You won't catch her in some cheesy dive in Atlantic City or Vegas belting out songs of the motherland for homesick Russian emigrants. Alyona Sviridova, a successful pop singer, is staying put in Russia — unless, of course, Hollywood comes calling.

With her new album ‘Lifeline,' recorded by Nox-Music and launched at Studio nightclub earlier this month, and a flowering stage career, things are starting to look up for the Minsk native. Possessing a sense of pride matched only by the likes of Muhammad Ali, this tough blonde tells Lifestyle it was her will to succeed that enabled her to win the spotlight.

LS: Would you call yourself a self-made person?

AS: I would say I'm 80 percent self-made, while the remaining 20 percent I owe the people who contributed to my personality and my career. I have been lucky to meet mostly good people in my life and I'm especially grateful to those who helped me without second thoughts.

LS: Who would you call your teachers?

AS: As a matter of fact, life is a good teacher. I have never had any idols. With regard to music, I like Sting because his music touches my soul. From this point of view, I can call him one of my teachers. Also, Louis Armstrong, Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovsky and other classical composers helped formed my musical tastes. Music is something that evokes feelings in yourself and then you try to express those feelings using your own skills. I believe each of us feels the same way, but employs different means and methods for self-expression.

LS: Your latest album is called ‘Lifeline.' What is your lifeline? Do you go with the flow or do you stand your own ground?

AS: In a word, my lifeline is my ‘willpower.' On the one hand, I'm a fatalist in the sense that certain things cannot be avoided, while on the other hand, I believe a person should exercise his powers of will and reasoning not to miss opportunities that life gives him. If you have missed your target 99 times, you should not give up — the 100th attempt may produce a direct hit. There are two enemies standing in the way of success. One is laziness and the other is indecision.

LS: Tell me frankly, are you lazy?

AS: Sometimes. But what is laziness? Is it laziness if you enjoy lying on your sofa with a book and don't want to do anything? For me it's relaxation, which I need and which I can afford to give myself, albeit not too often. But if I do nothing for a long time, I start feeling guilty.

LS: Do you have any hobbies? Or maybe you don't have time for them?

AS: My whole life is a hobby. As I see it, a job is something you do for a living, sometimes unwillingly, while a hobby is something you enjoy. In my case, the two coincide.

LS: You're the quintessential gorgeous blonde. Do you consider it possible for you to radically change your image, say, to become a dark-haired femme fatale?

AS: What do you mean ‘radical change?' To shave my head or paint my hair in some exotic color? I'm not interested in such a transformation. I indulged in that when I was 17 - I loved to shock people. It was a sort of protest. Once I had my hair cut short to look like Annie Lennox, and people often mistook me for a boy. I'm an actress, and my purpose is to entertain people. If you don't have a talent to attract people by your acting, you can do it another way - dyeing your hair or with piercings. Otherwise, I like to play pranks by dressing ridiculously. It's pure shenanigans. Once I came to a party wearing a wig styled after Cleopatra. Nobody recognized me. My friend, a famous musician, murmured a formal ‘how do you do' as I took my seat beside him. It was not until after 10 minutes that people began to recognize me. ‘Alyona, is that you?' they exclaimed.

LS: As far as I know, you mixed it up as an actress in ‘Buro Shchastya'(the Bureau of Happiness). How have you been received in this circle?

AS: Acting in the ‘Bureau of Happiness' wasn't my first experience on the stage. Earlier, while in Minsk, I was invited to join a drama theater troupe. They staged a musical play and needed a singing actress for the main part. Incidentally, the invitation came as a great surprise to me. After all, they had hardly known me at that time. At the audition, I was really clowning around. I couldn't even imagine that they would want to admit me into their staff and I felt like playing a prank, just to entertain myself. At first, they treated me with a good deal of caution, which was understandable. They were professional actors, and I was a raw chick. Perhaps I won their sympathies thanks to my flair for socializing and communicating with people. I learned a lot from them. I did not consider it humiliating for me to seek their advice. Acting in the Minsk drama theatre was an interesting and useful experience for me. When I moved to Moscow, I missed the theater and its people. I really enjoyed acting there. And now I'm glad to have a chance to return to the stage.

LS: Have you ever been invited to work abroad? Do you think it's possible for a Russian singer to make a career outside the country?

AS: I received several offers, but they were quite unattractive. Most of them involved entertaining Russian emigrants in cheesy venues. I had been on several guest performance tours around Germany and Malta, but now I refuse such offers. And everyone who talks about incredible guest tours abroad makes me laugh. On the other hand, Russian actors today have more opportunities than they had 10 years ago because Russia has become an open country and our mentality has undergone a truly dramatic change. But they shouldn't forget that western show business is much more developed than ours. It lives by its own laws, rules and traditions. And if someone dreams to conquer the world starting from scratch, the best he can expect to achieve is to become popular among Russian emigrants in a good restaurant.