This teenage dance pop duo became the biggest selling Russian act of the new millennium owing
to a clever marketing strategy that played on the suggestive nature of the two singers barely
legal lesbian love affair. The fact that Julia (b. Volkova Yulia Olegovna, 20 February 1985)
and Lena (b. Katina Elena Sergeevna, 4 October 1984) both had boyfriends did not detract from
the brilliance of the ploy. The project was the creation of Russian producer Ivan Shapovalov,
who sifted through thousands of candidates for t.A.T.u. nude at open auditions before choosing
Olegovna and Sergeevna. Enlisting various producers to help record the duo's
debut album, Shapovalov fashioned a suitably sleazy electro pop musical backdrop to complement
the duo's featherweight voices. Their debut single "Ya Soshla S Uma' (I Lost My Mind) became a
massive hit in the girls' native Russia, owing in no small part to a video featuring titillating
footage of Olegovna and Sergeevna acting out the song's Sapphic storyline. The video became an
instant hit on MTV Europe, encouraging Shapovalov to hire noted UK producer Trevor Horn to oversee
the recording of t.A.T.u."s English language debut. Featuring reworked versions of songs from the
duo's Russian debut, the album was premiered by a new version of "Ya Soshla S Uma" retitled "All
The Things She Said". The song duly topped the UK charts in February 2002 amid
criticisms that Shapovalov was promoting "paedophiliac pop".
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Alyssa Milano
