Interviewing Lev Leshchenko was easy and enjoyable. He’s a very positive person, who describes himself as follows: ”I’m a man of reality who knows the value of earthly joys and earthly sorrows”. Well-known singer and people’s favourite, he still fills the concert halls to this day. I ask him how it is that for so many years now his concerts are always sell-outs. Is it the same people every time? The answer I got was very simple: “When I started singing they were young. And now we’re simply getting older together.”

In fact, there are also quite a few young people at Lev Leschenko’s concerts. I think this is because of his amazing outlook on life: on the one hand, very cheerful and mild, and on the other, confident and patriotic. He simply infects everyone around him with his optimism. And incidentally, despite his popularity all over Russia, Lev realizes that not everyone in today’s younger generation is familiar with his songs, so he’s happy to answer questions that have been repeated over and over again down the years: “The kids growing up today don’t know me, they don’t know my work. So when I’m asked questions that I’ve answered many times in the past, I still enjoy answering them. And I think that’s right.”

At the end of the show Lev Valeryanovich revealed the secret of his success. But deep down I disagreed with him – I think the quality he named was something he inherited at birth. You can find about it all in “Steps towards Success” on REN TV at 11.30 on Sunday, 6 September.