t.A.T.u. / Это шоу-бизнес, детка! / It's a show-biz, baby! / BRAVO
C картинки - ссылка на скан лучшего качества / Click the scan to enlarge / 2,13 MB Журнал BRAVO, №22, 3 июня 2009 BRAVO Magazine Russia, №22, June, 3, 2009 C картинки - ссылка на скан лучшего качества / Click the scan to enlarge / 1,56 MB 
Several days ago t.A.T.u. celebrated their 10 years together. BRAVO visited Yulia and Lena and together they’ve remembered the history of the most scandalous girls in Russia.
BRAVO: Hello, girls! Happy tenth anniversary! I’ve recently surfed through some 2003 issue of BRAVO and recalled this craziness that was surrounding you back then. You were well known in every country. Do you think you’ve finally managed to conquer the whole world?
Yulia: Let the world decide. We’ve got platinum albums, successful sales in many countries…
Lena: We follow our last album sales. It’s ordered from all over the world through Internet. Mind you, the English version of “Happy Smiles” is not even out yet.
And do you remember the day you were invited to MTV Movie Awards in the US? Lots of world celebrities and you among them!
Yulia: We actually had brighter impressions when suddenly “All the Things She Said” video made it to the top and became famous all over the world. Oh my, THIS was something. And when we came to the US, there were no... We got used, I guess J
By the way, if you were to make your own award, some kind of t.A.T.u. Award, what awards and to whom would you give it… talking about local artists? For example, “Most Disgusting Guy of the Year” or “Music Burp of the Year”?
Yulia: Considering my skeptical attitude towards Russian show-business, this will be very appropriate (Laughs). I’ve always thought that most of our artists are “singing panties” for the girls, or “malchik-gay” for boys. Sure, there’re exceptions, Serezha Lazarev, for example. He’s a very hard-working artist. He both sings and plays in a theatre.
So there’s no smash hit in Russia now?
Lena: You mean for us or just in general?
Yulia: (Starts singing the Soviet anthem) “Soyuz nerushimiy respublik svobodnih!”. I can’t say we’ve got some great smash hits. I don’t say it’s all terrible. There’re some decent songs, but they immediately disappear.
Ok, and what about “Shame of the Year”?
Yulia: Well, everything sucks! You see, I’m not trying to humiliate anybody. I’ve seen American show-business, where people really do work, and I’ve compared it to what’s going on in Russia. Here one can just invest 5000$ and feels a king of the world, sitting with his legs on the table. He “feels a producer”.
Girls, you probably have lots of enemies with such attitude to our show-business?
Yulia: I have no enemies. I communicate with everybody and keep smiling. I can say the four letters to anybody, but with a kind attitude. Sure, sometimes you’re hanging with some artists-friends and you say, “Common, our show business is total shit!” - and they take offence and answer, “Oh, thanks, do you mean us as well?” People just don’t understand this is a fact of life. I don’t say someone of them is a bad person, do I? I’m talking only about creative work. For example, I hang out with Lena Temnikova from “Serebro” band. I don’t really like this band’s songs, but I really love her as a person. And if we take Anastasia Prihodko, for example, it’s a person from a totally different world. There’s no point in discussing it, you should see it!
Lena: I think our show-business is so poor mainly because of producers, who place their stake on money instead of creative work.
Yulia: (Interrupts). What producing are you taking about?! We have masturbating, not producing.
By the way, did you support Anastasia before Eurovision contest. Maybe you gave her a couple of good tips?
Yulia: Yes! I told her relax and remember she’s the best one!
Lena: I watched her performance on TV, and it gave me creeps. She’s got such a power! How could she get so few voices?! I don’t understand.
And what good advice did you get when you went to Eurovision yourself in 2003 to present Russia?
Yulia: We didn’t actually need advice. We already knew the participation of t.A.T.u. in this contest was a wrong decision. We just were stro-o-ongly asked, and we went there consciously. Later we understood it was a wrong move.
In your 2002 interview to our magazine you confessed you were extremely concerned. Yulia – about her height and Lena – about her weight. Now as I can see, the problem is solved?
Lena: (Laughs) Oh, yes. Yulka – about her height, me – about my weight. There was something like this…
Any new concerns appeared since then? Or you continue to fight with your old issues?
Yulia: I can’t say I was supermegaconcerned about my height. Let’s be straight, I’m not-too-high girl. I remember when I went to school by metro, I was waist-high for everybody. When people were getting out of the train, they kind of carried me with them because I couldn’t reach anything that would leave me inside. (Laughs). I’m tiny, but I have a huge heart, that has place for everybody (Yulia opens her hands showing a hug).
By the way, Yulia, in the mentioned interview you confessed you didn’t love reading. How is it now? Do you read or you still don’t?
Yulia: No, I don’t.
Lena: And I still do (Laughs).
Lena, don’t say it’s the same book?
Lena: No, not the same one. By the way, which one did I read that time?
M-m-m… I don’t remember.
Lena: (Smiling). Shame on you!
And do you remember that after your “Ya Soshla S Uma” video appeared on TV, girls started to dump their boyfriends all of a suddent? You made homosexual love trendy…
Yulia: It’s actually weird the reaction was so massive. We actually didn’t bring anything new. All this existed before. Among our moms, grandmas…
Lena: Even among great-grandmas!
Yulia: For some reason in our country many have negative attitude towards homosexual love. You won’t believe it, but people were coming to us and saying, “Thank you for not being afraid to show your feelings!”
Lena: You should just accept it if it exists in the society! Why should we humiliate, insult, beat these people?
By the way, even Madonna and Britney Spears, following your example, kissed on the stage. Do you find it flattering that they’ve followed your example?
Lena: Yes, yes. It was on MTV Movie Awards, as far as I recall.
Yulia: When “All The Things She Said” just appeared in the US…
Lena: There was a short video, if I remember correctly, when Madonna was looking through pictures of different stars and there was our picture in front of her, and she said some dirty joke. We don’t mind – she may feel free to do it:)
