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.
(there must have been at least 3 cameras).
Yah, at least three. Two in the walkway between the spectators and the stage, where the press got to stand, and I think there were people walking around in the back with cameras too.
"Warm and sunny" - oi, I take it you were not waiting since the midafternoon!! I didn't mean to get there that early - I wanted to find the place, first of all, and then I thought, damn, there's already a line, I'd better get in it (I'd never been to a concert before and wasn't sure what I was supposed to do ) So...I was waiting there for several hours. And it was HOT and SUNNY. LOL. And NOT protected from the sun (check for some seriously sunburned people in Mal'chik Gei contest pix). The German Red Cross even went to the front and passed around a bucket of water because the people there were completely dehydrated
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.
Yeah, you're right, but there were lots of teenagers too. I'd probably say a majority, with a significant minority the people you mention. I was right next to a girl with her boyfriend who decided to make out while waiting for tatu to come on - so - lots of different fans
How about Julia's expressions?? Like her motion with the finger before Lena translated the intro to Prostye Dvizheniya...
I dunno how many Russians there were really. I didn't hear that many people speaking Russian. There were two girls in front of me (maybe you heard them: they kept shouting out, "my...vas...liubim!" (we love you!) and one time Julia heard them and responded) and they did not speak Russian, although they sang along to all the Russian songs. It was funny: the first time they did their chant one of them said "my vas liubliu!" (kinda like 'we loves you!") and the other one was like, no, that's wrong, cause it's "we," remember? And then they were arguing about how to pronounce "skol'ko" (how many). It was funny. But no, they didn't speak Russian, although they knew a little bit, I guess.
In the hours I was waiting I met a lot of the people with Cyrillic signs, and they didn't speak Russian either. I thought it was cool that there was so much Russian though - there wouldn't have been signs like that in America.
By the way, it was hard to understand Julia sometimes. She would start talking before it had gotten quiet, then mumble - although it got easier towards the end.
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.
And people with "t.A.T.u.," "Lena," "Yulya," written on their arms, faces, etc. I saw one girl with "Russia" on her forehead and people with Russian flags...and oh yeah, the audience was enthusiastic. Were you there when they were doing sound checks and people were hopping up on the fence and yelling out: LENA!! pause YULYA!! Or when a car pulled up and everyone started to lean forward, shoving and craning their necks to get a better look, and some girl shouted out "im Auto!!" (in the car - they're in the car)?
People were not calm at all, especially not when they came out. It was one giant party, like you said. Before then they kept booing the guy who introduced the three groups who performed before them (although the last two groups got some applause and seemed to have some fans).
The most touching performance was "Stars". Some of Lena's facial expressions were just heartbreaking, and Yulia rapped her little heart out.
Yes, they did a good job on this song. Although I would almost have wished that people had been quieter - at least around me, everyone was still so thrilled that they were on stage that they kept shouting out their names and dying if they looked their way. Which is cool, but...during "Stars"? I found it a little hard to appreciate the emotion when everyone around was squealing with excitement, but they did a fantastic job performing it.
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).
Yeah, I think a lot of it was live too. But definitely not all. I remember one point in, I think, NGGU where Julia fake-sang one of her choruses - she couldn't have sung it without support, and the way she was standing it was obvious she wasn't supporting. So there was at least some playback.
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.
Oh yeah, what was with that? It was kinda cool but I wasn't sure what it was supposed to mean. Did it mean something more to you?
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.
They danced A LOT, they laughed A LOT. They looked very professional. They hugged each other a lot too. Energy level: through the roof.
That doesn't mean the audience didn't react to Lena, because they did, especially when she did those amazing dance routines
Those amazing dance routines. Like the shaking dance routine? That was another one of the "dying" moments, I thought.
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.
At some point after that Lena took off her skirt, although Julia kept hers on. I noticed. I didn't see when she took it off, though.
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).
She did stick her tongue out; you saw right. They also covered with their hands at least twice, and one of those times I could see Julia say something to Lena - that time it wasn't even really teasing, at least from where I was standing.
They kissed one more time at the end of another song, just a peck (I think it was Stars, I'm not 100 % sure, though), which seemed pretty spontaneous.
Spontaneous? Not to me. But maybe only because I thought it made for a good ending
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
Ah, xena, I was waiting for you to mention the "movements" - didn't want to steal your thunder, after all It sort of reminded me of "Like a Virgin," LOL.
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.
Oh, Julia was funny She was cracking me up. Did you mention this touchy-feely stuff? It was very touchy-feely (demonstrating how small/large their breasts were, etc.) She even kissed one of the dancers - Nastya? - another peck on the lips.
Genuine feeling...a very close relationship... I can see how you saw it that way, and I saw it that way mostly too, but on the other hand it seemed sort of exploitative the way they were "showing them off" - maybe just a little, or maybe I made it up.
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".
Yes, the choreography was cool. It was very cool. They put on a great show
You know, I couldn't believe how much they danced. And they were almost always dancing. As soon as Julia in particular felt a lull she would start to move again and get the audience involved - which happened, of course
The Malchik Gei competition was interesting. 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!"
Was that what happened? I was not 100% positive whether the guy just felt uncomfortable kissing or whether he thought he was going to make the other guy sick (I thought maybe he was ill or something). Probably I am totally off on that, though.
Afterwards people were sitting around in little groups, exhausted but happy.
Unless they were the people who hightailed it to the back of the building to see them come out
Let me just add on a final note: If you ever get the chance to see them live, DO SO!
I'll second that!
russkayatatu |
