Words: Paul Semel
Pictures: Jim Malucci (See forum)
They're the red-hot Russians whose 'girl-on-girl' antics make Madonna look like Thora Hird. Maxim meets tATu's Julia Volkova and Lena Katina
Monday afternoon in a TV studio, and the girls of tATu--18 year olds Julia Volkova and Lena Katina--are ready for their close up. Their white shirts and ties have been pressed, their make-up is flawless, and their pleated skirts have been shortened to alarming levels. In moments, these two red-hot Russians with 'cooked-up controversy' written on their CVs will do what has made them famous the world over: talk in tongues on national television.
You don't need to be a certified sexologist to figure out that tATu's saucy French-kissing routine is 10 percent puppy lust, 90 percent publicity stunt. And you don't have to be Max Clifford to see that it's 100 percent marketing genius. Both the song, 'All the Things She Said', and their album, 200 Km/H In the Wrong Lane, have not only been huge in their native Russia, but now the girls are also preparing to launch an unprovoked same-sex assault on America. And since this Russian double act look remarkably unlike most other Eastern European performers who make it onto our screens (shotputters and discuss throwers, mostly), do you care if it's all an act?
Heck, you probably don't even care that the girls of tATu (which means 'This girls loves that girls' in Russian) aren't quite as into girl-on-girl action as you are. But, then again, who is? 'I think that this question,' Julia says through a translator, 'is private, so we don't want to classify ourselves as lesbians or bisexuals. We are just we.'
Um, so are we, but we're happy to talk about this stuff untill the lesbians come home--so to speak. As Lena recalls in her erotically broken English, 'It's true that we've gotten a lot of phone calls from angry people. One guy said, 'I'll kill you because my girl starts to be lesbian after seeing your video. I want your blood.' They get mad at us because they were bad boyfriends.'
No surprise then that Top Of The Pops banned the controversial duo sharing a lesbian kiss after the BBC decided that the scenes were 'too raunchy' for its viewers, even cutting away to show a straight couple frantically kissing during one 'live' performance of the song. ITV's CD:UK followed suit, banning the video, which MTC had shown for months.
On heading to the States the girls appeared on The Tonight Show on network TV. Unfortunately, for Tonight's viewers, when it came to making out, NBC followed the example of the BBC rather than MTVs. Instead of the two sucking face, viewers saw an excruclatingly shot of a guitar solo.
Still, there are occasions (admittedly, few and far between) when Julia and Lena aren't up for the big finish. 'Sometimes we do a show, and there's no kissing,' Julia concedes. 'There have even been times when Lena's had a cold, and I'm like, 'I'm not kissing her!' We only kiss each other when we feel like it.' To make her point, the two proceed not to kiss, which sucks. But who can blame them, with no cameras around to turn them on?
They have been known to spend an entire guitar solo in a long, lingering kiss, gently pressing their lips together, caressing each other like steamy schoolgirls at a slumber party with lingerie and perfume and ... sorry, what were we talking about?
Getting back to our story... Julia and Lena met as girls in a Russian singing group called Neposedi. Lena describes the group as 'a large band with very little kids.' Back then Lena was hot on jazz, reggae, and rock groups like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Julia, a classically trained musician, was into all kinds of music, which we assume means death metal, polka, and Norah Jones. After four years with Neposedi, the two future stars were recruited through a casting call, and tATu was born.
It hasn't always been long, lingering, erotic kisses since then. 'After our first concert, in Odessa,' Lena recalls, 'We were trying to fly out, but since we were 15 we needed permission from our parents. Unfortunately, we didn't have the papers, so they had to hold the airplane for two-and half hours while we waited for our parents to fax their approval.' Adds a still rattled but eternally sexy Julia, 'Everyone on the plane was screaming, 'We hate tATu! Get them out of here.'
Things have become friendlier since the two turned 18. These days, everbody wins: the girls get to be famous pop stars, and we get a lipstick lesbian performance every time they hit the stage. Sadly, the kissing club isnt't taking three-way applications. 'The star I'd like to kiss', Julia says when asked, 'is Lena. We don't need a third person.'
Fine, but can we at least hang around backstage? We promise not to wear a Macintosh.
Typed out by oasischuan
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