Musician with Tatar heritage made new life and her name in Australia

ZULYA KAMALOVA: 1969 – 2024

Zulfia “Zulya” Kamalova was of Volga Tatar background and lived for the last 33 years of her life in Australia immigrating to Tasmania in the 1990s and later moving to Melbourne.

Kamalova was born on the August 8, 1969 to parents, Munzia and Nazip Kamalov, and older sister Alfia, in Sarapul, a small city between the river Volga and the Ural Mountains.

Her gift in music was recognisable in her local area from an early age and in search of adventure and connections she left home at the age of 17 eventually moving to the city of Perm to work and study English and French. There she established a group of musical friends and developed further confidence in her singing and guitar skills.

Zulya Kamalova in Evolution, Revolution and The Mail Order Bride pictured at Raffaele Ciuca Bridal & Formal Wear, 2013.Credit: Fairfax Media

It wasn’t until she had immigrated to Australia with husband John Weir and settled in Hobart in 1991 that her professional music career took off. Kamalova separated from Weir within a year and met Martin Tucker, a local Hobart musician, who became her collaborator and partner during crucial formative musical years.

During that period she studied at the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Tasmania, began playing her own music and released her first album. It appears that the isolation and homesickness she felt during her time in Hobart and the supportive new community of friends and musicians she found in Tasmania were the crucible for her art and new identity to be forged.

Kamalova in Moscow, 2003.Credit: Ramil Gali

Kamalova developed a voice and a style unique to both her native Tatar and her new home in Australia. Her cultural roots, her new Australian identity, the displacement she felt and a reconnection to the songs of her forebears all influenced the dynamic development of Kamalova’s music and songs.

In 2001 in Hobart, she met the love of her life, Andrew Tanner, who became her companion and collaborator. They couple moved briefly to Moscow in 2002, allowing Kamalova to explore Russian and Tatar audiences and her connection with her homeland and family. Although they returned to Australia in late 2003, moving to Melbourne, they would go back to Russia to perform many concerts and visit family almost every year.

Kamalova and Tanner lived in Coburg from 2005, where their daughter Zifa was born in 2006. Apart from brief stints in Berlin and Kazan, Tatarstan, in 2010 and 2014, the small family established their lives in Melbourne.

With her music the first of its kind in Tatarstan, an exciting and modern voice and sound, she was a household name with a huge fanbase. Kamalova is known for revolutionising the possibilities of Tatar-language popular music. She continues to be a central influence in forging today’s modern Tatar music. Back in Melbourne Kamalova started the band Zulya and the Children of the Underground, renowned for their exquisite and haunting tracks.

Zulya Kamalova

Kamalova recorded nine albums between 1997 and 2017, four of which were with the band. The 2007 album, 3 Nights, won the ARIA for Best World Music Album that year. Her 2003 solo album, Elusive, was ARIA-nominated. Other awards include Australian World Music Awards, Album of the Year 2000 for Aloukie; Australian World Music Awards, Female Artist of the Year 2001; Australian LIVE Music Awards, Best World Music Live Act 2002; National Film and Sound Archive National Folk Recording Award 2005 for The Waltz of Emptiness (and other songs); and finalist of the Melbourne Music Prize for Outstanding Musician 2010.

In 2012 Kamalova was awarded the Honoured Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan, an award personally presented by the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov.

Ever curious, with an insatiable mind for engaging with the wonders of the universe, science and philosophy, Kamalova ventured into theatre and opera. She composed and performed her one-woman musical play Evolution, Revolution, and the Mail-Order Bride at 45 Downstairs (Melbourne), directed by Maude Davey, in 2014 to critical acclaim.

In 2017 together with Lindy Hume (director) and myself, Kamalova composed the musical score and arrangement for Opera Queensland’s Brisbane International Festival’s brand-new opera – a modern, feminist version of Snow White. It is here that myself and Lindy, were introduced to the musical genius of Kamalova.

Having never composed an opera before Kamalova was curious and experimental, deeply thoughtful and a collaborator who contributed to all aspects of the development for what became a critically successful new opera. Hume and I were lucky to form a strong and enduring creative and intimate friendship bond with Kamalova and came to enjoy her love of nature, her zest for life, revelry in music, her questioning mind and sheer overwhelming talent. At a development that took us to a beach in NSW, we sat by a fire and composed songs and stories well into the night. A magical form of creative development that was precious to us all.

In 2022, Kamalova became director of the Boite in Melbourne an organisation that this year celebrated 45 years since its inception. This year, Kamalova was awarded posthumously the Lifetime Achievement Award 2024 by the Australian Folk Music Awards. Her partner accepted the award on her behalf.

Zulya Kamalova from Women in Voice.Credit: Justine Walpole

Kamalova lived a big, remarkable, bohemian life and was living it to the full until her early death this year after a shock cancer diagnosis. Kamalova was brilliant, deeply sensitive and thoughtful about all aspects about the world about her. She continued to have deep and meaningful conversations about the meaning of life with friends and loved ones, collaborators and artists.

“Dying almost seems like the only predictable thing she ever did,” Tanner said.

Indeed it is partly why everyone believed she resisted the idea so strongly. Kamalova remarked “I’m not doing that – that’s boring!”

For those of us lucky enough to be touched by Kamalova’s soulfulness, her tenderness and her talent, she lives on in all she created and the joy she brought and continues to bring.

Kamalova died on September 18, in Melbourne, and is survived by her mother, Munzia, her partner Tanner, daughter Zifa and elder sister Alfia.