t.A.T.u, roughly translated as 'this girl love that girl' were a pair of big old lesbians.
Actually, they weren't. The whole lesbian angle was the brainchild of a few Russians in the music biz, who had obviously been watching MTV in the 80s, when Madonna was proving how effective the use of erotica and sexual imagery could be in the sale of records. With this in mind, said bigwigs put together a duo of pretty young ladies and made them tongue each other at every available opportunity. And just as it worked for Madonna, it worked for t.A.T.u, with the furore and publicity surrounding their faux-lezza antics propelling debut UK release 'All The Things She Said' to number one for 4 whole weeks.
As you can see, the video pulls no metaphorical punches, with the girls stuck behind a fence, which seemingly represents their separation from the rest of society due to their fanny-tickling antics. BUT OH LOOK! At the end of the video, it becomes clear that the voyeuristic mob of judgemental bigots are the ones trapped behind the fence. Or to put it another way, let me quote the genius who wrote this on the song's Wikipedia page:
"It is meant to seem like the crowd is watching these two lesbian girls who feel they are trapped within their emotions. The video ends when the girls go around the corner of the building, and off into the distance as the rain clears, revealing that the on-lookers are the real captives — of ignorance."
I can only assume the wearing of school uniforms and the monsoon-like downpour are supposed to add to the video's overall message. If the message of the video is that it is OK to perve over two girls who look like they could actually be of school age if there are profits to be made.
After the mega-success of All The Things She Said, the girls swapped their school uniforms for an enormous petrol tanker in the video for follow-up 'Not Gonna Get Us", which again refers to society's response to their relationship. Nothing much to speak of takes place in the video. They run a man over, poissibly because they hate men, or possibly not. Who knows?
At least if the songs and videos are shit, they can just start making out. Speaking of making out, most showings of the duo's videos and live performances were by now getting cut short every time it got to "the good stuff", the ironic thing being that a lot of the time the cameras would cut to the audience who were also kissing one another. Richard & Judy waded into the debate, voicing their disapproval of the All The Things... video, suggesting it "pandered to paedophiles" an accusation I kind of agree with.
t.A.T.u never troubled the UK much again after those two singles. In 2003 they represented mother Russia at Eurovision with a song I remember to be shockingly dull. They had one more top 10 single here, a song called 'All About Us' which I completely do not recall. It was around this time that they confirmed what everyone already knew, that they were infact not lesbians and it was, unbelievably, all a great big publicity stunt. I heard ages ago that one of them is married with a child. They are still fairly active in their homeland and around Europe, maintaining a strong fanbase but are currently on hiatus, and working on solo projects.
GRANGE HILL - THE SODOMY YEARS.
Would t.A.T.u have been as successful as they have been without the gay angle? Perhaps. All The Things She Said is a fantastic piece of pop music, but the caveat to that is wether the song would have been heard at all without the publicity gained from the kissing and borderline-child porn video. You could argue this was very clever marketing by their management, but I find it all slightly tacky and grubby. But hey, good luck to them in all their gay/straight or bisexual endeavours.
t.A.T.u on Last FM
After the mega-success of All The Things She Said, the girls swapped their school uniforms for an enormous petrol tanker in the video for follow-up 'Not Gonna Get Us", which again refers to society's response to their relationship. Nothing much to speak of takes place in the video. They run a man over, poissibly because they hate men, or possibly not. Who knows?
At least if the songs and videos are shit, they can just start making out. Speaking of making out, most showings of the duo's videos and live performances were by now getting cut short every time it got to "the good stuff", the ironic thing being that a lot of the time the cameras would cut to the audience who were also kissing one another. Richard & Judy waded into the debate, voicing their disapproval of the All The Things... video, suggesting it "pandered to paedophiles" an accusation I kind of agree with.
t.A.T.u never troubled the UK much again after those two singles. In 2003 they represented mother Russia at Eurovision with a song I remember to be shockingly dull. They had one more top 10 single here, a song called 'All About Us' which I completely do not recall. It was around this time that they confirmed what everyone already knew, that they were infact not lesbians and it was, unbelievably, all a great big publicity stunt. I heard ages ago that one of them is married with a child. They are still fairly active in their homeland and around Europe, maintaining a strong fanbase but are currently on hiatus, and working on solo projects.
GRANGE HILL - THE SODOMY YEARS.
Would t.A.T.u have been as successful as they have been without the gay angle? Perhaps. All The Things She Said is a fantastic piece of pop music, but the caveat to that is wether the song would have been heard at all without the publicity gained from the kissing and borderline-child porn video. You could argue this was very clever marketing by their management, but I find it all slightly tacky and grubby. But hey, good luck to them in all their gay/straight or bisexual endeavours.
t.A.T.u on Last FM
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