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| Birth Name(s) : T.A.T.U. |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Musician |
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Full T.A.T.U. Biography
t.A.T.u. (or Tatu pronounced , listen (help·info)) is a Russian duet formed in Moscow, Russia in 1999 by Ivan Shapovalov. The group consists of Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova, who became the most successful international recording act exported from Russia, with a fan base from countries all over the world. Their debut album, 200 Po Vstrechnoy was the first from a Russian act to reach gold status internationally. With the release of their debut English album, 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane t.A.T.u. became the first act to receive an IFPI Platinum Europe Award for the same album in two languages.
While t.A.T.u.'s image and vocals fit well into pop music; however, the group's sound varies from rock, to dance, to pop and electronica. Their first Russian album was mostly rock and dance influenced, while their first English album was heavily influenced by rock and electronica. Their English follow-up, Dangerous and Moving, was a more traditionally pop-rock album than the first.
By the end of auditioning, Shapovalov and Voitinskyi narrowed their search down to 10 girls, including ex-members of the group Neposedi, Katina and Volkova. Both girls stood out among the others, especially because of their appearance and vocal experience, but the producers decided to start with 15 year-old Lena Katina, who sang "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette. Katina began recording demos, including "Yugoslavia" a song about the Kosovo War, which Voitinskyi had written about the turmoil he experienced. After the demos were cut, Shapovalov insisted that another girl be added to the project, so soon after they added on 14 year old Yulia Volkova.
When the group planned to release their single for "All the Things She Said" in 2002, they were going to use the name "Tatu," however the name was already being used by a band from Australia. To avoid any lawsuits, the spelling was changed to t.A.T.u., but there is no difference in pronunciation of Tatu and t.A.T.u. For the release of the second albums, t.A.T.u. decided to just go by t.A.T.u., and no longer Тату, although the formatting doesn't really matter.
The group released their debut album on May 21, 2001. 200 Po Vstrechnoy (200 on the Counter) included 9 tracks, and 2 remixes. At the same time, the girls released their second video and single, titled "Nas Ne Dogonyat." It countered the claim that t.A.T.u was just a one-hit wonder. After one week of heavy rotation on MTV Russia, it went straight to #1 on MTV's "Russian Top 10" (a weekly chart show with Russian-only videos competing with each other) and #7 on the MTV Top 20. The single received success on radio as well, listed on 1st National Radio "Russian Radio" and 7 other national radio stations in Russia.The Single has sold close to seven million copies in Russia alone.
Early in January 2002, the girls began recording their English album first in London, England, then in the United States. In April, it was announced that Elena Kiper had left the group as co-producer, and that she was being replaced by Beata Andreyeva, a former MTV VJ. Later that month, t.A.T.u. recorded the song and video for "Prostye Dvizheniya". The video was then released in May and showed, according to the girls, "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 in the video. In June, t.A.T.u. made their first appearance on MTV's TRL in New York. They also recorded the vocal shots for the "All the Things She Said" video, and in September, the single was released on CD format. Later in February, the group's debut Russian album, 200 Po Vstrechnoy was re-released with a new song ("Klouny") and two new remixes. The album received the IFPI Platinum Europe Award, having sold a million copies of "200 po Vstriechnoy" in Europe; the girls became the first artists from Eastern Europe to receive this award.
Questions about their sexuality were evaded by ambiguous statements such as "Don't be afraid to be yourself; don't be afraid to love", or that they did not like labels. Katina once said in an interview that this lesbianism was "no image", while Katina had acknowledged in earlier interviews that it was an obligation.
At the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, t.A.T.u. performed "All the Things She Said" and "Not Gonna Get Us". To this day, it has been the largest event t.A.T.u. has performed at in the US. The performance includes nearly 100 girls dancing around the stage, having them strip at the end of the performance and kiss each other. The chorus in "Not Gonna Get Us" is partly playback due to the fact that Yulia had developed a vocal cord cyst earlier that year during Eurovision. During this trip to the U.S., they also taped a segment for the "Show Me Love" video.
When t.A.T.u. was first formed by Ivan Shapovalov, the group's production company Neformat was born, with Shapovalov and Boris Rensky at the head. In Anatomy of t.A.T.u., Neformat is credited as Sergey Bobza, Marina Kvaratsheliya and Dasha Mischenko. Mischenko was the company's secretary. Also, Sasha Tityanko was the company's PR manager. Tityanko married Sergio Galoyan, a writer and producer who appears on the group's albums. In 2004, the company was dissolved when t.A.T.u. left Shapovalov. Some of the members of Neformat went on to work with t.A.T.u. anyways. Tityanko did join t.A.T.u. on their new ventures, but was fired before the second album was released. |
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