You ladies Julia and Lena from group Tatu, whose lesbian caresses in video clips and on stage made a sexual revolution in this country, which “never had sex”, took the duo to the pick of musical Everest with phenomenal speed. They trigger different emotions, all the way to appreciation and hate, leaving no one with neutral feelings towards them. Phenomenon “Tatu” will remain a mystery to everyone, including the Tatu girls themselves. "Most likely, we are the best", say the girls about themselves. And, possibly, they are right. Today Tatu are the only Russian pop-group to really breakthrough to the West as well as the East.
Question: You came back from your Japan tour recently. Tell us why do people from the country of the rising sun like Tatu?
Lena: Most likely, the Japanese people know what they are talking about when it comes to music. They have brilliant taste! Our concerts in Tokyo went for a “Wow”.
Question: Is the Japanese audience different from the Russians?
Julia: They are different, very well-wishing and emotional. Everywhere we were followed by crowds of ng people with cameras, which didn’t stop taking pictures without actually “aiming” at us. Probably the Japanese have the largest archive of Tatu photos. During the concert the Japanese are very shy and hold-back their feelings – they mostly look at the stage and what happens on it, taking note of the artist’s every move, trying to remember everything. Amongst the audience, a lot of girls were dressed like us.
Question: I read that you earned a few million dollars during the Japanese tour. Is that right?
Julia: This is a tax investigation. No, we earned quit a bit less. Anyway, what kind of people look into other people’s pochets?
Lena: I think that Russian got more out of our performances in Japan. Now they at least know in Japan, that we have good pop singers and groups over here. We, to be honest, not only broke through to Europe, but also to Asia, we showed the way to other good Russian artists, which we have plenty.
Question: by the way, do you get dividends for the sales of Tatu style – short skirts and shirts with ties?
Julia: What are you on about? What dividends? We didn’t patent the skirts and the shirts, although we should have done that. All the European teenagers are wearing them. Can you imagine how rich we would have been?
Question: Did the loss on the Eurovision take away your will to call yourself the best Russian pop-group?
Julia: It wasn’t a loss, it was an simple miss-judgment. The West was always careful of Russia. Everyone is afraid of Russian, so no one wants it to be number one, although we were clearly winning. We are happy to compete in a fair environment, but when everyone is saying you are the leader, and the jury yells out that you didn’t gain enough points, it’s pathetic.
Question: Reality show “Tatu in Podnebesnaya” invited new fans. What stage is the new album recording at?
Julia: All the songs are chosen, and the material for the album is ready, the only problem is that not all songs are recorded by us, because we stopped coming to Podnebesnaya from a certain point…
Lena: We did, however, record a few songs, like “Belochka” (Is will be included on the compilation album of Podnebesnaya). Some compositions only have my voice, some only have Julia’s, the materials is not ready and there is no way we can finish it now.
Question: There are rumors that you are leaving Shapovalov and that your new producer will be Philip Kirkorov. Is that right?
Julia: As to Kirkorov, we have nothing to do with him, and so won’t comment on that, but as to our producer, our relationship is pretty tense right now.
Question: Why is that?
Lena: We would like to avoid that question. Besides, we already voiced our opinions and position in the Podnebesnaya show…
Julia: We said that we didn’t like Vanya’s new project, and we don’t want to go to Podnebesnaya, and I don’t want to scream etc….. I am tired of talking about this.
Question: How are you dealing with your popularity and success?
Julia: We are dealing with it wonderfully! We dreamed about this for a long time, way back to “Neposedi”. Now we are happy about our work every day. We aimed for this all our likes, and it’s something like an orgasm from your loved one.
Question: There is an opinion, that the lesbian image made up by your producer, which has been exploited through out the project – is just a part of the brilliant marketing strategy?
Julia: Probably, but lesbianism is a part of everyone’s sexual life. And if we are living in this community, means that this topic is not foreign to us. Of course we are not praising it, but are trying to tell people about it in a beautiful and elegant by means of shock. Sock is a tool, with which we can reach out to our audience with our message. But the lesbian theme is not the only thing we sing about? Our aim is not to fool someone. People get fooled only on their own.
Question: is this some kind of a challenge to the community? You are very honest in your moves and feelings towards each other on stage, which what you sang about always had a taboo between the lines and was always with the tag: “secret”. People either kept quiet about it, or talked about it while watching their own backs.
Lena: Maybe. What we sing about is a protest to all the homophobes and hypocrites. The homosexual love is received by people like heterosexual love. It existed for centuries and will exist forever. Simply, we were the first to call the things by their own names. We used this theme to express our protest, but we didn’t use the protest to become Gods in the gay-culture. We are not against this culture, but it will never be our main message.
Question: What orientation are you promoting yourselves? ‘Couse you so convincingly played the forbidden love in your video clips, that you can’t help but think whether the story you told was your real life?
Julia All kinds! We didn’t give any reason for people to think that we were lesbians. Who held the candle? Maybe we are bisexuals. Yes, we have boyfriends, but the relationship between us is like with our boyfriends!
Question; Close relationship?
Julia: All kinds of relationships!
Question: It seems that you never really mean what you say and just try to confuse everyone?
Julia: It’s because we are tired of answering questions about our private lives. It feels as though no one is interested in anything besides what we do in our beds. That’s why we always say what a person interested in bed wants to hear. Why is it that in America no one is interested about your sex life, but interested in your product, like our music. You can f*ck a vase, for all they care.
Lena: Didn’t Elton John announce to the whole world that he was gay? Did the world turn away from him? You wish! He was a music genius, he is one still.
Question: your song “Ya Soshla S Uma” became the hymn of the gay people. Do you realize that you thus became the voice of homosexuals?
Julia: It wasn’t our aim. We just nicely sang a nice song, in which homosexuals might have caught some familiar moments and situations. It is cool when an artist can reach it’s audience.
Question: Did some incidents happen during the concerts?
Julia: One time in St Petersburg a knife flew towards Lena and hit the floor near her feet, but she was OK. We just took the knife and put it in our pocket, tanking the fan who threw it.
Lena: Sometime they through beer bottles at us. But I don’t get it, whether it’s a sign of hate or appreciation. Probably they hope that we will make an advertisement of the beer. The most important thing is not to react with anger, but turn everything into a joke. It calms everyone down.
Julia: Also important is not to think that people might through a knife or a beer bottle at you before you go onto the stage.
Question: Are you tired of each other yet?
Julia: No, and hopefully never will be.
Lena: If we are good together, what’s the problem? We even live together, but we are never at home.
Question: Do you enjoy kissing in public?
Lena: We kiss when we want to!
Question: Are you bothered by people’s opinions of you?
Lena: We don’t care! We are not lesbians, we just love each other, and a person can fall in love at any age. Don’t forget that we know each other from a very young age, at which a person is not yet sure about him/her feelings. Only when you grow up you realize that it is love. Not lust, but love!
Question: Who are your parents?
Julia: Dad is a business man, mom is involved with cosmetics.
Lena: My father is a musician, and my mom just sits at home and plays the piano. I like to listen to her playing it.
Question: What do they think about your promoting homosexuality?
Lena: At the beginning they didn’t get it, but after talking and readying a lot of books about it, they decided to let us make the decision. So now we are free and do what we want. Our mom’s are not old yet. They understand what’s on our minds.
Questions: Don’t you think that you sacrificed your childhood for your career?
Julia: On contrary, we had a very exciting childhood apart from other children. We did what we like - sing.
Lena We are the same as most of the teenagers, the only difference is that they sit all say drinking beer. We started working from 14 years of age, and we know what we want in life.
Question; I heard that you love animals and that each of you owns a dog, do you have any other hobbies?
Lena: I like to read smart books…
Julia: I don’t like to read. I read only one book in my life – "200 golden short-stories". But, I love the TV series "Brigada" [“Brigade”]. I have cassettes with all of the episodes and I watch them again and again, probably seen every episode over 100 times. I also like to hang out with huge, happy crowds.
Question: Did you do drugs?
Julia: Are you crazy! Do we look stupid to you? Life is our only addiction!
Question: Now, about your plans for the future…
Julia: The only news are about our producer Vanya. He is doing this project “Songs of Podnebesnaya” as the continuation of Tatu, we don’t get much attention from him.
Question: Are you upset about that?
Lena: Yes, since he now lives for his new projects and ideas that will be presented on the compilation CD…
Source: MuzON Magazine
Translation by katbeidar for TatySite.net |
