Zarema

Early life

Spending her early childhood in Uzbekistan, Zarema was surrounded by a musical family. Her grandparents all had a passion for singing, as did her father, and she and her siblings followed suit. Zarema herself decided at the age of four that she wanted to become a singer and she sang in music contests and school performances at every opportunity.

When Crimean Tatars were allowed to return from deportation, Zarema's family moved to their national homeland of Crimea in the Black Sea, and it was there that she wrote her first lyrics and songs in the Crimean Tatar language. By the time Zarema was eight years old, she had begun studying piano and from age 9 until she graduated from high school, she studied piano, violin, solfeggio, and chorus.

Many of her song lyrics were inspired by the tormented Crimean Tatar history, and her patriotism and affinity for her cultural homeland of Crimea. For several years, she was enlisted to read her lyrics at the annual commemorative ceremony at the grave of the legendary Crimean Tatar poet, Eshref Shemyi-zade, who in 1978 had been laid to rest in a cemetery near her home town.

At age 10, Zarema gave her first radio interview and at age 11 she submitted some of her lyrics to Crimea's biggest newspaper, Dostluk and they were subsequently published in the paper. Shortly thereafter, Zarema was paid a visit by representatives of the newspaper at her family home. It was they who recommended that Zarema attend the Artek Children's Camp in Hurzuf, Crimea and sponsored her attendance there that Summer. Her lyrics were later published in various other Crimean newspapers and magazines.

Throughout her childhood, Zarema herself performed in the community club in her hometown as the lead singer of the band, both for routine performances and for holidays and special occasions. She also routinely organized and produced neighborhood music performances.

At age 13, Zarema produced her first video of her original song, "Ayi-Dag" and it was played on Crimean television station, Крым (National Television and Radio).

Zarema was participating in regional and national music competitions and festivals by age 15 and as a young adult, Zarema moved to Kiev, Ukraine to attend university. Later, she was invited back to Artek to sing her original music, performing in front of the President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma.

Education

Zarema attended the National University of Theatre, Film and Television in Kiev, Ukraine, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Acting.

A year later, Zarema met Ukrainian music producer, Mikhail Nekrasov and collaborated with him to co-write the songs, Savash and Hop Soyle, both of which achieved critical acclaim and were played extensively on radio stations throughout Europe, Asia, Canada and Israel. The success of those two songs drew attention from Sony BMG Music Entertainment Turkey and she ultimately signed a recording contract with them. Writing music and lyrics herself, Zarema collaborated with the legendary Turkish producer, Ozan Colakoglu and his production company, Sarı Ev (Yellow House), and also Mustafa Ceceli, Özgür Buldum, and other well-known Turkish producers to produce and promote her self-titled debut album.

Zarema shot a music video for her first song, Atak with the well-known Ukrainian video director, Alan Badoev.

She has received media attention in relation to and articles about her have appeared published in literary magazines.

Her songs “Hop Soyle” and “Savas” are popular on radio stations, music channels and night clubs in many countries. Only after 4 weeks of the release of the song “Hop Soyle” it played, broadcasting it on different radio stations, and cities in Europe, Asia, Canada and Israel. Her resume goes on including live performances on various radio stations and National TV channels. This has become a break through of her career and in 2007 she quickly signed a contract Sony BMG Music Entertainment Turkey and soon enough released her self-titled album, "Zarema" collaborating with important musicians and arrangers in this album, such as Ozan Colakoglu, Mustafa Ceceli, Ozgur Buldum and Mihail Nekrasov.

Zarema is very well known as the lead singer performing on Eastern-European and Mediterranean stages. In London, Baku Moscow and around the world she successfully held concerts in the world's most famous arenas with a record ticket sales in Baku with 10,000 spectators and in Moscow's Olimpijskij stadium with spectators way over 20,000. Her ratings exceeded most popular singers in America and her top songs “Atak”, “Savash” and “Hop-Soyle” played on popular radio stations around the world. Later same year, Zarema released her debut song with the video clip, produced by Alan Badoev entitled, "Atak" that went straight to leading numbers on radio and music channels and was nominated by many TV channels as the best music video of the year and became a YouTube sensation [1].

Zarema relocated to Los Angeles and began yet another career and her English language album and is due to be released later this year.

After moving to the United States, Zarema also studied at the famous Stella Adler Studio of Acting in Hollywood.