Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.04.2006, Blaðsíða 38

(NOTE: While no amount of column space could possibly
contain all the most pertinent updates about t.A.T.u. – the
greatest band in the world – I’ve tried my best to highlight
some of the more pressing news.)
After t.A.T.u. – the greatest band in the world – split with
their former manager Ivan Shapovalov and their “teen les-
bian” image in 2004, and singer Yulia Volkova gave birth to
her daughter Viktoria later on in the same year, many felt this
was the end for the duo. Not so! Last October, they released
their second album, Dangerous and Moving (Lyudi Invalidy
[Invalid People] in Russian), featuring the musical assistance
of Dave Stewart, Richard Carpenter and Sting.
How has it been faring so far?
Dangerous and Moving peaked on the Billboard 500 at #131,
but the band is still maintaining a strong following in Poland,
where listeners of the wildly popular Polish radio station
Eska rated them #2 out of a possible 100 “hot acts” of 2005
– despite having only released Dangerous and Moving in the
last two months of that year. Also, the latest single, Friend or
Foe, is still in the Top 30 for world rankings of singles, while
the first single, All About Us, remains in the Top 20 for the
same list. All About Us’ ranking may have something to do
with the video, which – true to form – has sparked a great
deal of controversy. MTV refused to air it without substantial
scene cuts, due to violent content, and the uncensored version
has been circulating the Internet in heavy rotation. So Yulia
gets beaten nearly to death and ends up shooting her attacker
in the face at point-blank range before kicking his headless
corpse – is that really any worse than anything Will Smith has
made us suffer through?
In other news, the girls have a global tour coming up, and won
an Italian TRL award last month for Best Group, an award
that is voted for online. Prior to this writing, fans on the mes-
sage board of t.A.T.u.’s official website were giving each other
instructions on how to vote anonymously multiple times to en-
sure a win for t.A.T.u. – not that they needed the help! – which
is a testament to just how devoted t.A.T.u. fans are.
It looks like the girls might be extending their greatness
and awesomeness into other genres as well. Yulia wrote in
her online diary that she’s pulling together ideas for a movie
script. In her own words: “Yes, I started to write a script for
the movie I want to shoot. I don’t know how to write scripts
at all, I have so many thoughts, how to organise them?... I
want to write everything at once. The movie is going to be
about young people, about life, about dangerous, extreme
moments… But it will not be just about guys and gangs, like
Svolochi or Brigada [Russian movies about young people]. A
different kind. I have an idea about the opening scene: a girl
opens her eyes and realises that she’s alive.” I got chills!
As a testament to t.A.T.u.’s greatness and universalness, hip-
hop act Flipsyde have sampled the aforementioned Gomensai
for their single Happy Birthday, a song about a man who
deeply regrets the “murder” of his unborn child. Anti-choice
propaganda from the hip-hop world? Possibly. A song vastly
improved because there’s a bit of t.A.T.u. in it? Definitely!
The last time this paper reported on t.A.T.u., we told you
where you could download their material for free on their
official site. As the page we referred to has been updated and
no longer features music downloads, I’m sure a number of you
have been frustrated and disappointed. Fret no more! You
can download nearly their entire back catalogue at http://eng.
tatysite.net/music and videos can be found at http://eng.
tatysite.net/video. Documentaries and interviews can still be
found at http://tatu.ru/kino.html, which may entail having
some knowledge in Russian, but learning a few words in a
new language is hardly too much to ask in order to get more
on the greatest band in the world, t.A.T.u.!
Stay tuned for more updates!
t.A.T.u.
The Greatest and Most Awesome Band in the World
t.A.T.u. Quote #512:
“All those political ga
mes… Here the Russ
ian album is
called “Invalid People
”, you know why? Bec
ause we are sur-
rounded by many mo
nsters: traitors, enviou
s persons, those
who can not love, fee
l pity, and are not cap
able of kind feel-
ings. We live in such
a world, and everybod
y is involved in
this. But nobody tries
to change anything.”
– Lena Katina,
speaking on the war i
n Iraq.
t.A.T.u. Fun Fact #347:
They’re Better than Birgitta – Europe Said So!
At the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest, t.A.T.u. performed the song Ne ver ne boisya, and finished in third place. Iceland was also there, with Birgitta Haukdal performing Open Your Heart. She finished in ninth. Ninth! Ha ha ha! Eat that, suckers!
By Paul F. Nikolov
Rite of Spring is Iceland’s
new music festival.
There you’ll find cutting
edge folk, jazz, funk and
world music.
www.riteofspring.is
27th-30th april
at NASA, Austurvöllur, 101 Reykjavik
Tickets can be bought in the Skifan
record shops (Laugavegur 26, Kringlan
and Smáralind) and online at www.midi.is
Ticket price for each concert: 2.900 kr
(plus 225 kr handling fee)
Ticket for the whole festival: 5.900 kr
(plus 400 kr handling fee)
FRIDAY APRIL 28TH.
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