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Soul diva Whitney Houston to play at Kremlin submitted by: Lisa D. source: Agence France-Press Date: February 10, 2004 MOSCOW - US soul diva Whitney Houston will follow in the tracks of her pop rival Mariah Carey by entertaining a Kremlin concert crowd that is paying 10 times the country's average monthly salary for a ticket. Houston, 40, takes her act to the Kremlin Palace for two days after playing in Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg as an opening to a whirlwind tour of Europe and Asia. The singer, who is staging her first concerts in Russia, admitted in a television interview she knew little about Russia's music culture and could name only one singer -- the cult pop vocalist Alla Pugachova. Russian news reports said Houston will get paid about one million dollars for her performances and that fans will shell out up to 1,300 dollars for top seats in the Kremlin Palace -- nearly 10 times the country's average monthly wage. Carey charged similar prices during her first performances in Moscow last September. The average monthly wage in Russia is around 150 dollars, although the figure in Moscow is closer to 1,000 dollars, with wide disparities between the wealthy and the poor. Houston has won six Grammy awards in her career and her songs are on the regular play list of Russian pop radio stations. Site design by: Dolphin Webpage Designs © 1996-2004