Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

Random Nostalgia for Fake Lesbian Teens From Russia

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Does anyone else miss t.A.T.u, the Russian pop duo who posed as lesbians, dressed like schoolgirls and made out on stage?

No? I’m the only one? Fine! I’m not ashamed. I still listen to their two songs once in a while. I fondly remember their underwear-filled performance at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. I bet P. Diddy does too.

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  2. Students of mine were having a discussion a few months ago on the rise of “faux lesbianism” amongst girls and several of them cited t.A.T.u. as an early mass-cultural attitude shift. Catchy songs, though.

  5. I have mixed feeling about this one. When they first appeared they were EVERYWHERE and it was VERY different from a typical Russian pop song / culture. However, because they were everywhere it was highly annoying. 🙂 Plus as a girl who spent most of her time playing piano and listening to operas (and VERY few selected pop/rock artists only TWO of which were actually Russian), I quietly accepted them as “noise”. Then I moved countries and couldn’t believe my eyes when these two appeared on my TV screen over here.

    Having said all of the above, I can now look at them differently and admit that the melody/tune isn’t that bad and is, in fact, catchy.

    I think it is mostly due to the fact that I only hear the songs once every few years, so have plenty of time to recover and even experience a slight feeling of nostalgia. NOT for the TATU, but rather life back at home and good old times at Uni.

    By the way, here are a couple of videos, the original Russian ones, if you feel like watching 🙂

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q3jAQkuyTo&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nBa_jxvPWc

    x

  8. What a great way to start my day! Peppy upbeat music and a chance to laugh at P Diddy! My mom still refers to them as: “That girl group that made me think your ex-boyfriend was a pedophile”

  9. Oh dear, I remember those lipstock lesbians and all the media furore surrounding them. Rubbish song, dreadful video, please don’t tell us they’re making a comeback. x

  16. OMG, I probably would have gone the rest of my life without thinking of them ever again, had you not just brought them up! I am embarrassed to say I sooo know that song and it will now be stuck in my head all day.

  20. I totally miss them!!!! I completely forgot about them until I saw your post! How exciting! I’m going to go download the cd!

  25. Oh Gosh! I know this going to make me totally uncool, but I had the t.A.t.u CD…in Russian! I didn’t understand a word they were saying, but I loved the sound of it 🙂 I probably still have it somewhere

  26. I was in high school studying Russian in the Tatu days. I listened to their Russian songs and learned a few new words from them. I didn’t realize this wasn’t a typical Russian music group, I just thought it was the first one to become famous in the US too. When I visited Russia with my classmates, I used Tatu as my fashion inspiration while packing. HUGE MISTAKE. I made myself stand out even more!

  28. I used to love/hate them! I hated that their gimmick was being fake lesbians… or something. But I’ve been listening to them lately (thank Pandora radio for that) and I’ve started liking “All the Things She Said” again!

  30. I remember them too well hahaha.. They caused me great confusion at the time.. I was a teenager (an innocent one too) who couldn’t figure out what these two girls were doing. At one point, I think one of them got pregnant or something.. maybe it was a stunt as well. Who knows!

  31. I was thinking about them especially since Katy Perry seems to have used the same beat in her E.T. song.