Full name - Zarifa Pashaevna Mgoyan; born in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR) - Russian pop singer, actress, public figure; Honored Artist of Russia (2016). "UNESCO Peace Artist" (2016). In 1995, at the age of twelve, Zara met the musician and composer Oleg Kvasha in the city of Otradnoye, Leningrad Region, with whom in 1996 she recorded the songs "Juliet's Heart", "Exactly today, right now ..." and "Lullaby" ( "Bye-Bye-Bye"), which got into the rotation of radio stations and brought the singer her first fame. In 1997, Zara with the song "Juliet's Heart" became the finalist of the television competition "Morning Star" (Moscow) and received the Grand Prix of the International Festival "Let the Children Laugh" (Cairo and Port Said, Egypt). In 1998, the singer won the Grand Prix of the Hopes of Siberia competition (Omsk), the open competition for performing a new children's song Birthday, and the International Television Competition Hit of the Year (both in St. Petersburg). For two years in a row, at the Hopes of Europe competition (Sochi), Zara received a diploma of the Laureate of the first degree and the Grand Prix; in 1999 in Sochi at the festival "Voices-1999" she was awarded the audience award. In 2004 she graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Theater Arts. During her studies, on the stage of the "Educational Theater on Mokhovaya", Zara played in the performances "Voices of the Bygone Century", "Idiot" and "Heavenly Swallows".