Alla Borisovna Pugachova (???? ????????? ????????), pronounced "Pougachiova" or "Pugachova" and commonly anglicized as Pugacheva, born 15 April 1949 (date of birth debated) in Moscow, USSR, is perhaps the best known musical performer in Russia, her career having started in 1965 and continuing to this day. She is certainly the most successful Soviet and Russian performer in terms of record sales and popularity (* see notes about record sales below). Professional biography Pugacheva was born to mother Zinaida Arkhipovna Odegova and father Boris Mikhailovich Pugachev in Moscow. At the age of 5, she participated in a concert held in the Kolonnyi Zal Doma Soyuzov (Pillar Hall of House of the Unions), the most prestigious hall in Soviet Union. In 1956 she enrolled in music school ?31, attached to the Ippolitova-Ivanova music college. She went on to study in the school ?496, finishing her studies there in 1