Alsou info
     Biography

The name of Alsou means "the rose water" in the tatar language. The future singer was born June 27th, 1983 in a small town of Bugulma in Tatarstan, Russia. The girl's family changed places of living very often. From the age of 10 Alsou lives in London, where she was studying the architecture & design in the MPW College. From the very childhood the girl loved singing and playing piano, she listened to Whitney Houston & Mariah Carey, bought every songbook...

In 1998 Alsou was introduced to the russian producer Valery Belotserkovsky. The girl, who has always dreamed of singing on the pop stage, started recording her debut album. In February 1999 the TV audience saw her first video for "Zimniy Son" ("Winter Dream"), where the girl shooted as Nabokov's Lolita. The retro-styled song written by russian singer and composer Alexander Shevchenko became popular immediately. In April the video for "Vesna" ("Spring") appeared, and in August the video for "Inogda" ("Sometimes"). September 1999 saw the release of Alsou's russian discs, and there were more than 1 mln. copies sold.

November 26th 1999 the young singer signs a long term contract with the largest recording company Universal Music, it is planned to release 7 English albums worldwide. The foreign partners are sure that Alsou has an exclusive potential to conquer the western pop stage. Alsou turned to be the first Russian artist to sign such an exclusive contract with the international recording label. In May 2000 the star, performing her first English song "Solo", took the second place on the Eurovision Song Contest. Her performance was watched by about 260 mln people all over the world. As the result, the single became the best selling ever in Russia, there 64 000 copies sold. The single was awarded by the platinum status, and it was released in Europe as well. After "Eurovision" Alsou attracted the foreign audience attention, and she got new fans abroad. After touring Russia in Summer 2002 (where her show gathered 130 thousand spectators once), Alsou was recording her debut English disc in London & New York studios. In September she went to Moscow to perform a duet with Enrique Iglesias (Alsou recorded her parts in August). The song "You're My  1" turned to be very good for Alsou's voice.

In the beginning of 2001 Alsou returned with a surprise. In her new video on the first single "Before You Love Me" from her english album the star appeared in completely new, untypical image for her - sexy dancing, open stomach & black leather. In March the song appeared on the british radio and TV. The single took the first places in such prestige foreign charts as: MTV-UK Daily Chart, MTV Select, Music Week Pop Chart, and reached the 27th place in Official UK Singles Chart. In May Alsou went to Monte-Carlo to pick up the World Music Award as the Best Selling Russian Artist of 2000.

In June the presentation of her debut English disc was held in Moscow. The album contains 14 tracks, including "Before You Love Me" & "You're My  1". The two ballads ("Teardrops" & "Now I Know") were written by Alsou. The best western producers who have worked with Christina Aguilera, Craig David, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, 'N Sync and others were invited to work on "Alsou" album. This album was produced by Simon Napier Bell, the ex-manager of George Michael. Summer 2001 Alsou traveled through the Europe with her promo-tour, giving TV and radio interviews, participating in many shows and concerts. The release of her album was dated to Autumn.

In August 2001 the video for "He Loves Me" appeared on the russian TV. The video occupied the 3rd position in russian MTV chart, and the song was played in Spain, Poland and other countries. 8th of November Alsou took the MTV Europe Music Award as the Best Russian Artist in Frankfurt, Germany.

By this time the recording company which released the first Russian disc in 1999, Real Records, wanted to release a special edition with some new Russian songs of Alsou. Universal Music tried to prevent the release. As the result, the western carrier of Alsou was stopped (the single "He Loves Me" hasn't been promoted in the UK), Alsou's producer Valery Belotserkovsky broke his relationships with Universal, Alsou returned to Russia and entered the GITIS Actor University and started recording her new russian album to be released by Universal Music.

The new single of Alsou called "Vsyo Ravno" ("Anyway") became one of the greatest Russian hits in Spring 2002. In April, after the long court hearings, Real Records released the special edition of Alsou's first album. It was called "Mne Prisnilas Osen" ("The Autumn Dreamed To Me"). At the same time Universal releases the new dance song "Run Right Out Of Time" on the disc with May issues of Gala magazine. To this moment Alsou's new Russian manager Alexander Shevchenko has held negotiations to choose a new Western manager. Alsou made a choice - it's Denis Ingoldsby, the co-producer of Craig David and "Travis". Universal Music announced that Alsou's international album will be released on the West later.

Summer 2002 Alsou was perfecting her vocal skill during the new concert tour. Her new video for "Letyashaya Nad Oblakami" ("Flying Over The Clouds") was shown in Russian cinemas before the Russian love story "Atlantida", because Alsou has recorded two songs for the film. In August the long studio sessions began, and Alsou was preparing her concerts in Moscow at the same time. The project called "Trilogy" was called by the newspapers "the important social and cultural event". No one singer in the world has given three completely different performances during only ten days. The first show was held in concert hall "Russia", where Alsou performed her old program. The second one was an exclusive orchestra concert in Chaikovsky Hall, where there are only 1500 places (the VIP public enjoyed "Ave Maria" by Alsou!). And the third one was a euro-pop show called "Solo", it was held in Sport Complex "Olimpiyskiy" and contained new Russian and English songs, with phantasmagoric moving decorations, huge monitors, live sound, fantastic dancing and singing.

The new Russian album of Alsou called "19" will be released soon. The second single "Vchera" ("Yesterday") is in rotation. Meanwhile, her fans on the West are waiting for Alsou's return to the international stardom. Alsou says her new international single will be the song "Everybody", co-written with A.Shevchenko and V.Baikov. The new English album will contain minimum 70% of songs written by Alsou. Alsou is planning to shoot in the movie about great love as well... as she says it will happen after she conquers the world. Alsou's history continues...

from Alsou European Fan Club

Old version:

People take pictures of her when she walks down the street, crowds mob her for autographs and she's been on the cover of every glossy mag from Elle to Cosmopolitian. In Russia. You see, while gorgeous, dark haired Alsou is a school girl over here, she's a national star over there - a teenage beauty who's dueted with Enrique Inglesias, had the largest amount of single sales in Russia ever (100,000) and celebrated her 17th birthday in front of a crowd of the same number. Watch out - before long the girl they're dubbing the Russian Britney is bound to be impressing us the same way. Born in the small town of Bugulma, Tatarstan, Russia on 27th June 1983, Alsou - meaning "rose water" - moved with her parents to Moscow when she was nine. At 13 she started school in England, going back to Russia for holidays. At 15 she sang the Whitney Houston classic "I will always love you" back at her brother's wedding. Even though it was her first time in front of an audience, Alsou ("alsue") so impressed a family friend, she later introduced the schoolgirl to Russian producer Valeriy Belotserkovsky. That was Summer 1998. By May '99 he'd become her manager and Alsou'd become Russia's biggest teen star. She's now the first Russian artist signed by an international record company and her debut single in English sold a platinum-winning 100,000 copies, the biggest figure for single sales in Russia. Alsou's so successful in Russia that the fluent French, English and Russian speaker has played to crowds of up to 100,000 and her loyal fans shower her with teddy bears at every show. "The first time I felt success was when I went on my first tour (June 2000) and I had thousands of people coming and completely sold out all the concerts. That's when I realised the effect I was having." She's so loved, her home town fans bought her a car and it's these kind of incidents which reassure her she's appreciated. Like the first time she performed live. "The first time I was ever on stage I was really scared" she admits, "but my manager said "you can't sell all these records and not do it live." As soon as I went out my voice and knees were shaking. I couldn't remember the words but all these people started singing my song. I was so touched that since then I just love being on stage." Her rise to fame has been rapid and in September 2000 Alsou sang a duet with Enrique Inglesias - a song called "You're my number One"which he'd already recorded on his album Enrique. It's now on Alsou's Russian album as a duet. What did she think of the latino superstar? "Oh, he's obviously a ladies man." she giggles shyly.

It's difficult for Alsou to fit a love life around her busy schedule but she admits her ideal man is dark haired and dark skinned, much like herself. She can't imagine being with a blonde even though she once dyed her hair that colour herself. Craig David is one of her musical heroes. "He's a good looking guy but that comes after his amazing voice." Other idols include Destiny's Child and Mariah Carey and she intends to become as big as Whitney Houston one day, through sheer strength of personality if necessary. "Anything is possible if you put your mind to it" she explains. "I'm a very determined person and even if I don't get there straight away I know it will happen." As she's so young and gorgeous, it's natural to think of her teen American rivals but Alsou hopes people will hear a difference in her sound. "I like Britney, she's very pop but I actually prefer Christina's voice and music, it's very R & B. That's what I'm into, even though Before You Love Me [first UK single] just has an R & B flavour." Alsou also loves ballads but is canny enough to know these can't kickstart a career. She's also lucky enough to be working with some of the best in the business, from Sturken and Rodgers (Britney, Christina, NSync, Emma Bunton, Sisqo) to Brian Rawlins (Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera) and Mark Hill (Craig David and Artful Dodger). She's also worked with Tim Royes who directed Five and Queen's "We Will Rock You" video. What would Alsou do if she wasn't a singer? "I'd be an artist, a fashion designer or an architect - anything creative as I already have A-level Art."

She spends her free time drawing portraits of friends and family. In the evenings she loves going clubbing with her brother and his friends, spending time at London's exclusive clubs such as ChinaWhite or the Mayfair. Her upbringing in a cold climate means she can go out wearing sandals even when it's -10 degrees centigrade outside. She also favours "tight, sexy things, more feminine stuff, like my stage image. During the day it's jeans and little tops, whatever's comfortable." She's looking forward to international fame "I like the idea of meeting stars. I've met a couple already at the MOBO Awards. At the MTV awards in Stockholm I met The Backstreet Boys, Ronan Keating and Robbie Williams." So she's young, beautiful and talented. A world-wide star in the making who's determined to get to the top. And with her self-willed, hard-working attitude she is bound to get there.