t.A.T.u. Four letters that stand for love and freedom, which true meaning was sincerely shown by fierce brunette Julia Volkova and sprightly redhead Lena Katina, Eastern Europe's most successful musical exports. During t.A.T.u.'s nine years together, the two provoking and talented beauties have caused one hell of a worldwide ruckus, played to audiences from 5,000 up to 50,000 fans and sold more than 8 million copies of their albums (including more than 5 million copies of their debut album 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane).
There’re no doubts t.A.T.u. owe part of their fame to the obvious hint of being lesbians. It was an integral part of the play and the plan. But explosion their first album caused probably happened for a different reason: Due to their young age the girls forgot about any ‘plays’ and ‘plans’ too often and to lost the sense of reality from time to time. In other words, at some point their famous kiss blurred the line of the game and reality – and t.A.T.u., together with their audience, sank in true emotions. This drove everybody crazy. This also inspired lots of people, gave them a breath of fresh air and a call to overcome their fears, to stop thinking they are worse than others if they love a person of the same sex.
t.A.T.u.’s second LP Dangerous and Moving / Ludi Invalidi (2005) was a powerful comeback that few expected. The second album was also logical continuance of 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane ideas, but with another language and more complicated metaphors accompanied by more complex music. t.A.T.u. remained to be about freedom of all people and against any kind of oppression for whatever reasons. And this second studio album proved Lena and Yulia are not one-hit wonders: More than ten different national and international awards for this album were theirs as well as platinum sales in their own country. These young women know exactly what they’re doing.
In the years 2005-2006 t.A.T.u. were touring the world – from Mexico to Japan, and at the end of summer 2006 kicked off their big tour in Russia that fans had expected for more than two years. t.A.T.u. lovers from about 20 cities strained their voices singing along with Lena and Julia their new hits (All About Us, Friend or Foe) as well as band’s distinctive songs (All the Things She Said, Not Gonna Get Us etc). After seeing t.A.T.u. live it becomes clear that it is no longer a pop-project. Slowly but steadily the band transforms into a pop-rock act with electronic flavor.
In March 2007 t.A.T.u. went to Germany and later LA to start recording songs for their third album.
29 November, 2007 t.A.T.u.’s new single Beliy Plaschik (White Robe) where character of Lena Katina shoots a pregnant character of Yulia Volkova, premiered on MTV Russia. For about a month it was 1 most watched, rated and discussed music video on not only in Russian Internet zone, but all over the world. In February 2008 Beliy Plaschik was voted second best video of 2007 by MTV Russia viewers and was the only video in Russian language aired by Polish, Baltic, Greek and Bulgarian TV channels.
Album’s second single – 220 premiered at YouTube Russia. It happened June, 5, and in one day 220 was in the leading videos of 20 countries. June, 10 220 was spotted on the first place of video.google.com, which means that at some point 220 became the most popular video in the internet in the world.
For almost a year a working title of the album was Upravleniye Otbrosami / Waste Management. But a month before the release - for the sake of ironic smile of those, who understand –the title changed. The essence, however, remained.
The Russian version of the album – Vesyolye Ulybki - has been released on the 21 October, 2008. Among album’s authors are songwriters Valery Polienko and Sergio Galoyan, who wrote music and lyrics for numerous tracks (Nas Ne Dogonyat, Ya Soshla s Uma included). Billy Steinberg, the author of All About Us (t.A.T.u.) and Like a Virgin (Madonna) also produced a song for t.A.T.u.’s Happy Smiles.
Some songs of this LP will be featured in the soundtrack of the movie You and I that was filmed during 2007-2008 and presented in Cannes May 16, 2008. The movie was directed by Roland Joffe and has Mischa Barton and Anton Yelchin in the cast. It is based on the story of two t.A.T.u. fans, their love and dangerous encounters in today’s Russia.
t.A.T.u. have 2 most subscribed YouTube and 1 most subscribed MySpace accounts in Russia. t.A.T.u. keep staying in the MySpace top 10 electronic bands of the world.
Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina are 24 years old now. They live in Moscow together with their families. December 27, 2007 Yulia Volkova gave birth to her second child, Sam. She also has a 4-year-old daugher Vika.
