tATu Flame Out! ("Face" Magazine - UK)Time of publication: 09.12.2003 |
'tATu Flame Out!' - The Face Magazine
The new issue of The Face magazine name-checks tATu in their Heroes of 2003 feature. The Face is one of the few (possibly the only!) British magazines that have always supported Julia and Lena but now even they are admitting that tATu’s time is over. Here’s the article:
“All Lezzed Out
It’s been a rollercoaster year for Russian celesbians tATu
January 2003. A video of two Russian schoolgirls kissing in a playground became a global obsession, catapulting tATu’s debut release, ‘All The Things She Said’, to the top of the charts worldwide. By the end of the year, Britney and Madonna were reduced to ripping them off, snogging for some MTV awards publicity. But while Britney and Madonna managed to play the PR game, for Lena and Julia, and their managers, Ivan Shapovalov and Beata Ardeeva, the year was a rocky ride.
Things first started to go wrong during the band’s May promo tour of the UK, with the country’s paedophile-obsessed tabloids launching a campaign against Ivan. The News Of The World accused Ivan of fondling a reporter and grabbing her by the throat. There was further scandal when he was photographed smoking a spliff. And then, after cancelled rehearsals, further tabloid persecution and official paranoia, tATu narrowly missed out on winning Eurovision. Behind the scenes, things got even worse: in July Beata was in a car accident in Turkey which left her in a coma for a month. Ivan sent money for her treatment, but was forced to leave the following week to continue tATu’s relentless promotional tour, this time heading for Japan.
It was in a dressing room backstage at Asahi TV that tATu finally cracked. The girls were due to appear in the opening minutes of a TV show, but when their slot was due, Ivan refused to let the band leave their dressing room. In the UK, it might be paedophilia that upsets people, but in Japan the cardinal sin is standing up a TV show. And without Beata, Ivan had had enough.
From this moment, tATu went into exile, and their record company lost patience. Speaking at the time, a Universal source claimed that tATu were finished – and that it was unlikely that another eastern European act would be signed again. Their next scheduled single, a cover of The Smiths’ ‘How Soon Is Now’, failed to appear. The Japanese TV walkout had pushed tATu over the edge and their career was duly pronounced dead in the press. But…back in Japan, at the end of October, another TV scandal broke.
During a live TV debate between Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and the leader of the opposition, two Russian girls in ‘Show Me Love’ t-shirts suddenly rushed the stage, sitting themselves on the floor in front of the two bewildered politicians and filming each other on DV cameras. The programme was cut to a commercial, and the girls were dragged away. Japan was more outraged than ever. And tATu were back.
It turns out that Ivan was in Japan working on a feature-length tATu film, a mixture of manga and documentary footage, to be produced in the next year. In Hong Kong, tATu turned up at a concert marking the end of the Sars outbreak. Their ‘All The Things She Said’ kiss took on extra significance, as in the aftermath of Sars, kissing is a symbol of being unafraid of the virus.
But Ivan’s boldest plan is taking shape in Moscow. Talks with MTV Russia are underway, studio time is being booked and a plan is coming together. December sees the start of three months of daily filming, shadowing the band as they make their second album and following the relationships between Ivan, Julia and Lena. And tATu will be reincarnated as tATu – The Reality Show.”
Elsewhere in this issue is an article entitled ‘Lesbians 2003: Who’s Keeping it Real?’. In the ‘Homo or Faux-mo?’ poll tATu are right at the bottom:
“Lena and Julia whipped up a storm by holding hands and saying stuff like “We love each other, we kiss, we do what we want.” Then ruined the whole illusion by stating “Homosexuality is a kind of sickness, we are not homosexuals”.”
Yet more negative publicity for tATu in an ‘End Of Year’ poll. However, The Face do name ‘All The Things She Said’ as one of the singles of the year. So it ain’t all bad!
Transcription by Mossopp. |
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