They were a “Tattoo” duo, and today the two girls can’t stand each other. Now Yulia Volkova is a candidate for MP from Putin’s party, and Lena Katina does not want to hear about her and enjoys a healthy family. Years ago, the Russian duo “Tatu” was scandalous because of the lesbian image of the girls, which was imposed on them by their producer Ivan Shapovalov. The name “tATu” itself means “She loves Tu” (“One loves the other”). Today Julia dresses in strict suits, wears her hair tidy, and her only accessory is a small diamond cross. At first glance, it is difficult to assume that at the end of the last and the beginning of the new century, the 36-year-old woman from the videos of “Tattoo” is an icon of the LGBT community, writes BLIC.
She wore short hair and a school uniform and kissed her duet partner on stage. The idea for school uniforms as a stage costume comes from the fact that the girls went to rehearsals directly after school. The image – two students in a same-sex relationship, is the idea of Shapovalov, who gets inspiration after watching several pornographic films.
After Julia completely changed her vision with that of the bad girl with short black hair, music critics described her as “element”, “phenomenon”, “girl full of sexual energy”.
In 2002 “Tatu” came to Bulgaria as well. Despite their fragile age (Julia is only 17 and Lena is 18), they did not forget to kiss on the Bulgarian stage. In addition to the concerts they performed, they were interviewed and literally persecuted everywhere. There were also guests in the “Show of Fame”.
The black-haired girl is going through a difficult path
Before reaching politics, Julia has come a long and difficult way. The “Tattoo” duo broke up permanently and irreversibly in 2009, before which Volkova had already given birth to two children – a daughter by film director Pavel Sidorov and a son by Uzbek businessman Parviz Yasinov.
The Russian failed to stay with either and broke up with Yasinov in 2011.
The following year she was diagnosed with cancer of the vocal cords, could not speak for months, let alone sing, and underwent a series of surgeries.
Fortunately, Julia managed to recover and even tried to start a solo singing career. However, her name is talked about because of everything else, but not because of her music. She converted to Islam because “she feels closer to her heart,” although her appearance is becoming increasingly scandalous.
Volkova is a supporter of Putin
Volkova admits that she has always been bisexual. However, in a Ukrainian evening show, she stated that if her son said he was gay, she would publicly deny it. “A man must be a real man,” Julia told stunned viewers, adding that for her, lesbians were a far more aesthetic sight than gay men.
Today, Volkova talks about Russia’s pressing problems such as unemployment, poor infrastructure and corruption, although she does not offer concrete solutions to these cases.
This is not as shocking as the fact that Julia is unrecognizable. She has obviously benefited generously from the properties of the plastic surgery and cosmetics industries and as a result has unusually thick lips and an impressive chest circumference. The latter cannot be seen in her election video on Instagram.
“Yes, I was not a politician in the past, but, as we know, a person is not born a politician – a person becomes a politician,” Julia said today. Although she was born in Moscow, she is currently a candidate for MP in Ivanovo from Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party in the country’s early parliamentary elections in the fall.
Political analyst Alexander Kinev told the Russian edition of Free Europe that it was the scandals surrounding Volkov that led her to Russian politics. He believes that United Russia is deliberately trying to turn the election into a circus, and that Julia is the ideal person for that.
Katina enjoys a healthy family
Against this background, the life of Elena (Lena) Katina, the other half of the Russian duo, seems much more boring. Unlike hot kisses on stage and in videos, in real life girls have irresistible differences. Many think that they are friends from childhood, but in fact they are skillfully selected from dozens of girls by producer Ivan Shapovalov.
He gave them fame in Russia and in Europe, but Lena has long believed that the idea of ”Tattoo” was wrong. As time went on, Katina realized that their appearance as schoolgirls in love with each other was inspired by adult genres. While in the duo, she defended Shapovalov and called him a genius, but after the breakup the red-haired singer admitted that she had never been homosexual.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, she stressed that she does not like women and has never felt attracted to her own sex. “We played a role on stage as if we were in a movie,” Katina said.
Surprisingly, however, it was Lena who turned out to be a strong defender of the rights of LGBTQ people. At the time when Volkova said that she would renounce her son if he turned out to be gay, Katina wrote in her social media profiles that “everyone is free to love whoever they want. Love is love.” That is why rumors about the extent of the enmity between Lena and Julia are still alive today.
Witnesses say that even before the official separation of the duo, the two Russians insisted on traveling in separate flights and not to be spotted before going on stage.
Volkova claims that in Katina’s home she was cut out of all their common photos. For her part, Lena still mocks Julia’s unsuccessful solo career.
Both women flatly reject the option of reuniting, even for just one song. That is why even now one looks at big politics, and the other – at his happy family with two children and sporadic participations in reality shows such as “The Masked Singer” and “Dancing with the Stars”.
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