tATu is a Russian girl group composed of Yulia and Lena. The band was formed in the beginning of 2000 by a scriptwriter1 and director Ivan Shapovalov. tATu, pronounced “tattoo2”, means “this girl-that girl” or implies “this girl loves that girl”, though the group has nothing to do with real tattoo. In Russian spelling, the group was often called “Taty”. Yulia and Lena, the two teens from Moscow used to sing together in a kids-band called “Neposedi”. However, Yulia, at the age of 14, was expelled from that group after a scandal3 and for “unworthy behaviour”. Nobody could find out what really happened. When Ivan Shapovalov was looking for girls for his new band tATu, the two girls met again during an audition4 at Mosfilm studios. They were selected independently out of 500 contenders5.

　　The hit of the group which has made tATu famous all over Russia was not written by professionals. The text of the song “All The Things She Has Said” was written by a journalist of NTV Channel and co-producer of tATu. For shooting a clip6 on this song, Lena had to grow thin almost 20 lbs, and Yulia had to make a short hairstyle and to paint her hair in black color. Both the clip and song made a huge success. However, the single also caused controversy7 in society. It is about a love affair between two young women. You can hear Lena screaming out her love for Yulia. They even kiss each other in this video!

　　“People love us or hate us,” said Lena, the soulful8 redhead9 in the group. “But nobody think nothing about us.” tATu's stage and video performances are always giving shock to the world!

　　MTV in Russia thought enough of tATu to name “All The Things She Has Said” Video of the Year in 2001. Their debut album, “200 km/h in the Wrong Lane” sold more than 1,000,000 copies, and their concert appearances at clubs and stadiums draw as many as 500,000 fans.

　　Now both of them are learning English. The teens are preparing to conquer America.

　　What They Say?

　　The most polemic10 pop stars talk about their music, their passions and more!

　　What is the biggest difference between you and other girls your age?

　　Lena: I don't know how to answer this question. We are very similar to other teenagers, we all deal with the problems of our age, like love etc. But the main difference between them and us is that they sit and drink beer and fool around all day—Although there are, of course, those who study—and we're already thinking about the future. We've been working since we were 14, as you know we met in a children's band. We both know what we want in life.

　　Haven't you missed anything of your normal childhood because of your career?

　　Yulia: Our childhood was very interesting compared with those of other kids. We got to sing and perform and do things others usually don't do.

　　Lena: Also with our parents, they are very ok with it. They want us to be happy and they realised this is our direction.

　　What do your parents do?

　　Yulia: Dad's a businessman and mum deals with cosmetics.

　　Lena: Dad's a musician and mum doesn't work, she's at home, but plays the piano. I love how she plays.

　　Lena, you're studying psychology. They say that someone who learns a profession like this wants to discover and understand more about him/herself.

　　Lena: Yes, it's a 5-year degree studies, out of which I've finished two, a lot of work. I'm always for11 higher education, I've been interested in psychology since a long time ago and I'll keep studying because this is what I want. I keep discovering new things about myself, and I've begun examining other people's behaviour. I found out that you could, for example, discover things about a person by the way they talk and move their hands.

　　Your music has generated12 a lot of polemics, how have you faced it?

　　Lena: At the beginning it was very hard because we even got death threats in Russia because of the message of our songs. But now we're stronger and we don't care about what people say. We're like this and we're not going to change.

　　Yulia: Some people have been very unfair to us, and that still hurts. For example, a month ago, Russian authorities didn't let us film the clip for “Show Me Love” in Kremlin because it is a national monument, but they did give Paul McCartney chance to do a concert in there. That was unfair.

　　Confess, what's the relationship with you two?

　　Yulia: Well, we're friends, group mates, almost sisters and we love each other. We can't live separate. But we're not lesbians13.

　　tATu imposed14 a fashion with your schoolgirl uniforms. What does this mean to you?

　　Lena: It's incredible, because this look has become our personal seal15 and that's awesome16.

　　Yulia: When we shot a video in England, we wanted some fans from that country to follow us and hundreds of them presented themselves in uniform. It was awesome!

　　What are you afraid of?

　　Yulia:I'm afraid of staying alone, then I get sad and start thinking of death.

　　What do you want to do when you grow up?

　　Yulia: I want to be a producer, start my own band and produce songs. I also really want to design clothes, I really love it and want to study fashion design.