Russia's Valeria aims for pop stardom

Valeria is a well-known Russian singer, who's been in the country's pop music industry since the early 1990s. And now she's aiming to conquer international audiences.

Valeriya's new album has been released both in Russian and English, involving work with musicians and songwriters who've previously contributed to the success of many global superstars, including Queen, U2 and Gwen Stefani.

To promote the release she gave a concert in Moscow, with Robin Gibb from the legendary Bee Gees coming especially to sing the 1977 worldwide hit, “Staying Alive”, with Valeriya.

Many of the British press were invited to attend Valeriya's concert in Moscow.

They were quite impressed with the performance itself and life in the Russian capital in general.

“I really liked her sound, which is quite funky… big rock! I knew nothing of Moscow before, and I came here and it's so fun and really cool! And I think I'll tell the British people: come to Moscow, it's a cool place, this is where it's happening!” said Mark Hudson from The Sun.