No gain for Tatu in Tokyo but they vow to come back (UK.News.Yahoo.Com)Time of publication: 30.06.2003 |
TOKYO (AFP) - Russian singing duo Tatu flew back to Moscow at the end of a tumultuous first trip to Japan, winning more jeers than cheers and promoting their image only as bad girls of pop.
"Tatu, don't you make light of us", "They've come to Japan just to raise hell", "No apologies from the whining girls," cried headlines in Japanese sports and tabloid dailies on Monday.
But the starlets felt they had left their mark after their four-day promotional tour to the mega music market.
"There are one million people in Japan who love us. We will come back in the autumn or winter to do a live concert," Lena Katina, one of the two 18-year-olds, told a news conference late Sunday.
Tatu angered Japanese media and fans during their stay in Tokyo by walking out on a television show and skipping a club event.
Katina and Julia Volkova sang only one song -- their debut number "All the Things She Said" -- in front of a horde of journalists and photogaphers when they were caught spending half an hour in private at a downtown karaoke joint on Sunday.
For fear of causing a commotion, Tokyo police barred the pair from shooting a promotional video with 300 Japanese high school girls in the fashionable district of Ginza and also in nearby Akihabara.
Ginza is usually closed to traffic on Sundays for the benefit of shoppers. But police did not seal off the Ginza streets, saying it might rain. The weather turned out to be perfectly clear with the mercury rising to 28 degrees Celsius.
It was well known that Tatu, who have a penchant for controversy adding to their image as lesbians and rebels, caused confusion in Moscow last month by filming a promotional video in Moscow's Red Square without a permit.
Police had vowed to detain Tatu, whose hits also include "Not Gonna Get Us", if the duo went ahead with their video plan in Tokyo.
The duo seemed to have enjoyed themselves in Japan despite the dramas.
"Our visit was a success. I am confident that we have increased our fans," Volkova declared during the press conference at their hotel, attended by some 100 people who had expected the duo to apologise for their behaviour.
On Friday, Universal Music K.K., which handles the group's events in Japan, apologised for Tatu's walkout from the live broadcast of TV Asahi's "Music Station" show with several Japanese artists.
Universal issued another apology after cancelling a second Tatu performance scheduled for Saturday at a music club for 1,000 fans.
Tatu's manager Ivan Shapovalov, 37, said he had pulled the singers out of the TV show after an introductory part because "Tatu has a unique image and they cannot do anything not fitting the image."
Volkova said: "We wanted to make it our own show. There were many Japanese stars around and we kind of felt left out.
"In any programme, we do not sing if we don't feel like it," she said. "We won't apologise to anyone."
The duo is no stranger to controversy. Late last year, they kissed each other at an Italian music festival. They told a British newspaper in April that they make love three times a day.
The girls yawned and put their legs on the table during the hour-long press conference.
Asked if all the trouble had been stage-managed to attract attention, the manager said: "I leave it up to your judgement."
Thanks to convol. |
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