Before the term ‘queerbaiting’ became an online phenomenon that embroiled current popstars, there were two Russian teenage girls who did it first.
And those two girls were Lena Katina and Julia Volkova, better known as t.A.T.u, whose song ‘All The Things She Said’ was and still is a global phenomenon.
When they released the hit song, Lena and Julia had an openly lesbian aesthetic which, at the time, was deeply controversial, especially in their home country.
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But it wasn’t until years later that fans discovered, not only were Lena and Julia not together, but they weren’t even lesbians. Quite the opposite, actually.
The birth of t.A.T.u
Lena and Julia met in 1999 when they both signed up for a contest to create Russia’s next big pop act. To producer Ivan Shapovalov, the girls stood out from the hundreds of girls who auditioned.
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The girls, who were just 14 years old at the time, immediately started working on demos - as well as their all-important image. Shapovalov was the brains behind the girls’ look, which he apparently came up with after watching the Swedish romance film Show Me Love.
“It was about the romance between two school girls,” Lena told Story Caravan.
"Ivan began discussing the video. These two girls fell in love with each other. How can you tell this to your parents? Their former classmates would look at them negatively… They can’t even explain this to themselves.
“Julia would sometimes get into conversations between Ivan and Boris and in her sweet voice would give her opinion: ‘Everyone can go screw themselves! And I’d blow up the school to pieces!’”
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Producers really liked that idea.
Not only did this forbidden lesbian love story become the inspiration for the girls’ first big hit, but it also helped them come up with a group name.
You see, the name t.A.T.u isn’t just a funky way of spelling the word ‘Tattoo’; it’s actually a shortened version of the Russian phrase ‘Та любит ту’ meaning: ‘This [girl] loves that [girl].’
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Looking back on the early days of t.A.T.u, Lena recalled one day when they were singing and goofing around in rehearsals and Shapovalov told them they should kiss.
She told Story Caravan: “Ivan looked at us and said: ‘There is something missing… You are going to kiss!’
“Volkova and I died from laughter, ‘Yeah, okay’. Ivan frowned: 'Seriously. Come on, let’s work.'... Ivan became our authority right away.”
‘All The Things She Said’ is an instant hit
In 2001, t.A.T.u came out with their first album 200 Po Vstrechnoy.
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The Russian language album took off in both their home country and in Poland, and included the first version of ‘All The Things She Said’ - though it didn’t sound like the version we know today.
It was such a success, though, that the girls were quickly signed to Interscope Records, and got to work on re-releasing the album in English.
The pop/rock version of ‘All The Things She Said’ that we’re more familiar with was the lead single on the album and it took off right away, making it to number one in the UK and Ireland, and reaching a peak of 20 on the US charts.
Pretty soon after the song took off, the highly controversial music video dropped. While some organisations banned the song from their platforms entirely, others would air the music video but with the girl-on-girl kissing scenes cut out.
Because they were still so young and - spoiler alert - not actually lesbians, Lena and Julia weren’t that into the kissing scenes either. They did, however, love the controversy.
“During the filming of our first video he could not capture our kiss. Just as we touch each others’ lips we begin to laugh,” recalled Lena.
“[In] the end, he waved his hand and just decided to rewind the reel, where our heads get closer. Through the reverse transition the kiss appeared in the video.”
t.A.T.u make a confession
Later that year, a documentary called Anatomy of t.A.T.u aired on Russian television, in which the girls made a huge confession: they weren’t actually lesbians. Naturally, fans felt betrayed and were heartbroken by the news.
Years later, the girls released a joint statement, insisting they never meant to deceive anyone.
“When t.A.T.u.'s second album came out, many of our fans of alternative sexual orientation thought that we lied and betrayed them,” it read.
“This is not true! We’ve never done that and we’ve always advocated love without boundaries.”
When approached for comment, a representative for t.A.T.u added: "Even though the girls portrayed this through their music and image, it was more for the public to decide for themselves if t.A.T.u. were lesbians or not. The girls never said 'We are gay, we are lesbians', and only showed an exploration of homosexuality, an area that many teenagers explore.
"t.A.T.u. opened the conversation to the topic of same-sex relationships - they showed that it is okay to explore your sexuality and understand for yourself whether you are attracted to the same sex or the opposite... or both."
Not long after this revelation, t.A.T.u decided to split up.
Life after t.A.T.u
They’ve teamed up a few times since, whether it was for the 2014 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, on The Voice of Romania, or for gay pride events.
But, as the years went on, Lena and Julia had some pretty public feuds that dashed hopes of a real reunion.
Probably the most notable was in 2014, when Julia, despite the entire history of t.A.T.u, expressed some pretty homophobic views.
On a TV show called Lie Detector, she admitted that she’d be unhappy if her son was a homosexual. In an attempt to redeem herself, she concluded - and this is a big yikes: “I have many gay friends. I believe that being gay is all still better than murderers, thieves or drug addicts. If you choose out of all this, being gay a little better than the rest.”
How’s that for a plot twist?
UNILAD has approached representatives of Julia for comment.
Lena, thankfully, did not agree with her former co-star, and issued her own statement to make that clear.
“God is teaching us to live in love, to be tolerant and not to judge other people!
“I think everybody should be free to love who they love and be with who they want to spend their life with! And I do so! Love is love and it is a wonderful feeling! I think everybody should be free to love who they love and be with who they want to spend their life with.”
Despite their disagreements over some pretty core beliefs, the girls did reunite one more time last year to mark 19 years since their big hit.
And chances are, it won’t be the last time either. Despite their fundamental differences, these two can’t seem to get away from each other.
Topics: Music
Ali Condon