Who Is tATu?
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 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.
谁是tATu？
tATu是尤丽亚和丽娜两人组成的一个俄罗斯女子演唱组，是由电视剧本作者兼导演伊万·沙波瓦洛夫于2000年初牵头成立的。tATu在英文里读作 “tattoo”, 尽管它跟纹身毫不相干。在俄语里，它的意思是“这个女孩——那个女孩”或者表示“这个女孩喜欢那个女孩。” 俄文里常把这个词拼作“Taty”。 尤丽亚和丽娜这两个来自莫斯科的少女曾经在一个名叫“Neposedi”的儿童乐队里一起演唱。然而尤丽亚14岁那年因为一件丑闻以及“行为不端”被开除了，到底发生了什么事谁也不知道。当沙波瓦洛夫为他的新乐队tATu物色歌手时，这两位姑娘在莫斯电影演播室里又见面了，在500名竞争者中她俩分别脱颖而出。
使该演唱组在俄罗斯名声鹊起的那首热门歌曲不是由专业人士创作的。《她的一言一语》歌词作者是NTV 频道的一个记者兼tATu的合伙人。为了给这首歌拍片，丽娜瘦了20磅，而尤丽亚剪了短发，还把头发染黑。片子和歌都很成功。不过，这支单曲也在社会上引起了争议。歌的内容是两个年轻女人的恋爱，你可以听到丽娜号叫着表达她对尤丽亚的深情。在片子中她们甚至还接吻。
“有人爱我们，有人恨我们，” 热情洋溢的红发女郎丽娜说，“但没有人不拿我们当回事。” tATu的舞台演出和录像表演都让世界刮目相看。
俄罗斯音乐电视很看重tATu，提名《她的一言一语》为2001年的代表片。该演唱组的首张大碟《时速200公里逆向行车》卖出了一百万张，而她们在俱乐部和体育馆的演出吸引的歌迷人数高达五十万。
现在她们两人都在学英语。两人正为征服美国做准备。
她们说什么？
来听听这两位最有争议的明星畅谈她们的音乐、激情和许多其他的事情吧。
你们俩与同龄女孩最大的不同在那里？
丽娜：我不知道如何回答这个问题。我们跟别的少男少女非常相似，我们都要对付这个年龄段的问题，比如恋爱等。但她们与我们的不同主要是他们坐着喝啤酒，整天晃悠——当然也有人爱学习——而我们早已在为将来打算了。我们从14岁起就在工作，你知道我们是在儿童乐队里认识的。我们都知道我们这辈子要干什么。
难道你们没有因为事业的原因失去一些正常的童年乐趣吗？
尤丽亚：跟其他孩子的童年相比，我们的童年很有趣。我们有机会唱歌、表演、做一些其他人做不到的事情。
丽娜：还有跟父母的关系，他们让我们的童年过得不错。他们要我们快乐，他们也认识到这是我们的发展方向。
你们的父母是干什么的？
尤丽亚：爸爸是商人，妈妈经营化妆品。
丽娜：爸爸是音乐家，妈妈不工作，呆在家里。不过，她会弹钢琴。我喜欢她的演奏。
丽娜，你在学心理学。据说学这门专业的人是想加深自我了解。
丽娜：对，拿这个学位需要五年时间，我已经学了两年，学业很重。我一向看重高等教育，很久以来我就对心理学感兴趣，一直不停地学习，因为这是我自己要的。我经常获得关于自己的新认识，也开始研究别人的行为。我发现你可以，比如说，通过观察一个人的说话或者挥手的方式来了解他。
你们的歌引发了许多争论，你是怎样面对这个问题的？
丽娜：开始的时候很艰难，在俄罗斯，因为歌词的意思，竟然有人威胁要我们的命。但现在我们坚强多了，我们不在乎人们说什么了。我们就是这样，我们不想改变。
尤丽亚：有的人对我们很不公平，这使我们现在还感觉很受伤。例如，一个月以前，俄罗斯当局不让我们在克里姆林宫拍《爱我吧》的配乐片，说那里是国家纪念场所，但他们却给了保罗·麦卡特尼一个机会在那里开音乐会。这不公平。
坦白讲，你俩之间是什么关系？
尤丽亚：唔，我们是朋友、队友、亲如姐妹，彼此相爱。我们分开就活不了，但我们不是同性恋。
tATu身穿中学校服造就了一时风尚。这对你们意味着什么？
丽娜：不可思议，这种穿着已经成了我们的个人标志。这真有意思。
尤丽亚：我们在英国拍片的时候，我们希望有一些英国歌迷们跟我们一样着装，结果来了几百人全穿着校服。真是妙极了。
你们有什么害怕的吗？
尤丽亚：我怕一个人待着，那我就会感到沮丧，开始想到死。
长大后你想干什么？
尤丽亚：我要当个制片人，成立自己的乐队，发行自己的歌。我也很想设计时装，我真的喜欢这个，我想学习时装设计。
1. scriptwriter n． 电影／电视剧本作者
2． tattoo n． 纹身
3． scandal n． 丑闻
4． audition n． 面试（试演、试唱）
5． contender n． 竞争者
6． clip [klip] n． 插播在新闻之间的电视短片
7． controversy n． 争议，矛盾
8． soulful adj． 感情深切的，充满热情的
9． redhead n． 红头发的人
10． polemic adj． 辩论的，引起争议的
11． be for sth． 赞成，主张
12． generate v． 造成，引起，导致
13． lesbian n． 女同性恋者
14． impose v． 把…强加于…
15． personal seal 私章；（转）个人特色，具有个人标志性的东西
16． awesome adj． （口）好极了