Elena Kamburova was born on 11 July 1940 into the family of an engineer and a doctor in Novokuznetsk. In 1966 she graduated from the variety show department of the State Circus College and later – the variety show direction department of GITIS.

Elena started her career as a singer in the 1960s, when she performed for students. She debuted with Novella Matveyeva’s song The Wind. Together with the composer and pianist Larissa Kritskaya she created her own repertoire – the synthesis of music, poetry and acting - and recorded her first solo giant disk in Melodiya company in 1970. From the mid 1970s she mostly performed song cycles by the composer Vladimir Dashkevich, including his two suites for voice and orchestra. In the 1980s Elena created author's programs Travel in Time (French and English ballads), You see, I remember (songs of the French chansonniers of the 20th century), Let Silence Dawn (Russian folk songs and ballads). The discography of the singer makes more than 20 albums.

Elena Kamburova's voice sings in over 100 films and animated films. Among her works as an actress there are roles in the movies The Monologue, Theater of Unknown Actor, My Tenderly Loved Detective, and others. Since 1992 Elena Kamburova has been the art director of the Theatre of Music and Poetry that she founded herself. Her first experience in theatrical song performance was The Play of Dreams (1993), where Elena Kamburova was played Pierrot.