The controversial Russian duo t.A.T.u will be appearing at G-A-Y in London this Saturday 17th September, to promote their latest single All about us which is being released on 26th September. The girls, Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova, who comprise t.A.T.u came a very close third for Russia with the song Ne ver, ne boisya in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest, held in Riga, Latvia.
t.A.T.u were created in 2000 by producer Ivan Shapovalov as a lesbian duo. The two girls were chosen from over 500 contenders.
For the English language version of the video of I've lost my mind, Lena had to lose almost 10kgs, while Yulia had to cut and dye her hair black, as there was almost two years between the original Russian version and the latter English version videos.
Amongst their hits are All the things she said in 2002, and in 2003 it was their most prolific year with hits such as How soon is now and Not gonna get us. It is on the latter single that you will usually find the Eurovision entry Ne ver, ne boisya.
The duo created quite an interest by the media in Riga in 2003. Their press conferences were by far the best attended, and controversially they never managed to complete any run through of their song in rehearsals for a variety of reasons, including illness by Yulia. The only full performance achieved was on the live transmission of the final. Although touted as one of the favourites for the 2003 contest, they were narrowly edged into third place by the winner Sertab Erener from Turkey, and second placed group Urban Trad from Belgium.
In 2005 t.A.T.u are back with their latest single All about us which is taken from their forthcoming album Ludi Invalidi which is released in October. This Saturday they are appearing at G-A-Y at the Astoria Theatre, 157 Charing Cross Road in London.
