Fuck!

ta-tu:

“Mysteries of Stars”
Lena Katina, Yulia Volkova (and Vlad & Sergey from Smash) all started in Neposedi.

Lena Katina:
It’s a huge experience and it keeps you busy. It is important to keep a child busy. Does it take away your childhood? I would not say so because it is also a childhood, but it is more interesting then of a child who does nothing except go to school, come home and play outside. Who does he see outside? Those who sit on benches and do nothing.

Children are cruel, they have mean jokes…it was hard. I remember Volkova always made fun of me, about my outfits, my butt, my extra weight. Neposedi was a training for grown up life. Either you live and you begin to learn to work with others, socialize with people, or you break down and leave. There were boys and girls who left.

We were the most successful ones to come out from here (Neposedi) I especially in terms of our creativity. I don’t know, did anyone else make it from here?

t.A.T.u. and Smash were the last to make it from Neposedi, back in 2000. Back then there were less students so all the energy was spent concentrating on them. Now, with a lot more students, it is hard to give so much attention to each student individually. 

This is how Lena and Yulia, in their 15 years, became ideal, ready material to form future superstars. Their producer, Ivan S., thought that millions could be made from them. He offered Lena and Yulia to go mad from love for each other. 

Elena Piinjaian (director of Neposedi): 
He took the girls and I did not know what type of project this was going to be. I told the parents to think it over 10 times before signing any contract. Ivan wanted a contract where he took small kids from Neposedi and furthered them. I did not agree to it.

Lena:
They came up to us and asked us not to kiss on stage, they said they could not show that on TV. Please don’t kiss, we are begging you.
Yulia:
We kissed and kissed and kissed, so much that…
Lena:
They said not to kiss? Ok, we’ll show you.

Lena Katina:
“It was a role which we studied, lived, and for me it was like theater. I understood there was a problem with it and we simply put it out on TV. I never said I was a lesbian, but Yulia had experience with it, for her it was probably more natural.”

Grandma has waited for her granddaughter to come earlier, but the granddaughter once again overslept and is arriving at noon.  

Grandama:
I want to ask a question. When will you have a grandchild for me? …I always worried about Lena. I remember one time when we were walking outside she said, “Grandma I need to go to the kiosk” and I asked her, “For what?” This was before t.A.T.u., she was 14 years old. She said, “Grandma, I want to buy a pack of cigarettes. What can I do, she is still going to buy them behind my back, so I bought them for her.

Lena’s grandmother paints, her father is a musician, and her mother is a clothes designer, so it is a very creative, liberal family. 

Lena Katina:
My mom was my friend. I’d come home at 5AM after going out, my mom would wake up, I would never get scolded, and she’d make me tea. My dad was the opposite and said how could a 16 year old be out so late. My mom would say, “So what? You want her to jump around on stage half naked, but I should not let her go out and party?”

t.A.T.u. was made divided their scandalous fame into 4 parts: Producer Ivan S., Lena and Yulia, and author of the songs Lena Kiper. 1999 she was in the hospital with angina and came up with something either about her strong sickness or a love between to schoolgirls. “I cannot understand myself, where did you come from? Why, why am I drawn to you?” In a year it went into hit parades and became Platinum in England, USA and Europe. 

Lena Kiper:
It was pleasant to receive awards from around the world for all of this. But, in show business, drugs show up by themselves, they just turn up out of nowhere. Can you handle it? Drugs come with money.

Lena Katina:
I tired only once to smoke marijuana, but only because I was drunk at a party and thought it was a cigarette. It was my first and last drug experience and thank God because drugs were everywhere, whatever you want, it is there, everywhere. 

The girls left Ivan S. and were cured from star sickness.

Lena Katina:
There was a time when I looked down at people and someone explained to me that I am a manufactured product and would never be able to achieve any of this on my own, so if anyone has the right to look down upon people it is definitely not me.

Lena Katina was studying psychology and admits that she bought the diploma fairly. Yulia Volkova had enough hysteria without any exams. 

Yulia Volkova:
When I had problems with my voice I was very frustrated, “Don’t call me, I am going to the hotel, I am not going to the studio today”. 

Lena Katina:
Yulia and I were very close, we were always together. I was the one who cooked us breakfast and made tea for us. We were together for so many years that I think this time apart was inevitable. We are not husband and wife. I don’t know how long we haven’t spoken…2 years?

Now they are in their own video clips and in different countries: Yulia in Russia, Lena in USA. Shootings of videos, recordings, musicians, PR agents: one person pays for all of this, Boris Renski.

Lena Katina:
Boris is a sponsor. t.A.T.u. was his idea. When we split up, he offered me to work with him and I was happy. He gave me the option to do what I want to do.  

Lena is working on a solo project for 2 years already at a house in L.A.. She rarely gives concerts, she is asked mostly in Mexico, at clubs on the beach. She comes back to Moscow with gifts for her family.