t.A.T.u. has announced a concert in Minsk – the first one in eight years. Vladimir Zavyalov sees zero reasons for the band’s comeback in 2022 and calls for t.A.T.u. to be left in the past.
Let’s be frank: After 2005, the t.A.T.u. story was painful.
In a commercial sense, the band’s career began to go down even before that. You remember Eurovision (why?), the reality show “Podnebesnaya” with Ivan Shapovalov’s drug turbulence, the fallen legend of love between Lena Katina and Julia Volkova along with their reputation and sharp decline of listeners. The excellent album “Dangerous and Moving” and “Ludi Invalidi” only slightly delayed the band’s decline, but did not save the situation – listeners reacted towards the disclosure of the singers’ heterosexuality worse than to the exposure of the pop-duo Milli Vanilli’s real voices.
Then the music ended: try to recall even one song from the “Waste Management” and “Veseliye Ulibki” album! The perplexed reader will now ask: wait, did such an album exist at all? The next time t.A.T.u.’s name was needed was to voice the government’s flex at the 2014 Sochi Olympics with the song “Nas Ne Dagoniat” – soon after, Volkova and Katina stopped communicating.
After 8 years, t.A.T.u. will once again get together and perform – at first at the festival in Minsk, but, maybe, it will not end there. One thing that I do not understand – why?
I do not understand why listeners need this. Why now if the magic of t.A.T.u. ended in the height of the moment. In the power of the whole creative team being together, from Sergei Galoyan and Lena Kiper to Ivan Shapovalov. In the strength of the era of the still free 2000s. In the strength of youth and passion, after all.
There are things and phenomena which cannot be physically carried through the years in the same way. t.A.T.u. is the perfect example.
I cannot do the math, trying to imagine how the almost-deputy Julia Volkova sings “I have lost my mind, I need her”. It is hard for me to imagine t.A.T.u. without those words on their t-shirts – it is not hard to guess what they look like in the current context. I cannot compare Lena Katina and Julia Volkova in 2022 with the old t.A.T.u. songs – alienation occurs as if by default.
And, of course, these songs do not fit into Russia in any way (or Belarus – we are talking about the Minsk concert) in 2022. Like soccer player Yegor Titov in the steroid-fueled Spartak team in 2003. Like putting a Ferrari engine into a tank. Like a flower bed in a tire shop. Well, you understand.
I do not understand why these girls need it. Lena Katina and Julia Volkova have not communicated for eight years, and, judging by their interviews in recent years, stirring up the past was not part of their plans. What is the point of them singing these songs now? After all, there is no assurance that Volkova, after all her misadventures and surgeries, will be able to hit the same notes.
And, after all, if the sky dropped the night into the wrong place, then what is the point of all this?