Russian Pop Music : t.A.T.u.

Before Britney Spears and Madonna ever kissed on stage there was one pop duo that was already pushing the boundaries of the entertainment industry in such a provocative sexy way, that group was t.A.T.u.

This Russian pop sensation was formed in Moscow, Russia by Ivan Shapovalov in 1999. Ivan Shapovalov's goal was to create a pop duo, consisting of Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova , on the premise of two young girls who were madly in love and extremely passionate for one another. They have since became known worldwide by their music and lesbian-like stunts on stage. They are also famous as Russia's most successful band to date since the fall of the U.S.S.R. In short, these two sexy Russian girls quickly became Eastern Europe's most popular and hottest musical exports, and have reigned supreme worldwide since the band's conception rivaled only by the scandalous Lady Gaga.

During t.A.T.u.'s short 10 years together, these two sexy girls have forever changed the way the music industry would look at Russian pop, by routinely and almost effortlessly playing in front of audiences exceeding 50,000 fans and selling more than 5 million copies of their debut album "200 по встречной" aka 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane.

These two girls are known for always flaunting their lesbian innuendo on and off stage always pushing and sometimes breaking the boundaries of what is acceptable in the musical entertainment industry. More so they became infamously known by their unique refusal to perform at the World Music Awards unless provided with real guns instead of props for their performance on stage.

"We wanted real machine-guns, but they didn't give us, so we wouldn't perform, that simple.", explains Lena Katina.

About 10 years after the fall of the U.S.S.R, Ivan Shapovalov and his business partner Alexander Voitinskyi sought plans to develop and create a musical project for the Russian Federation. With this inspiration in mind, in early 1999 Ivan and Alexander held auditions in Moscow for young female vocalists. After auditions both producers had narrowed their search from thousands of potential vocalists to their top ten girls, of which were both Lena Katina and Julia Volkova former members of a Russian children's musical group known as "Neposdi". Although both girls stood out both by their appearance and vocal background, the directors decided to cast 14 year old Lena Katina as their vocalist.

Lena Katina who had previously sang during auditions "It must have been love" by Roxette, began singing demos for the producers including "Yugoslavia". Although the musical inspiration had begun with a sole vocalist in mind, after demos were recorded, lead producer Ivan Shapovalov was insistant that another young vocalist be added to the project. Thus, in late 1999 another 14 year old girl was added to the project, runner-up Julia Volkova.

Now with both vocalists chosen the producers decided a name for the group, "Тату" (Tatu). The name "Тату" in the Russian language refers to the abbreviated version of "Та любит Ту (Ta lyubit Tu)", which in the English language literally means " She loves her". Due to an already existing Australian band "Tatu", when releasing their first English-language album the producers decided to differentiate by using using upper case letters and periods, and the group became known publicly as t.A.T.u..

In early 2000, Alexander Voitinskyi left the project for reasons unkown. He was quickly replaced by Elena Kiper as co-producer and co-writer. Later in Autumn of 2000, Elena Kiper became known as the lead inspiration for the group's first single "Ya Soshla S Uma" which in direct translation means "I've lost my mind" but was later released in English as "All The Things She Said".

This hit single appeared on their first album "200 по встречной" which was first released on May 21, 2001. It was not until later in 2002 that the group released their first English album "200 km/h In The Wrong". Previous to the duo's English album, a second was released "Nas Ne Dogonyat". However this single was only released in music video form rather than as an official CD single. This was followed by a third single released to to CD, "30 Minut".

After much success on their newly released albums, the pop duo was chosen to represent the Federation of Russia in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest. The duo finished third in the contest losing to the country of Turkey. It was at this time controversy arose from Russia's Channel One television station, who said that Irish broadcaster RTÉ (Ireland's national television broadcaster). Channel One proclaimed that their was reason to believe the results from the contest would have been mush different if the contest had been held in Russia.

In early 2004, t.A.T.u. legally broke their contract with Ivan Shapovalov and Neformat. In the months before the split, t.A.T.u. and Shapovalov were being filmed for a reality show on STS in Russia titled Podnebesnaya. The show chronicled the group as they were recording their second album, but to little success, with their producer, Ivan Shapovalov.

The documentary aired on Russian television from January to March 2004. There were many rumors around the split until the show aired, which depicted the group leaving due to a lack of interest and care from their producer. They also claimed the quality of the music being produced was too low, and that Shapovalov was only interested in creating scandals. Volkova stated, "He [Ivan] spends his time thinking up scandals instead of planning our artistic work. I'm sure our fans would rather hear new songs and new albums than new scandals." Katina then stated, "He made us out to BE lesbians when we were just singing FOR lesbians. We wanted people to understand them and not judge them. That they are as free as anyone else."

During the group's short hiatus, in September of 2004 Julia Volkova gave birth to her daughter Viktoria "Vika" Pavlovna Volkova. Soon after giving birth, Julia Volkova once again joined Lena Katina in the studio with previous producer Sergio Galoyan. Tatu, now backed by a new record label, Universal Music International, began seeking new ideas and sounds for their songs in anticipation of the production of a new album both in English and Russian.

The first singles released in August of 2005 from this new record label were "All about us" and "Lyudi Invalidy" one for each of their ablums soon to be released. A second single, "Friend or Foe", from their English album was also released also later in 2005. However shortly after the music video for "Friend or Foe" was released the group's management replaced drummer Roman Ratej with Steve Wilson, and appointed a new bassist, Domen Vajevec in an attempt to hype up the release of the new albums by introducing some newer sounds.

On October 5 2005, t.A.T.u. released their second album entitled "Dangerous and Moving". Shortly after it's Russian counterpart "Lyudi Invalidy" was released on October 19 2005. The Russian album soon became a #1 hit in both Russia and Eastern Europe, and later received Platinum status from all over the world.

After releasing their new albums, Volkova and Katina returning to reality TV in Russia, with their new show "t.A.T.u Expedition". "t.A.T.u Expedition" was broadcast on the Russian music channel "Muz". The reality show documented and chronicled the release of the band's Platinum album "Lyudi Invalidy" and the recording of the video for the band's third single "Gomenasai", which was first released to the public during the airing of the reality show.

On 30 August 2006, the official website announced that the girls had left their record company, Universal / Interscope.

In early May of 2007 Tatu released a press statement directed to their homosexual fans in an attempt to clear up any previous confusion of Julia Volkova and Lena Katina's sexuality created by their producer's scandalous media stunts.

The statement said: "When t.A.T.u.'s second album came out, many of our fans of alternative sexual orientation thought that we lied and betrayed them. This is not true! We’ve never done that and we’ve always advocated love without boundaries."

Later on May 26 2007, Lena Katina and Julia Volkova both flew to Moscow to participate in the annual "Moscow Gay Pride" demonstration.

"Truth" was later released on September 12 2007. This was a concert DVD and the first release since the girls had left their record company, Universal / Interscope. After their DVD, the girls released their primary single "Beliy Plaschick" from their upcoming Russian album. The second single, "220", made its radio premiere in May 2008 and the music video was released on their official YouTube channel on 5 June 2008. "Beliy Plaschik" and "220" were the main attractions on a special release known as "Hyperion-Plate", the first-ever EP from the band. The EP was released on 8 May 2008, and to promote the EP and their forthcoming album, t.A.T.u. performed live shows in Russia, Dubai, Italy, Egypt, and the United States.

On 9 September 2008, a press release appeared on the band's official website that declared that the forthcoming album would be titled "Vesyolye Ulybki" ("Happy Smiles"). Although the album had previous been scheduled to be "Upravleniye Otbrosami" ("Waste Management"), the abrupt name change was the direct result of comments Julia Volkova and Lena Katina had made sarcastically about the Russian music industry in an interview with Moscow's Time Out Magazine. Also included in the press release was original cover art and a complete track listing, however there was still no confirmed released date of the upcoming album.

On 12 September, the album's third single, "You and I" made its debut on Love Radio.

On 15 October, t.A.T.u.'s website announced that "Vesyolye Ulybki" would be released internationally on 21 October 2008, available on the iTunes and Amazon music stores. Also the debut of album was heavily promoted, beginning with a special event at two Soyuz record stores in Moscow where fans could meet the girls and get their autographs.

On 28 November t.A.T.u were awarded the Legend of MTV at the MTV Russia Music Awards 2008. Later in 2009 the t.A.T.u. preformed a special concert at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. They were accompanied by the Russian Red Choir with they preformed "Not Gonna Get Us" at the 1st of the semi-finals for EuroVision 2009.