Tatu Pictures, Biography, Images, Videos, News

t.A.T.u. translated: "This that", in feminine grammatical gender form, like "She Her", is a Russian duo formed in Moscow, Russia in 1999 by Ivan Shapovalov. The group consists of Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova. They are the most successful Russian band of all time, having sold millions of their albums worldwide. Early on Katina and Volkova put forth an image of a lesbian couple but their 2003 documentary Anatomy of t.A.T.u. made it clear that this was just an image and that they were not really lesbians.

In 2004 the group took a hiatus after they split from their producer. In 2005 they released Dangerous and Moving and Lyudi Invalidy. During 2006 t.A.T.u. released a compilation album and then ventured on their own after negotiating out of their contract with Universal Music.
A third Russian studio album titled Vesyolye Ulybki was released on 21 October 2008 on iTunes, the official t.A.T.u. web shop, and select Soyuz stores in Moscow. There is still no confirmed release date or title for its English counterpart.

On March 2009 Insider announced that the full-time t.A.T.u. operation would be ceased upon releasing the third video as promised. Katina and Volkova will continue to promote their movie You and I.

Ivan Shapovalov and his friend/business partner Alexander Voitinskyi developed plans to create a musical project in Russia. With this idea in mind, Shapovalov and Voitinskyi organized auditions in Moscow in early 1998 for teenage female vocalists. By the end of auditioning, the partners narrowed their search down to ten girls, including ex-members of the group Neposedi, Katina and Volkova. Both girls stood out among the others, especially because of their appearance and vocal experience, but the producers decided to start with 13 year-old Lena Katina, who sang "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette. Katina began recording demos, including "Yugoslavia", a song about NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. After the demos were cut, Shapovalov insisted that another girl be added to the project. Thus, in late October 1998, 13 year old Yulia Volkova was added to the group.

After completing the duo, the producers decided on the name Тату (Tatu). It is a shortened version from the Russian "Eta devochka lyubit' tu devochku", meaning "This girl loves that girl". For the release of their first English-language album, they decided to go by t.A.T.u., using upper case letters and periods to differentiate between an already existing Australian band also named "Tatu."

Over the next year, Katina and Volkova recorded songs with their producers. At some point, Voitinskyi left the project, and Shapovalov decided to sign Elena Kiper as co-producer and co-writer for their debut album.

In March 2009, an Insider statement was released on the band's site and MySpace stating that the band will no longer be a 'full-time' project and that the girls were working on solo projects. This post also mentioned that an extended version of Vesyolye Ulybki will be sold on their official website, and a special version is being made for Amazon.com in jewel-case format with new remixes and that the album would be released on vinyl on the t.A.T.u shop. They also mentioned that the third video will be released by the end of March or beginning of April 2009. This video, for the single Snegopady, has since been released.

The girls will not close t.A.T.u. but they will have a break for Yulia's & Lena's solo careers.