Zemfira Talgatovna Ramazanova was born on August 26, 1976 in Ufa, into the family of a doctor and a history teacher. Since the age of five she studied at music school: at first she sang in a chorus and then passed to a piano class. From the seventh grade she managed to attend seven circles and sections at once, mostly focusing on music and basketball. 
Afterwards she left sports and joined the second year of studies at the vocal branch of the Ufa Arts School, which she graduated with honors. 

 

While studying Zemfira performed at Ufa restaurants. From 1996 she worked as an operator at the Ufa branch of the Europe Plus radio, where she started recording her first real songs on computer. In 1998 Zemfira founded her own band under the name Zemfira. Then at a rock festival MAXIDROM Zemfira’s friend passed her record with a few songs to the producer of Mummi Troll band Leonid Bourlakov, who later invited the beginning band Moscow. In autumn Zemfira's first album was released with Ilya Lagutenko as the music producer and Vladimir Ovchinnikov as the sound producer. Following the results of 1999 Zemfira took leading positions in numerous nominations and soon became an example of high professionalism on Russian music stage.