| Alsou was born in Bөgelmə, Tatarstan[2]. Her father, Ralif Rafilovich Safin is a Russian oligarch,[1] a former LUKoil executive and a current member of the Federal Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament. He is also the owner of the Sochi football team Zhemchuzhina and was named the 100th richest Russian by Forbes Magazine in 2004. Alsou's mother, Razia Iskhakovna, is an architect. She has a younger brother, Renard, and an older brother, Marat,[1] (not the tennis player Marat Safin). Alsou is an ethnic Tatar.[3]. When Alsou was a year old her family moved from Tatarstan to Siberia. Until the age of 8, she lived with her grandparents in Siberia.[1] At 5 years old Alsou asked her parents for a piano. She was then allowed to attend a private music school. After living in Moscow due to her father's business, she then moved to New York City and later to the UK where she entered a private architecture college. While living in London Alsou visited Russia often. In 1998, at the wedding of her brother Marat which was celebrated on the bank of the Moskva River, Alsou sat at the grand piano and sang I Will Always Love You. After this private performance her family began to persuade her to pursue a professional singing career. |
