t.A.T.u.: Fabulous and Moving

t.A.T.u.:
Fabulous and Moving
by Annie Julie Taschereau
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Forget what you think you know about
Russia, or the Russians: these two
women will most likely prove you wrong, in
one way or another.
“Did someone in your family use to
work for the KGB, like all Russians?”
“Is it true you've only recently discovered hamburgers?”
“Did your parents drive Ladas?”
Those are questions Lena Katina
and Yulia Volkova, better known as the
Russian pop duo t.A.T.u., were recently
asked in the course of their first promotional tour in France, during a television interview conducted by Thierry
Ardisson. This poor attempt at humour
by Ardisson, host of the very popular
talk show Tout le monde en parle, not
only smacked of chauvinism, condescendence and blatant ignorance, but
demonstrated how little the average
person knows about the largest country on this planet, the people who live
in it, and how enduring the most outdated misconceptions about them are.
The same thing could be said of the
two protagonists of group t.A.T.u.,
Elena Sergeevna Katina, the fiery redhead, and Yulia Olegovna Volkova, the
feisty brunette. While both certainly
are typical Russian women, they do not
in any way fit the stereotypical mold of
the vodka-drinking, Lada-driving,
bear-hugging, ex-KGB mole Russian;
which is not to say they have not been
branded with their own share of arbitrary labels. The Underage Sex
Project. The Russian Lesbians. The
Fake Russian Lesbians.
t.A.T.u. began in the year 1999, the
pet project of one Ivan Nikolaevich
Shapovalov, a former child psychologist - turned - music - producer, who
understood early on that, in an industry which swallows artists and spits
them out faster than Kronos could gobble up his children, one has to be able
to create shockwaves of seismic proportions in order to stand out from the
crowd. He found what he thought he
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Photo: Exclusively provided by T.A. Music (“Dangerous and Moving ” promotion tour, Fall 2005)
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needed in 2000, when Katina and
Volkova walked through his door. The
two Moscow - born - and - raised
teenagers had been friends since
childhood, they had the voices and the
looks he was looking for, and they
were willing to put his ideas into practice for the chance to make their
dream come true.
The duo's big break came soon
after they shot the video clip for their
first single, Ya soshla s uma, which
later became All the Things She Said for
Western audiences. In this video,
Winter 2006
Katina and Volkova are portrayed as
schoolgirls who have discovered that
their feelings for each other have gone
beyond friendship and who are distressed by the confusion their newfound emotions create in them. They
eventually go on to kiss while
bystanders look through a barbedwired, chain-link fence; their disapproving stares as cold as the rain
drenching them. The clip dared tackle
one of the last remaining taboos in pop
music, which caused an uproar of controversy, bringing Katina and Volkova
under constant attack from the media
and got them innumerable fans. From
that point on, the pair would kiss during each one of their live performances
and openly display their affection
when they were off the stage, declaring their love for one another while
refuting claims that they were lesbians to anyone who asked—which, of
course, everybody did.
Katina would later on refer to this
period as a “commercial moment”,
seemingly giving credence to those of
t.A.T.u.'s critics who claimed the
pair's actions had only been motivated
by their desire for fame and money.
While Yulia Volkova admitted that
there was nothing she would not be
willing to do for fame, she also
revealed that her taking part in a
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Photo: T.A. Music
project such as t.A.T.u. had allowed
her to realize that she could love
women in the same way she loved
men, and that she had, indeed, loved a
woman in this manner. Although to
this day, there is no telling what the
exact nature of the relationship existing between Katina and Volkova, the
connection between these two young
women is undeniable and leaves the
most discerning observers at a loss
when trying to define it. Are they
friends, sisters, partners, or lovers?
Are they soul mates, or exceptionally
talented actresses?
The question, while an interesting
one, should bear little relevance for
the true music enthusiast, as the
answer would not significantly add or
take away from the listening experience that is t.A.T.u.'s second album,
Dangerous and Moving (Interscope,
2005). From the seemingly centralized
girl-loves-girl thematic of the first
album, 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane
(Interscope, 2002)—although one
could reasonably argue that the only
song on this album which unequivocally refers to a relationship between
two girls that has gone beyond mere
friendship is All the Things She
Said—Katina and Volkova seem to
have adopted a more belligerent attitude on Dangerous and Moving, starting with the album's title and on to
track titles such as Perfect Enemy,
Friend or Foe (with Sting on bass) and
Loves Me Not. That, however, would be
akin to the proverbial judging a book
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by its cover, and upon listening to the
songs comprising the album, even the
most sceptical listener will be forced to
concede that there is more to t.A.T.u.
than meets the eye. Or ear.
The desire to escape and run away
to a different place is reiterated in
Cosmos (Outer Space) and Obez'yanka
nol' (sung in Katina and Volkova's
native language), as are the feelings of
yearning and confusion in tracks such
as Craving (I Only Want What I Can't
Have) and Loves Me Not; but those
recurrent themes no longer have that
teenage angst ring to them. The album
does offer tracks which are more
"mature" (albeit perfectly suitable for
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younger listeners) in their content:
self-abandonment (Sacrifice), commitment (We Shout), loss of innocence
(Dangerous and Moving), as well as
trust and loyalty (All About Us). With
the notable exception of Loves Me
Not, all the songs on the album are
addressed to you—and “you” could
really be just about anyone. When listening to the mildly suggestive
Sacrifice, one might be under the
impression that Katina is actually
addressing Volkova as she sings: You
caress me smoothly / Calm my fears and
soothe me / Move your hands across me
/ Take my worries from me; while the
next person might perceive the same
lyrics in a completely different manner. Who is to say who is right? Katina
and Volkova would undoubtedly be in
a position to tell, but they won't, and
the listener is left with only two real
questions: does the answer really matter, and would the song be any more or
less enjoyable either way?
That, ultimately, is up to the listener to decide. I, for one, believe that
every person has the potential to form
opinions which are theirs alone with
regards to people and things and that
this is the message Katina and
Volkova are sending out with
Dangerous and Moving: don't let other
people decide for you what you should
be thinking or feeling, and strive to be
your own person, because nobody else
can be that person.
Although both Katina and Volkova
were actively involved in the song
writing process for Dangerous and
Moving, neither actually wrote the
songs themselves; and whereas 200
km/h in the Wrong Lane was dark and
sincere in a way only teenagers could
be, Dangerous and Moving is more
melancholy and honest, simply due to
the fact that a fair dose of experience
has now been added to the mix of raw
emotions.
Thus,
the
so-called
"Underage Sex Project" became a coming -of-age project for Katina and
Volkova. t.A.T.u. might have been
Ivan Shapovalov's brain child, but
Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova are
the ones who took the project to the
next level and came up with an album
which is both enjoyable and thoughtprovoking, a rare thing indeed in the
shallow world of pop music; which is
precisely why anyone who wants to
hear what a good pop music album
sounds like should go out and buy
Dangerous and Moving.
Open your hearts and open your
minds, and give the CD a good spin or
ten. And leave your prejudice at the
door.
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Photo: T.A. Music
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