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The group TATU was formed in 2000 by the script writer and director Ivan Shapovalov who is now producer of the group.
THE TATU DUET - THE MOST EMINENT AND PROMISING PROJECT IN RUSSIAN YOUTH POP-MUSIC.
1999 - forming of the TATU duet
September 2000 - the first single of the TATU duet. “I’ve lost my mind” appeared on the radio. The song was #1 in playlists and charts of radio
stations “Russian Radio”, “Dinamite”, “Hit-FM”, “Europe+” during several months. Altogether the single “All The Things She Said” has been on air for
more than 10 000 times on regional and national radio stations and this number is constantly growing because “All the Things She Said” is still one of the
most popular songs on the Russian radio.
October 2000 - video of the TATU duet appeared on MTV Russia. After one week of it became #1 in the international “The very best 20” and in the
Russian chart “Russian 10” on MTV Russia. The video was in the “A” category (35 appearances a week) for a month and a half and then in the “B”
category (24 appearances a week) for another 3 months, staying #1 in the charts during all that period. The video was also shown on the national music
channel MUZ-TV in the “B” category (20 appearances a week). During three months.
December 2000 - the debut TATU mini-album containing the song “I’ve lost my mind” is released. 50 000 official copies of the single were sold which
allows us to estimate the number of illegal copies - about 200 000.
May 2001 - the second TATU single “They’re not gonna get us” appears on the radio and on MTV Russia. The situation with radio and TV-rotation
evolved as with the song “I’ve lost my mind”.
May 16th, 2001 - the TATU duet signs a contract with Universal Music Russia - Russian agency of the world leader in show business - Universal.
May 21st. 2001 - “Universal Music Russia” releases the debut TATU album “200 in the wrong lane”. During the first two months 500 thousands of
legal copies were sold (over 2 million illegal copies). Altogether during the year 2001, 850 000 legal copies were sold (about 4 million illegal copies).
August 2001 - TATU are recording refrain of the songs “I’ve lost my mind” and “They’re not gonna get us” in English for the Universal Music Group
agencies abroad.
September 2001 - a new TATU single “30 minutes” appears on the radio. The song was in “hot rotation” (35 times a week) on the “Russian Radio”,
“Dynamite”, “Europe +”, “Love Radio”, “RDV”, “Hit-FM”, “Tango”. The song was on air more than 3500 times on regional and national radio stations.
September 2001 - TATU’s video “I’ve lost my mind” was declared “best video of the year” according to the results of MTV-Russia spectators’ voting.
September 6th, 2001 - At New York Metropolitan Opera TATU received an MTV Music Video Award as the “Viewer’s Choice-Best Russian Video”
October 2001 - Russian single “I’ve lost my mind” is released in East European countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Poland).
October 2001 - the song “I’ve lost my mind” is at the top of national radio-charts in the East European countries.
November 2001 - the single “They’re not gonna get us’ is released in Slovakia, Bulgaria and Poland.
November 2001 - the TATU duet album “200 in the opposite direction” is released in Eastern Europe.
December 2001 - Russian version(!) of the TATU album “200 in the opposite direction” is number one in the sales-charts in Czech Republic, Slovakia
and Bulgaria!
During the year 2001 TATU has toured dozens of cities and gave all in all over 150 concerts in Russia, Germany, Bulgaria, Slovakia.
January 2002 - the album “200 in the opposite direction” was declared by the Russian agency of IFPI (International Fonogram(?) Producers
Association) the best sold album of the year!
January 2002 - TATU starts to work on the debut album in English for release in the US and Germany! Re-recording of the duet songs is conducted
under the supervision of the world famous producer Trevor Horn in London and in Manchester with the help of F.A.F./ Cap Com Productions (Moby,
Rammstein and Sonique remixes producers). Release of the album in the US and in Germany is planned to take place in April 2002 by the companies
Interscope Records (the strongest recording label, a part of the Universal Music Company, releasing Eminem, No Doubt, Sting, Enrique Iglesias and
others) and by Universal Music Germany. Debut singles for the western audiences will be the songs “They’re not gonna get us” in America and “I’ve lost
my mind” in Germany. Now the re-editing of the videos and shooting of additional scenes for the western audience is under way.
February 18th, 2002 - the world weekly magazine Business Week publishes a photo of the TATU singers with the MTV Network president Bill Rowdy!
February 2002 - Universal Music Russia releases an enlarged edition of the album “200 in the opposite direction” with a new design and with a new
track “Clowns”. The song “Clowns” appears regularly on the “Russian Radio”, “Dynamite FM”, “Hit-FM” and “Europe +”.
March 2002 - re-release of the album “200 in the wrong lane” beats all the records during the first week of sales: 60 000 of legal copies sold!
Now the number of sold copies of the TATU albums is about 1.100.000!
At the beginning of March the TATU duet went on a promo-tour to Germany. And this is only the beginning of the story! New tours around the world, new
song, new videos, new albums are waiting ahead.
In March and April TATU toured Czech Republic and Israel.
The group:
Lena Katina: born on October 4th, 1984, pupil of the 11th grade of an average Moscow high-school
Yulia Volkova: Yulia Volkova: born on February 20th, 1985. Upon finishing the 9th grade entered the “State Musical Variety and Jazz Arts School”,
department of variety singing.
Both Lena and Yulia sang in a children’s group “Neposedy”. Yulia had to leave the group after she was accused of “obscene behavior and corrupting
other singers”.
The girls came together to the casting that took place on the Mosfilm studio. They were one of the 500 pretenders and were selected independently.
For the shooting the video “I’ve lost my mind” Lena had to lose almost 10 kg and Yulia had to cut her hair and color it black.
Lena has a chau-chau dog named Blankeria.
Girls haven’t got computers at home so they can look through the mail only at the producer’s office, but they don’t talk in chats and do not answer
letters.
Recently new mail boxes for the girls have appeared where you may send all your wishes:
Lena - lena@taty.ru
Yulia - yulia@taty.ru
