Open-Air-Concert in Bonn, Germany (by xena225)

Time of publication: 15.06.2003

t.A.T.u. - Open-Air-Concert in Bonn, Germany
June 13, 2003
Museumsplatz (Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle)

The Location
The location was very special, I thought. It was the "Museumsplatz" in Bonn, and although it is an outdoor location, there was a tent roof which protected us from the sun - it was very warm and sunny, even in the evening. You could see the stage from everywhere, even if you were standing in the back or on the sidelines. And even if you hadn't been able to see Y&L in person, there was still the big screen which showed them from different angles the whole time (there must have been at least 3 cameras). The light show was amazing as was the sound.

The Audience
The audience was an interesting mixture. I had expected to see mostly teenagers, but this wasn't so. There were some older people (men and women) who had come alone, older people who accompanied their kids, there were a lot of lesbians and a lot of guys as well, and also very young children. I had the feeling that there was quite a number of Russians or Russian-speaking people, because many reacted to Yulia's Russian words, and the singing along to the Russian songs also gave me that impression. The audience was very enthusiastic (at least where I was standing), in a very good mood even before the concert started - expectant tension, I would call it, and they went crazy when Yulia and Lena finally entered on stage. There was a lot of singing along, jumping up and down, dancing, clapping and hollering. There were many girls in t.A.T.u. outfits, checkered skirts, black skirts, the Eurovision white t-shirts with the "1" printed on it. Quite a number of placards with mostly Cyrillic letters and pictures of Lena & Yulia embracing. Y&L took some of the posters up on stage later to look at them. Some stuffed toys were thrown on stage, L&Y took them, smiled and threw them to the back or the sides, so as not to stumble over them.

The Songs
The first song of the concert was the ATTSS Remix with just the ballet dancing. The first song Yulia and Lena sang was 30 Minutes. They played, I think, the entire English album (minus Clowns), also NVNBNP, Klouny, Ya Tvoi Vrag, Nas Ne Dagoniat, PD, a remix of NGGU, a remix of PD, two remixes of ATTSS (including the opening number of the Tatu Ballet). They played HSIN twice. If I had to say which songs had the most exuberant reactions from the audience, these would be: NGGU, HSIN, NVNBNP and PD. The most touching performance was "Stars". Some of Lena's facial expressions were just heartbreaking, and Yulia rapped her little heart out. As far as I can tell, a lot of it was sung live. A number of songs were very obviously sung live, you could just hear it, because they talked and told us to sing along and improvised a bit (especially during the ATTSS Remix). They also did a cute We-sing-it-first-you-sing-it-back thing with just nonsense words which were not made up on the spot, though, because both of them sang at the same time. Very funny bit. The voices sounded great.

Lena and Yulia
Where to start? Both of them had a great time, I think, they danced a lot, they laughed a lot, they fooled around with the dancers, they communicated a lot with the audience (Yulia in Russian, Lena in English) and they seemed very happy and energetic. Yulia in my opinion is the born entertainer, she just clicks with the audience instantaneously, they focus on her as soon as she addresses them. Lena has to work a little more for that. I can't explain it, I just noticed. That doesn't mean the audience didn't react to Lena, because they did, especially when she did those amazing dance routines - it's just that Yulia has everyone in the palm of her hand already. At least that was my impression (and I'm a Lena fan ).

As I said in one of my earlier posts, they came out wearing the MTV MA outfits. They got rid of the skirts after a while, and later changed into the white shirts and black skirts for one song, then changed from the white shirts to the MTV MA tops again. As I said before, they didn't bother leaving the stage for that, but rather changed on stage in front of the drums (with their backs to the audience).

People ask me if they kissed, well, they kissed during ATTSS once, more of a teasing actually, Lena held her hand before their faces and grinned to the audience (I think she even stuck her tongue out). What a meanie. They kissed one more time at the end of another song, a sweet little kiss (I think it was Stars, I'm not 100 % sure, though), which seemed pretty spontaneous. So they didn't kiss often - but they did a lot of other things. They danced together, very close and very sexy, during the PD Remix Yulia sat on Lena and made the already mentioned movements, but apart from the more blatant sexual stuff, the interaction between them was very sweet and intimate, I thought. Hugging, smiling, holding hands, and so on.

They also have a very close relationship with their dancers, I think. During the introduction, the appreciation they have for the dancers became very obvious (and I don't mean Yulia's touchy-feely stuff, but rather the praising words she found for them ). It seems like there is genuine feeling there. They also have some very sexy dance routines with their ballet.

Talking about the dancing: I mentioned before how surprisingly well Lena moved (in my opinion), but that goes for both of them. The whole choreography was very cool - they had a great choreography for "Ya Tvoi Vrag" and also for "Show Me Love" and "Prostie Dvijenyah". They also jumped up and down a lot during the faster numbers like Klouny and NGGU, you know, waving their arms and such - it was one big surge of energy which came from the stage and which they got back from the audience.

Bits and Pieces
The Malchik Gei competition was interesting. The two girls from the audience had no problems with kissing each other. The first guy couple had to kiss twice, because Yulia didn't accept the first kiss. LOL So they did it again, and this time Yulia okay'ed it. The second guy couple had the problem that one of the boys didn't really want to kiss the other guy, so he left the stage and "We need another boy!" The replacement guy was cool, and the kiss happened. All of the contestants got a signed poster.

They played almost exactly 90 mins. After they said the show was now finished, they played two more songs. Once they had left the stage, they didn't come back. Afterwards people were sitting around in little groups, exhausted but happy.

That's all I can think of right now. Please keep in mind that these are my opinions, my impressions, very subjective, no claims to completeness or objectivity.

Let me just add on a final note: If you ever get the chance to see them live, DO SO!

xena225 :)

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