Pop Senstation Set Tongues Wagging With Girly Snogs (UK Daily Star)

Time of publication: 27.01.2003

Tatu much in love: Teasing to please

Excluslive
By JAMES MOORE

FROM Russia WITH Lesbian love! In their sexy schoolgirly togs, sexy pop due Tatu are taking pop by storm.

They snog on stage and their Russian name means: This girl loves that girl.

Sadly we wont see them in the UK yet. The younger, Julia Volkova, 17 had a throat op and they've axed their UK tour.
But. with the single out in the UK today and tipped for No.1, we met up for a chat.

Redhead Lena Katina, 18, says: "People love or hate us but no one thinks nothing!"

And she's right. They are huge in Eastern Europe, where they played to 50,000 - strong crowds - setting tongues wagging.

Julie teases: "We do kiss. Maybe it's just an act - maybe it's love between two girls."

The pair first met as students at a Moscow music school.
They studied classical piano and music theory for eight years. The, both 11, they joined a pop band.

Lena says: "I really wanted to sing. I tried to imitate all the female singers.
"We sung in a band called Neposedi, but Julie had to leave - for misbehaving."

Julia wanted the band to strip and touch each other.

But two years ago former child psychologist Ivan Sharpovalov plucked the girls from obsurity and has turned them into stars.

Caress

In the video for their new single they also caress in the rain. Other videos shown in Russia are more sensational, seeing them hijack an oil tanker and even build a bomb in a school loo.

Lena admits: "In the past year we became so close and now feel something more than friendship for each other."
And she says of the kisses:"We were working for a long time without all this stuff.
"But once they started to know about our relationship they started to show our real life on screen and to tell the story in the songs."

All The Things She Said includes the lyrics "Cause I'm feeling for her what she's feeling for me. I can try to protend, I can try to forget. But it's driving me mad, going out of my head!".

Julie says:"We love each other but Lena is different from me She doesn't like to party. I do. She's quieter, reads a lot. I don't like reading."

The pair spurn glamour - preferring school uniforms - and Lena explains: "Tatu is about saying what you feel, not what others expect. It is honest about ourselves and others. We don't shape ourselves for the audience.
"In Russia, life is not polite. If we don't like something, we say. If we don't agree, we say f*** you."
Julie says: "We have a different view - maybe deeper - because life is more difficult in Russia."
And she once said of Kylie: "She's not interesting. If you put so much make-up on someone, then they'll alway be be beatiful."

But the duo's loudmouth lesbianism and mellow music are a hit and Tatu mania is sweeping the internet. One fan site even claims the girls plan to wed in Holland at the bottom of a swimming pool.

Meanwhile, the girls remain a mystery. Lena says: "Maybe we will be mothers, and be with boys bu we're togeather and okay, we're happy. Be in love. Be yourself. We are."

Thanks to Mad Debz!

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