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ou know Russia is
changing when you spend Saturday night in the Kremlin, watching a Spice
Girl perform with a local teen queen hailed as the next Britney
Spears. Last month, MTV Russia hired part of the Kremlin to
host what it was calling a "girl-power gig". It was headlined
by Mel C, but the star attraction was Alsou, a 17-year-old
Russian who, in her homeland, is bigger than Britney, Limp Bizkit
and the Backstreet Boys rolled into one.
Modern Moscow
looks like a cross between Salford and St Moritz. Between derelict
buildings and concrete tower blocks, you'll find shiny, five-star hotels
and classy nightclubs with gambling rooms. On street stalls, shady
traders sell counterfeit CDs and videos. In Milanese - style malls
behind them, you can buy MaxMara mittens, Fendi furs, Gucci, Versace,
Dior and more diamonds than even Puff Daddy would know what to do with.
The uneasy
juxtaposition of old and new styles was epitomised by Alsou's
concert at the Kremlin. As gig venues go, the Kremlin has to rate pretty
highly, not least because the bouncers - who check your passport as well
as your ticket - are armed guards in gorgeous grey uniforms and big
furry hats.
Inside, things got
even odder. After some dire Russian singers, two dressed as schoolgirls,
two as Las Vegas showgirls, Alsou strode on stage looking like a
sexy extra from "The Matrix". The teenager, wearing tight
black trousers and a bra top, began with a couple of Russian Mariah
Carey -like ballads, to which the crowd sang along. Then something
strange happened. Without warning, Alsou morphed into a slick,
R&B babe, performing funky, uptempo tracks in English, backed by a
group of choreographed dancers. She looked like Aaliyah, sounded like Christina
Aguilera and did a dance routine with chairs. Her fans couldn't
believe their eyes.
"I guess I
shocked some people," she says afterwards, in a small dressing room
backstage, with every appearance of satisfaction. "In Russia, I'm
known only for old-fashioned ballads, which people seem to love. My fans
range from five-year-old kids to grandparents. They're used to seeing me
in long skirts, not dancing in tight trousers. I don't know what they'll
think of me now."
In just two years,
Alsou has become a phenomenon in Russia, selling more singles than
anyone else, appearing on the covers of magazines such as Russian
"Elle" and "Cosmopolitan", duetting with Enrique
Iglesias and even winning the country second place in last year's
"Eurovision Song Contest" with her first-ever English
song, "Solo". Now she has her sights set on the West.
Since becoming the
first Russian singer in pop history to sign an international record
deal, however, Alsou has undergone a dramatic transformation. She
lost 2st, took dance classes and hired a designer to overhaul her
wardrobe. With her debut UK single, "Before You Love Me",
released next week, and an album due out in July, she is also set to
swap the romantic ballads that made her famous for funky, teen pop -
hence the schizophrenic show.
"I love
ballads," she says. "But I always wanted to do uptempo music,
too, because I'm young and it's good to be current. I listen to a lot of
R&B, so that's the music I've made. My new album is just for Europe.
My second album will be different, because I want it to break into the
States. That's my aim, to be big in America."
What Alsou
wants, you suspect, Alsou gets. After all, she's used to it. Born
in the mainly Muslim Tatar Republic in East European Russia, but brought
up in Siberia, she belongs to one of the country's wealthiest families.
Her father runs Russia's largest oil company. His work saw Alsou
move to Moscow at eight, New York at nine and Denmark at 11,
before settling in London at 13, where she went to boarding school. She
liked the city so much, she stayed, and now has her own flat in Mayfair,
which she shares with her brother.
Despite her
privileged upbringing, Alsou insists she's not spoilt. While she
doesn't seem like the type to throw tantrums - she's polite, softly
spoken and surprisingly shy - she's wearing a diamond-studded Gucci
watch and being watched over by Mariah Carey's former minder,
poached from the star by her father, who never appears in public without
his own bodyguards.
Later, someone
tells me that, in Russia, most people think Alsou's father paid
for her to become famous. They even make unfounded snide comments about
him buying her second place in the "Eurovision". In
fact, Alsou was discovered by accident. "Singing is all I've
ever wanted to do. I took piano lessons from the age of five, and bought
every Whitney and Mariah songbook. I planned to wait until
I'd finished school before I started a singing career. Then, three years
ago, I sang Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love
You" at my brother's wedding in Moscow. It was just for
fun, but a friend of my mum's heard me and said he knew a manager I
could talk to in Russia. I met the manager, sang for him and he loved my
voice. We started working on an album straightaway."
The following year,
Alsou's first single was a huge hit. She had two more successful
singles and a big album before someone from a record label saw her on MTV
and signed her up. The first English song she recorded was put forward
for "Eurovision".
"I didn't even
know I was entered for that," says Alsou. "My manager
sent the song in. It won the competition in Russia and I went to Sweden
for the contest. It was the most nerve-racking week of my life, because
in Russia, everyone watches "Eurovision". I was pleased
to come second. I didn't think I'd win, but
I knew I'd do well,
because I'd heard the other songs. I'm not being mean, but some of them
were awful."
Since then, Alsou
has released a duet with Enrique Iglesias, a ballad called "You're
My ¹1", which became Russia's biggest-selling single ever.
For her album, she has worked with top pop producers such as Sturken
& Rodgers (Britney, 'N Sync), Brian Rawlins (Jennifer
Lopez, Christina Aguilera) and Artful Dodger's Mark Hill.
Incredibly, she has even lured Wham!'s former manager, Simon
Napier-Bell, out of retirement to manage her over here.
"I know a
friend of her father," says Napier-Bell. "He asked me
to help Alsou find a manager, but as soon as I met her, I decided
to do the job myself. She has a sensational voice and a charming manner.
She's not like those awful stage-school kids with no character.
Is she spoilt? No,
but she knows what she wants and she'll get it. Just wait and see." |
