Tatu Biography

Biography of Tatu. Detailed Tatu profile and review.

tATu is a Russian pop music duo. The two girls were marketed as a lesbian couple, but their sexual orientation was the subject of much speculation, until in December 2003 they admitted on Russian television that they were not lesbian and it had been a marketing strategy devised by their management. They are notorious for shocking the public and trying to break taboos by performing on stage in only their underwear.

The members of the duo are Elena Sergeyevna Katina, or Lena, and Yuliya Olegovna Volkova. They both are from Moscow. Lena is the youngest of three children born to Sergey Katin, a renowned Russian pop music author, and Inessa Katina. Yuliya is the only daughter of Oleg Volkov and Larissa Volkova. The original tATu concept was developed by a former Russian child psychologist and marketing executive, Ivan Shapovalov. Katina and Volkova knew each other before starting tATu. Both sang in the popular Russian children's pop chorus, Neposedi, from which Yulia Volkova was allegedly banned for "inappropriate behaviour". Yulia once implied that it was because she had molested the other girls in the chorus, later she said it was for smoking, drinking and swearing. Neposedi denied that she was expelled. Not long after Yulia left Neposedi, Lena also left.

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Originally, t.A.T.u. was named TATY (Tatu). When they became popular outside Russia and it was discovered that there was already another band with that name, the spelling was changed to t.A.T.u. outside Russia. It is still occasionally written in the Latin alphabet as Taty or Tatu. The original name comes from a collocation of "ta" and "tu", two forms of a Russian feminine demonstrative pronoun "ta" in its nominative and accusative cases. It can be translated as "This female - insert verb here - that female." The West was told that it meant "This girl loves that girl", but in Russia the name was taken to imply "This girl fucks that girl".

Shapovalov originally chose Lena Katina at a casting in 1999 to sing a song about the war in Yugoslavia. Later, he decided to form a duo and added Yulya Volkova, who had been in the same casting as Katina. Both were 14 years old at the time. Shapovalov has claimed that the idea for t.A.T.u.'s image was his. Elena Kiper, Shapovalov's former lover and originally deputy manager of t.A.T.u., says that the idea was hers. She fell asleep at her dentist's, had a dream in which she kissed another woman and awoke remembering the words "Ya soshla s uma" (I've lost my mind), the title of the song she then wrote the lyrics for that became t.A.T.u.'s first single. Kiper has also stated that their ideas for the group's image were influenced by the 1998 Swedish film Fucking Amal, directed by Lukas Moodysson. Shapovalov and Kiper later fell out over his non-payment of her royalties.

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The band is known for acting irreverently and having an insolent attitude towards the press. "People either love us or hate us", said Katina, "but no one ignores us". More than one of their videos has been banned; for instance, the video for the hit song "Prostye Dvizheniya (Simple Motions)" shows how simple moves are always in our lives, like drinking water, reading a book (which is what Katina does during most of the video) or masturbating (which is what Volkova does during most of the video).

The video clip for t.A.T.u.'s first single "Ya Soshla S Uma (I've Lost My Mind)" was banned by MTV Russia, BBC and others. This is the song know outside of Russia as "All the Things She Said". It shows them dressed up in high school outfits, behind prison bars, which some think is suggestive of a concentration camp, screaming out in anguish, begging for their parents' forgiveness, and trying to shake the bars. At the other side of the bars, older people and peers stare at them in disapproval. At the end of the video, Lena and Yulia turn around and leave hand in hand. The closing shot shows that the disapproving crowd are the ones lined up behind the barbed-wire fence, in a way, imprisoned in their own minds.

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In order to play up the lesbian angle of their image, most of Tatu's performances usually included at least one instance in which the girls kissed passionately. This act was usually censored whenever the duo appeared on American television programs. After enormous success in Russia in 2000 and 2001, in 2002 t.A.T.u. released 200km/h in the Wrong Lane, an English-language version (Trevor Horn) of their Russian debut album. The debut English-language album sold over five million copies around the world. The lyrics and videos of the Tatu songs suggested that the girls were in a lesbian relationship. Sometimes in interviews they stated that they were in real life in a lesbian relationship, often giving outrageous details of their supposed sex life, but more usually, questions in that direction were evaded by statements, such as "Don't be afraid to be yourself, don't be afraid to love", or that they did not like labels.

t.A.T.u. represented Russia at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest, considered the favourites to win. Volkova did not take part in rehearsals because of inflamed vocal cords and their performance was marred by singing the opening bars of the song out of tune. They were disappointed to finish third. In December 2003, "The Anatomy of t.A.T.u.", made by the documentary film director Vitaly Mansky, appeared on the Russian television channel STS. In it, the girls stated that they were not lovers, never had been and that the lesbian image had been about marketing. Katina said that she believed that what she was doing in t.A.T.u. was a big sin and she frequently saw a priest about it. Volkova said that before t.A.T.u. she had never thought about girls in that way, but during t.A.T.u. she had fallen in love with another girl, although the physical aspect had not developed beyond kissing. Volkova also stated that she had had an abortion earlier that year, as had been reported in some newspapers in February 2003, and that she had once taken heroin for a bet.

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In spring 2004, Lena and Yulia left their manager Ivan Shapovalov while they were supposed to be recording their second album because they believed that the quality of the material was too low. They had a contract with Universal Music Russia, but their new manager Boris Rensky negotiated a new contract with Universal Music International. In May 2004, Volkova announced that she was pregnant with long-time boyfriend Pavel Pasha Sidorov's child. She gave birth to her first child, Viktoria, on September 23, 2004. Volkova split up with Sidorov in spring 2005.

On June 6, 2005, t.A.T.u. performed a brand new song, "Obezyanka Nol' (Monkey Zero)" at the Russian Muz-TV Awards. This song is from t.A.T.u.'s forthcoming second Russian album Lyudi-Invalidi (Invalid People). Tatu's second English album, Dangerous and Moving, will be released in late 2005.

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