac, got completely lost in the words, but this was a number not for the purity of performance, but for the soul - and this was the happy culmination of the evening. The Ukrainian rock frontman got the audience going right away, as he knows how to do.
In parting: “Don’t shoot.” Suddenly, a boy of two or three years old from the front row appeared on the stage next to Zemfira. The child did not understand what happened and asked to return to his parents.
Final lines “Don’t be silent, in this loose silence I will die” take on more meaning in the context of the cold, dead Kyiv public.
Kyiv was lucky with Shurov and Vakarchuk, but Kyiv did not take advantage of this. The city that the singer not only waited for, but anticipated, let her down. No one demanded that I do a somersault - it was enough to let go of myself and my complexes, to show that I was valued.
“I am very often dissatisfied with the public. Sometimes it seems to me that they could have been more active and loved more.”“, Zemfira said in an interview with Renata Litvinova in the live film “ Green Theater in Zemfira. This is what happened in the Ukrainian capital. We just had to put Odessa in the final of the tour.
Zemfira, most importantly, don’t hold a grudge against Kyiv. Forgive him for his weakness and for being so strange and desperate...
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Everything that happened in my life last six months, was for this concert. A 16-year-old concept - who can boast about that? Hard times, difficult circumstances. But I came up with this tour, and it randomly turned out to be a happy one. Everything that happened during these six months was so cool! And now I don’t understand what is more important? I stand on this stage on April 1 for the third time. On April Fool's Day. I'm afraid to even think about the fourth one. “I’m happy,” Zemfira said then.
On the occasion of the upcoming television premiere, HELLO.RU is publishing an original material by Kommersant Publishing House correspondent Boris Barabanov, made at the request of HELLO! and published in the magazine for Zemfira’s birthday, which she celebrated on August 26.
Moscow, 2007, autumn. The wedding procession stops on Frunzenskaya Embankment near the entrance to Andreevsky Bridge. The newlyweds and their friends go to take photos on the bridge. The drivers are having a smoke break. Against the backdrop of a noisy company, it’s easy to miss the figure of a girl in black. She often walks here alone, this is her area. Stopping at the wedding limousine, decorated with bouquets and garlands, she takes a closer look at the flowers and suddenly says: “Are they kidding me?”
Artificial flowers. The girl's name is Zemfira Ramazanova. In her ideal world, real feelings should correspond to real flowers. And if they are made of paper, then the feelings are fake. Which means real world once again did not live up to her expectations.
If I were writing the script for a future Zemfira biopic, I would definitely start it with this scene. Even if this didn't actually happen. But that's exactly how it happened.
In 2007, Zemfira released the album “Thank You” for the first time - on her own, without the help of record companies, that is, she came up with a risky adventure for herself. There was a lot of things, but this particular episode that I spied was an unexpected intrusion into the everyday life of poetry, which previously I could only judge by the lines of its songs. Natural instant reaction. Another evidence of the imperfection of the universe. Zemfira is convinced of this imperfection every day. And every day he tries to fix at least something, realizing in advance that he will never be able to do it completely.
I remembered the scene with the artificial flowers many years later, when Vladimir Pozner asked her in a television interview: “If you met God, what would you tell him?” “That he is not fair,” answered Zem-fi-ra. It is strange that she later called this interview a failure. This answer alone puts her on a par with the biggest characters sitting in the chair opposite the host. However, Zemfira always places the highest demands on herself. And presenting them to herself, she seems to still be sincerely perplexed why so often people around her do not show the same passion in their work, do not polish their work to brilliance.
I once watched an amazing conversation between Zemfira and the organizer of a private party in honor of the birthday of a major cultural figure. Zemfira's performance was the main gift. She spent the whole day adjusting the sound in a room poorly suited for concerts, took a short time out, and then showed up at the venue exactly in accordance with the event schedule. And I was very surprised when the schedule began to shift: first by half an hour, then by an hour, then again... Finally, Zemfira got up and headed to her car. For her, the holiday was over. The organizer of the evening began to beg her to stay, explaining the delay by the fact that dinner was delayed: “In my world, Zemfira cannot perform in front of chewing people.” In response, the singer laughed: “What do you know about my world?”
In this situation, it was worth remembering that even during her youth in Ufa, she sang for several years to the sound of forks and knives, and learned not to be shy about this page of her biography. “I played in restaurants,” Zemfira said in one of her interviews. “And bandits are walking around with whips, can you imagine? It’s terrible. The whips are whistling around the hall, touching my keys, I’m sitting - neither alive nor dead. And five days later they’re bankrupt.” "lawyers, some good lawyers from the city of Ufa... and the spectacle is much uglier." Singing for chewing people is no more criminal for her than deviation from the work schedule without apologies or explanations. This is the same defect in the work of an organizer as a false note is in the work of a musician.
By the way, having explained herself to the manager, Zemfira returned and gave a full-fledged “gift” concert with several encores. Most of the guests had no time to eat. Zemfira reigned on stage and in the hall.
Zemfira is so confident in her fans filling the dance floor that she is ready to literally throw herself into their arms. But only if the mood is right, of course.
Perfectionism is a trait that is usually one of the first to be mentioned when talking about Zemfira Ramazanova. The other is the desire for complete independence. The first thing that a person who searches Wikipedia for the word “Zemfira” discovers is that translated from Arabic it means “rebellious.”
In the lexicon of show personalities there is a rather slippery term “doing an artist”. For many years now the question has been, “Who is working on Zemfira now?” sounds weird. Only Zemfira can deal with Zemfira. Only Zemfira can be Zemfira's producer. She herself hires musicians and managers, she decides who, at this stage of her history, will be a business partner on a tour, and who will distribute songs.
Usually in such cases they say: “The only one on whom she depends is her public.” But even with the public - more precisely, with the legion of the most devoted fans - Zemfira develops a relationship that cannot be called addiction. This is a partnership with the maximum degree of mutual respect. Fans, for example, humbly wait for the new album as long as necessary, knowing that if the pause is prolonged, it is not because there are no new songs and the idol is in crisis, but because the songs are waiting in the wings, passing the only strict censorship - censorship the author himself.
The “fan base” knows how much Zemfira appreciates her devotion. The author of these lines witnessed how, while preparing a closed performance at Strelka, the singer personally made sure that one hundred of her most devoted fans got to the concert, regardless of any “secrecy” of the event. At the same time, she allows herself to enter into controversy with the audience right during the concert if she considers their behavior unacceptable. Simply put, if they demand “Daisies” from the audience, she can besiege the screamer in the harshest form, as was the case at the infamous concert in Rostov, which was even the subject of a lawsuit.
The indifference of the audience may also make her nervous. In the early 2010s, when the sound of her then group acquired the dryish features of synth-pop, unusual for a conservative public, she could throw into the audience: “Why are they so lethargic?” - and make a few more comments addressed to the expensive orchestra in the spirit of the Beatles “The gallery can clap, the rest can shake their diamonds.” In Zemfira’s vocabulary there is an excellent expression “scratching the public’s heels.” This is exactly what she does not intend to do in any situation. Even in the pretentious Crocus City Hall, even at the party in honor of Troika Dialog’s IPO, at which Zemfira had a chance to play after Prince himself. The very arrangement of artists in the program indicated that Prince was for an advanced top-manager, and Zemfira was for the “people.” But even in this situation, another shout from the crowd ruined her mood.
It’s worth quoting again here. “I would like to be more restrained, really!” Zemfira said in an interview with the author of these lines. “But sometimes I follow my own reactions. After some time, they seem funny and exaggerated to me. I don’t think that the viewer owes me anything , like me to him. Initially, I am grateful to the person for taking the time and coming to the concert, that he listens to me. But a concert is a very moving substance, something very alive, sometimes I feel it very strongly. that you can touch them. And if it’s happiness, that’s one thing, but if it’s aggression, that’s another.”
Building your own fortress is a special emotional practice. It’s good to have someone to learn from along the way. In that part of Zemfira’s universe that is visible to us, teachers are, first of all, musicians. And if you look for the roots of her isolation, a kind of creative asceticism, then the first name that comes to mind is Viktor Tsoi.
Zemfira has repeatedly turned to Tsoi's songs - just remember the first and best cover of "Cuckoo", which was released as part of the "FILM Test" project. It is known that her approach to the legacy of the Kino leader was unconditionally approved by the musician’s wife Maryana Tsoi, who oversaw the recording of the record. But she didn’t give the green light to everyone. Later, Zemfira turned to the Kino catalog regularly: she included the group’s songs in concert set lists, recorded “Legend” for Fyodor Bondarchuk’s film “Stalingrad” and even hinted at the possibility of an entire tribute album.
Film director Sergei Solovyov talked about one of his meetings with Zemfira, during which, among other things, they talked about possible joint work on a musical - however, this idea was never brought to life. Zemfira was getting ready to run errands and, literally at the door, suddenly stopped and said: “I just wanted to ask you one more question. Tell me, what was Tsoi like?” Suddenly all matters faded into the background, she took off her shoes, sat down at the table again and listened for a long time. According to Solovyov, it was extremely important for her to know everything about Tsoi, a closed Eastern man.
Tsoi was not only a musical authority for her. It is logical to assume that she is impressed by his very image, his style of relationship with outside world, starting with the black color in clothes and ending with extreme closeness. It seems that the longer she lives, the better she understands him. Probably because she simply has no one among her contemporaries to compare notes with, just like Tsoi in his last years, when he became the number one rock star in the country.
It's about these recent years Tsoi, by and large, is the least known to us. Natalya Razlogova, with whom he spent these years, does not give interviews on principle. Even people who knew the musician quite closely are often at a loss about his relationship with Kino producer Yuri Aizenshpis - they were completely different people. Having achieved absolute recognition of the mass audience, Tsoi seemed to have erased himself from any context except the musical one. Or, in the language of another of Zemfira’s favorites, Thom Yorke from Radiohead, “completely disappeared,” leaving people with only the hero of his songs.
Thom Yorke, especially revered by Zemfira - good example how a musician can achieve absolute creative freedom and at the same time remain a globally sought-after touring performer whose music is sought after like manna from heaven. Zemfira not only closely follows his meandering creative thoughts, which is clearly audible in her latest album “Live in Your Head”. It seems that York and Zemfira would easily agree on issues of the music industry as a whole. Zemfira’s first “independent” album, “Spasibo,” was released on October 1, 2007, and In Rainbows, Radiohead’s disc that revolutionized the recording market, appeared on the Internet only six days later. Or a more recent example. Ahead of the release of their album A Moon Shaped Pool, Radiohead have removed all possible signs of their existence from the Internet. In a world where you are not, if you are not on the Internet, it was The best way draw attention to a new stage of your career. Zemfira recently closed her Instagram account dedicated to "tour Small man
". She felt that the popular social network made her persona too media. At the same time, the second, international part of the tour, including concerts in legendary British and American halls, is on the agenda.
As in the case of Thom Yorke, the only completely acceptable channel for Zemfira’s relationship with the public is her music. But to enclose this communication only within her framework is a difficult task for Zemfira, the same as for York - to get rid of the trail of popularity of hated “radio hits” like Creep and focus the public’s attention on today’s material. The main irritant for Zemfira is the tabloid press, for which the singer remains one of the most beloved characters. Sometimes it seems that the war with tabloids and “yellow” sites is her obsession. But you just have to imagine yourself in a situation where you can’t go out, say, to a morning race without getting caught by the paparazzi, or when any your word different ways and you can’t do anything about it, not to mention the situations that the “moving substance of the concert” gives rise to, when the desire to be in its place disappears completely.
The English accompanists assembled for the “Little Man” tour are the ideal backing force at Zemfira’s concerts
"Little Man" - words from the song Lightbulbs ("Light Bulbs") by Zemfira's side project The Uchpochmack. The full chorus of this song goes like this: “And I live like I’m delirious. I’m just trying to be. I’m a small person, I need to float somewhere. I need some kind of light to at least see dreams.” Taking the highest bar in her craft, she struggles to maintain herself as a private person, being super popular, to eliminate side effects glory.
The Little Man tour, which shook the country, followed a desperately bitter 2015. At the current stage of her biography, Zemfira has finally realized the idea to which life has been pushing her for a long time. It was strange, having duets with Patti Smith and by Queen, don’t try to work with Western pros over the long haul in the end. The concerts on the tour are performed entirely by a foreign team of musicians. In her endless quest for performing perfection, Zemfira seemed to go through all the worthy Russian accompanists and, before being disappointed in each, gave many of them brilliant career or, at the very least, a catchy line on your service record. Now the British are behind her. At concerts at the Moscow Olympic sports complex, she even introduced their families, who came to Russia for the occasion, but this fact, of course, remained out of sight of the sites that relished her squabbles with the audience.
Two concerts in Moscow attracted 60 thousand spectators - this is an unprecedented result, and in the coming years Zemfira will most likely have to compete only with herself. Next in line are stadiums, fortunately, on the eve of the World Cup, we will have a lot of them built, choose any one. True, before this we all have to go through another lull. Everything is going to the point that, after finishing the tour, she will still return to the studio, where unfinished songs from the new album have been waiting for her for a long time. And another question is whether Zemfira will perform so actively in the future.
During a concert in Nizhny Novgorod Zemfira announced that she would no longer tour, causing a predictable flurry of excited comments. The question "Is Zemfira leaving the stage?" is as paradoxical as the question “Who is involved with Zemfira?” Firstly, the cessation of touring, even if it takes place, does not at all exclude single big shows. If people can travel across the country by big festivals, why don’t they go to Zemfira’s stadium show somewhere in St. Petersburg, for example? Secondly, it doesn’t seem like anything in this life could seriously distract Zemfira from creating and performing music. Well, except for major sports competitions like the Olympics or tennis matches. But in extreme cases, you can watch them in the recording after the concert.
2016, August. A slender girl leaves the house on the embankment and starts jogging. In her headphones are sketches for new songs. She knows for sure that autumn, which will soon come into its own, is not only the end of the tour, but also the beginning of something new and big. She knows and smiles to herself.
Text: Boris Barabanov, especially for HELLO!
