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t.A.T.u. was a Russian music duo that consisted of Lena Katina and Yuliya Volkova. The duo was managed by Russian television producer Ivan Shapovalov while in the group Neposedy. The duo was signed to their own production company, T.A. Music, following the split with Universal Music Russia, and their sub-labels Interscope Records and Neformat.
The duo established their world success with their debut English-language single "All the Things She Said", which gained acclaim from music journalists and critics. The video of the single, however, generated controversy worldwide, showing the girls kissing in the rain in school uniforms. Along with the number-one single, the following songs "Not Gonna Get Us" and "All About Us" gained success and also charted at number one on other contemporary music charts.
The duo has released six studio albums; three in Russian and three in English. The album 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane achieved huge success worldwide and the two singers eventually became the first group ever to get the IFPI Europe platinum award for the same album in two different languages. Both the Russian and English version of 200 Km/h are listed among the best-selling albums by a girl group. Due to their success, the duo was recognized as one of the most successful female music acts to emerge in the early decade and have established themselves as the most successful Russian act to date.
t.A.T.u. represented Russia in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest, performing "Ne Ver', Ne Boysia", finishing in third place. In March 2011, the duo officially announced their separation, due to personal reasons and conflicts between themselves and embarked on solo careers. They reunited in late December 2012 for a concert and announced a comeback after their performance in the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi 2014. However, due to personal issues between Katina and Volkova, the duo announced that their project would only consist of their newest single and music video, "Lyubov' V Kazhdom Mgnovenii" ("Love In Every Moment") to promote a Russian short film which premiered at the 67th Cannes Film Festival.
Before production of t.A.T.u. began, the pair were in a group named Neposedi. Both Lena Katina and Julia Volkova were part of the band, along with members Sergey Lazarev and Vlad Topalov. Katina was also in a band named "Avenue" between 1994 and 1997. It was reported that Volkova was banned from being in Neposedi, amid claims she was misbehaving and disrupting other members in the group, along with being accused of smoking, swearing and drinking. However, Neposedi denied the claims and said that Volkova aged out of the group.
t.A.T.u. were formed in 1999 by Ivan Shapovalov and his friend/business partner Alexander Voitinskiy, who developed plans to create a musical project in Russia. With this idea in mind, Shapovalov and Voitinskiy organized auditions in Moscow in early 1999 for teenage female vocalists. By the end of auditioning, the partners narrowed their search down to ten girls, including the members that finally become t.A.T.u., Lena Katina and Julia Volkova. Both Lena and Julia knew each other before the auditions. Both girls stood out among the others, especially because of their appearance and vocal experience, but the producers decided to start with 14-year-old Katina, who sang "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette. Katina began recording demos, including "Yugoslavia", a protest song about NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. After the demos were cut, Shapovalov insisted that another girl be added to the project. Thus, in late 1999, 14-year-old Julia Volkova was added to the group to complete the duo. She also started recording not long after Lena's "Yugoslavia" demo was finished.
Over the next year, Katina and Volkova recorded songs with their producers. Voitinskij left the project, and Shapovalov decided to sign Elena Kiper as co-producer and co-writer for their debut album. They also enlisted the help of Trevor Horn to write the English-language version of "Ya Soshla s Uma". Trevor Horn went on to write t.A.T.u.'s most memorable song, "All the Things She Said", and helped produce most of the English album 200 km/h In The Wrong Lane. While working with Shapovalov, the group was "controlled" by him and it was reported that he was "strict" while in the process of the album.
The first single was completed in autumn 2000, entitled "Ya Soshla S Uma" (later released in English as "All the Things She Said"). It was not physically and formally released until December 2000. The song describes the turmoil in a girl's soul because she is in love with another girl, but is afraid, as society frowns upon this. She asks her parents for forgiveness. Elena Kiper has been credited with the song, explaining that the idea came to her when she fell asleep at her dentist's office and had a dream in which she kissed another woman.
Their first album, 200 Po Vstrechnoy was released on 21 May 2001. Their second single was "Nas Ne Dogonyat" which was only released in music video form rather than as an official CD single, although a promotional conjoined "Ya Soshla s Uma/Nas Ne Dagonyat" was released in Poland. This was followed by the third single "30 Minut", only available as a music video. The studio album proved to be a huge success in Europe, selling over 2.5 million copies worldwide. The album was eventually released in Japan, where it was certified Gold by RIAJ. The group went on tour in 2001, where their routines were described as "precise" and featured routines where the girls had to strip. The tour appeared in countries including Germany, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Israel.
The English version of the album was released in December 2002 entitled 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane. The album peaked inside the top twenty in the majority of European and Western countries, and to date has sold over 7 million copies worldwide. The first single from the album was "All the Things She Said" which was released in October 2002. The song peaked at the top spot in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The music video caused controversy worldwide, due to the members, who were both 14 at the time of the video's production, kissing behind a fence. Some believed the video promoted lesbianism and pedophilia. Many musical journalists, publications and music critics had branded the group's music as "paedophilic pop." The group announced their "Show Me Love Tour", which was to commence in the United Kingdom. However, both of their proposed concerts in the UK were cancelled due to poor ticket sales. It was revealed that the reason why ticket sales were so poor was due to the parental advisory from adults, who did not believe that the girls' sexual image was appropriate. In July 2002, Blender praised the group by saying "We have seen the future of rock & roll ... to say you've never seen or heard anything quite like it is a colossal understatement." t.A.T.u. were then heralded by The Face magazine as "The hottest popstars in the world right now." On 25 February 2003 the women mocked NBC's insistence that they neither kiss nor comment on the Iraq war by performing "All the Things She Said" in white "T-shirts that bore the Russian language message Khuy Voyne! (Fuck the war!) across the front, and by blocking their faces with their hands as they kissed during a break in their performance."
In May 2003, t.A.T.u. represented Russia at Eurovision Song Contest 2003, where they placed third. After the contest, Russia's Channel One complained that Irish broadcaster RTE (Ireland's national television broadcaster) had used a back-up jury, and that it had cost them victory; RTE did not use the televoting results after some network problems. A statement by Channel One suggested that there were grounds to believe that the contest results could be much different for Russia. RTE responded by publishing the unused results of the Irish televote, which showed that had the jury not been used, Turkey, whose entry was also overlooked by the Irish Jury, would still have won. The group's record label, Universal Music Russia, were originally against the group's participation saying that the Eurovision contest was for "young artists" and said "artists of Tatu's level will not get much out of the participation in it, We [Universal] would much rather prefer the group to work on their new album, and not to participate in contests for rising stars."
The same month, the group postponed their German promo tour due to a late invitation to the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, where they performed. The following month they also cancelled their Riga concert and Japan concert in June, which led to a lawsuit from Pasadena Group Promotion, asking for $180,000 in damages.
On 26 September 2003, the group released a remix compilation, titled Remixes. In November 2003, the CD was released in Russia, with two new tracks and videos. The two new tracks were "Prostiye Dvizheniya" and "Ne Ver, Ne Boisya." Both of the tracks were released as singles, however "Prostye Dvizheniya" did not broadcast well in Russia, due to the promotion for "Ne Ver, Ne Boisya" in the Eurovision Song Contest. The DVD compilation Screaming for More was released on 24 November 2003, featuring music videos and behind-the-scenes. Anatomy of t. A. T. u. aired on Russian television on 12 December 2003. The documentary revealed that the girls were not lesbians, and chronicled the group as they took part in Eurovision earlier in the year.
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 followed the group as they were recording their second album, 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." In one of the final episodes, Volkova mentioned returning to the United States in spring of 2004 to record with new producers. However, she became pregnant soon thereafter, and recording was delayed.
Volkova soon joined Katina and previous producer Sergio Galoyan in the studio. The group was backed by their record label, Universal Music International, in finding adequate songs and production to release a new album. In August 2005, "All About Us" and "Lyudi Invalidy" were announced to be the first singles from the English and Russian albums, respectively. "All About Us" was a worldwide hit, charting in the top ten in the majority of European charts. The group released their second English album on 5 October 2005 titled Dangerous and Moving. Its Russian counterpart was released on 19 October, titled Lyudi Invalidy. The album did not match its previous English album in terms of success, but still managed to sell over 2.5 million copies worldwide. The second single was "Friend or Foe". Soon after the video was released, the group's management replaced drummer Roman Ratej with Steve "Boomstick" Wilson, and appointed a new bassist, Domen Vajevec. On 25 March 2006, t.A.T.u. received the award for Best Group at the first edition of the TRL Awards.
On 17 April 2006, t.A.T.u. returned to reality TV in Russia with t.A.T.u. Expedition, which was broadcast on the Russian music channel Muz TV. It chronicled the release of their second album, and the recording of the video for their third single, "Gomenasai", which was released during the airing of the show. The video, as well as the actual song, is quite a departure from t.A.T.u.'s usual style and leaves many of their fans cold. t.A.T.u. performed in Saint Petersburg, Russia on 28 April kicking off their Dangerous and Moving Tour. On 30 August 2006, the official website announced that the girls had left their record company, Universal/Interscope.
On 13 July, the group released their single "Snowfalls". The song was released digitally worldwide, along with its music video. The group's second single for the album, "White Robe", was released by Coqueiro Verde Records online and premiered on t.A.T.u's YouTube account. t.A.T.u's official website announced that the video was up for voting on MTV Brazil on 10 November 2009. On 3 December, the "White Robe" video reached the number one position on MTV Brazil. It was announced via Twitter that Coqueiro Verde Records would release the album in Brazil on 25 January 2010. The album was eventually released worldwide digitally, and received favorable reception from critics. The album did not sell very well, and was reported to have only sold over 1000 copies in the United States, as of December 2010.
The third single off the album was "Sparks", which was the English version of "220". It was released in Brazil and on t.A.T.u.'s official YouTube account on 13 April 2010. On 31 March 2010, a contest was to be launched in which fans will be able to remix their favorite t.A.T.u songs from the new album. The winning mixes would be included on an upcoming remix album.
On 2 October 2012, Cherrytree Records/Universal Russia announced that they would be issuing a special re-release of t.A.T.u's 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane. The "10th Year Anniversary Gold Edition" featured all new artwork, a never-before-released song from the 2002 sessions, "A Simple Motion", a brand new remix of "All The Things She Said" from producer Fernando Garibay, in addition to newly mastered songs. On 24 October 2012, Cherrytree Records released the official track listing for the album; it was a note addressed to fans handwritten and signed by Julia and Lena themselves. The album was released on 12 November 2012.
On 11 December 2012, Lena and Julia reunited to appear as musical guests on The Voice of Romania. It was their first performance together in three years. The duo t.A.T.u performed "All About Us" and "All the Things She Said" during the show. They also appeared in radio and on another television show before. After the re-release, the group were interviewed by Bradley Stern on MuuMuse, and was asked about a reunion and relationship together. Volkova stated "We don't keep in touch", while Katina stated "Only when we see each other. We have very different lives in different countries now. We are not in a fight though." As for a reunion, Katina said "I believe that there is always a chance for anything in this life. Maybe...." Volkova stated that, while she is not "ready for it", she said "But this won't stop us from reuniting for joint performances. We'll see what happens!"
In April 2013, the group announced they would perform one live show at a Russian VIP Club. Lena also stated that "The t.A.T.u. comeback is very possible, we are talking about that right now." After Volkova had her second surgery for her ligaments, she officially confirmed that she and Katina were planning to reunite t.A.T.u. However, soon Volkova told an interviewer that they were not reuniting after all. Katina also stated that her solo career was the number one goal at that time and if t.A.T.u. was going to reunite, it would only be for small things like commercials and concerts.
On 27 September 2013 t.A.T.u. performed a concert in Kiev, Ukraine. Shortly thereafter they wore their schoolgirls outfits from their first album again for a Snickers Japanese advertisement. Whilst in Japan they also performed "All the Things She Said" live in Tokyo.
On 16 May 2016, the duo met publicly again at the 25th anniversary celebration of the children's musical group Neposedy, which both were a part of before the formation of t.A.T.u. There, together with the children, Lena sang her song "All Around the World" and together with Yulia, everybody sang "Nas Ne Dogonyat".
On 7 August 2016, for the 15th anniversary of "Ya Soshla S Uma" being released, a remix video of "Ya Soshla S Uma" was uploaded to the official YouTube channel. The audio was a remix by Fly_Dream, and the video contained 'rare footage' of "Ya Soshla S Uma" in HD.
