Death and Birth of Group "Tatu" // Interesting insight: How Tatu will exist w/o J & L
 

You are free to Copy & Paste this article as you please. It's not like I translate for leechers [people who like to copy stuff to other forums/sites, may you be damned]. I translate for TatySite.net members and myself.

:rose: <-- for TatySite.net members.

Death and Birth of Group "Tatu"
[I highlighted some stuff which is really GOOD. The whole articles is good, but some of you may not have patience to go through the whole thing, so, read the highlights.]

Once upon a time Ivan Shapovalov decided to create a pop-group Tatu. Ivan Nikolaevich [Ivan’s middle name – Kate.], found the vocals, found the money for the first music video, mixed it all together, made some magical tricks only he alone know – and took over the world. Everything that happened afterwards is known to everybody – even those that never took interest in pop-music and couldn’t tell apart Jasmine from Alsou, and Madonna from Britney Spears. Tatu became the first Russian duo to achieve the world wide success, and the fact guarantees them a respectable place in the history. After the fact of the birth of the phenomenon was fixated, and Tatu took the full advantage that “200km/h in the Wrong Lane” (which is a masterpiece according to Alla Pugacheva and ‘frozen” punk-rockers themselves), reporters and the show-offs of pop-culture started to discuss the future of this bizarre, never before seen “organism”, which was controlled by soft to the core “anti-producer”. According to the contract with Universal Musiс Russia, the second album of the group will be ready on the 14th of March, 2004. Three months before the due date, the preparations for the interesting (although not original) show in the studio of “Podnebesnaya” began – the recording of the second album in front of the cameras. One and half months before the dead-line not even one song was recorded for the new album – the occupants of Podnebesnaya were too busy engaging in philosophical discussions. And on the 6th of February, the singers of the duo, Julia Volkova and Lena Katina, announced to Ivan Nikolaevich that there are leaving the group. Quite a situation.

Of course, Tatu surprised everyone yet again. The falling apart of the group almost on live television – the world, it seems, has never seen anything like this. Although, in itself, what happened to the duo is no big deal. Young and passionate, Julia and Lena made a big mistake – they voluntarily gave up the mightiest brand in Russian after just getting used to it. By themselves as the singers they are nothing. There are more then enough 19 year old girls in our country that can sing. Julia has problems with vocal chords, she is hysterical and unpredictable – it’s doubtful that anyone will want to do anything with her. Lena, on the other hand, is too soft and too shy, not to mention the fact that she is not a model. To sum it all up, the vocals of Tatu (now, most likely, ex-vocals) will most likely never interest us as pop-singers. More interesting, though, is what Shapovalov is planning to do, – it was obvious during the TV broadcasting, that as a result of the fact that the girls left him, Ivan Nikolaevich was very lost. It is understandable, he is the one who will have to deal with the money aspect of things. He will have to give answers to Universal, give answer to STS, give answers to tens of millions of Tatu fans in the world.

But it seems that Ivan was lost for a short time. He is famous for creating culture in the moment of time, without studying market prices, strategic planning, or consultation with expects. In one of the interviews the following was made up: the album will contain 12 songs, which will be performed by different people, thanks to the fact that there are a lot of people wanting to replace Tatu, and the vocal and artistic requirements for the wannabees are not high. So basically Ivan solved the problem for himself, now he will make up some long, logical explanations of his decision. Such decision can also satisfy Universal Music: the album will say “Tatu”, and who’s singing is case #80 [meaning no one cares who is singing – Kate]. This is show-business.

The only two things that will cause some set-backs are concerts and video-clips. The audience is used to Julia and Lena, it is harder to substitute their appearance with someone else, then to substitute their voices. But video can be made with parts of old videos, as to the concerts, Tatu rarely gave them, and most likely never will in the future.

So, nothing really happened to group Tatu. For example in group “Blestyaschie” [Russian pop-group – Kate] not one member is left from the times the group started. In “Via Gra” only one member is left from the beginning, and even she is not the key player. This is not stopping the groups from feeling good, and even gaining popularity. I have no reason to think that something extraordinary happened to Tatu. If Shapovalov will want the group to continue existing, it will exist. And it is even possible that it’ll be better then before (knocks on wood). The questions is, will Shapovalov want it to. Even though I met Ivan a few times, I am not an expert in his psyche. I cannot say whether Tatu is the project of his life, or whether he walks through life laughing. I can say one thing with a good portion of confidence: Shapovalov obviously got lucky with Tatu. Even ignoring the separate ingenious tricks (like the famous phrase on the T-shirts), it is impossible to predict such success alone is impossible in the current mass-culture. And since the phenomenon of Tatu is relying of the luck of it’s creator, I won’t be waiting for any deliberate promotional plans from him. In the case of Shapovalov you have to rely on his luck and sixth-sense, and not on the production or marketing genius. Then everything will work out.

”I am not group ‘Tatu’”, – said Shapovalov in the finale of “Tatu in Podnebesnaya”. Personally I don’t believe his announcement.

Maksim Kononenko
Gazeta
02.03.2004

Translated by katbeidar for TatySite.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hope you enjoyed, and will share some views, not just "thank you for the translation, Kate". :gigi:

:10x:

Edit: fixed some typos.

Wow...that was a great article. :gigi: Especially the last sentence. Very cool.

I'm starting to think this way too. Many bands go through transformations and I'm sure their fans say "oh, nothing will ever be the same...:rolleyes:" and now look at a band like Destiny's Child that is even bigger than before. But it's difficult to imagine Tatu without Lena and Yulia. Tatu's image wasn't of a band, but of two girls in "love." The whole image was manipulated around them. That's why it is hard to move on to new faces. Something just won't feel the same. I'd rather have Tatu be over than to include new people.
I think the article is right, Ivan is Tatu. He has so much input and so many ideas. As much as I dislike him for his strange attitude and lack of skills, I am interested in his creativity. I don't mind a Podnebesnaya CD of many "Ivan" artists because I like his work. :heh:
What also struck me is the bit about Lena and Yulia making a dumb desicion, which I think it is. Solo careers seem uncertain. I don't think anyone really cares about Lena or Yulia (apart from us), but people care about "Tatu". It's all or nothing.
It also disappoints me to see how easily Lena and Yulia gave it up. So much for fighting through struggles and having courage. :none: I don't know, maybe they will stick together as Tatu and Ivan will be fired....but why not stick it out? The band is also their creation and their effort. I would feel like I have a duty to work it out, because it's my band. I guess they don't feel the same.

oh, and thanks for the translation :rose:

Thanks for the translation Kate :gigi: :rose:

Well, i agree that it's going to be difficult for Yulia and Lena to continue alone, but i don't think there was a future for them with Ivan anyway. I think that one of the reason not much was done those past months from Ivan's side is because he lost interest in the project and Yulia and Lena. I think he got tired of them and was thinking about other projects, he had no new ideas for Tatu. So i don't think it's fair to say that Yulia and Lena made a mistake because they were going nowhere with Ivan anyway, they had to do *something*. And people keep saying that Ivan has a lot of creativity, but as far as Tatu is concerned Ivan hasn't had a creative idea in a looooooooooong time, the project was in a deadend.

Now, i must admit that i'd like to see Ivan to try to replace Yulia and Lena by other girls. It would be interesting to see Yulia and Lena working under a new name and competing with the new Tatu girls, it would be like having 2 Tatus, and with 2 of them, maybe we could actually get some new material, or maybe we'll just get twice more PR stunts, lol.

I don't agree that Yulia and Lena are nothing outside of Tatu, even if they start working under a new name, they will always be the girls formely known as Tatu. A lot of people will continue to follow the girls, not because of the name, but because of *them*.

Edit: I'm not really interested in the compilation album, i have no interest in "various" artist.

Re: Death and Birth of Group "Tatu" // Interesting insight: How Tatu will exist w/o J &
 

Thanks for the translation katbeidar. I have to say I think the views of the author of this article are rubbish.
We’ve heard this before and I strongly disagree. I think people vastly underrate how good they are.

I sort of agree. I feel horrible to say that after a while, the faces of Yulia and Lena will fade away if they continue with other producers(in other words, their initial spark won't be as present). No one seems to understand that what Ivan did to make Tatu popular wasn't just simple marketing and PR that anyone else can do. Ivan can only tell why Tatu was so popular and their music is so addictive and hypnotic. It wasn't as much luck and good timing as it was using what he knows best(psychology). No other Russian producers can just pick up Yulia and Lena and have the same success.

If it is true that Ivan has five other projects, he should not continue Tatu under new people. It would be best if he just fiddled around with the image of the other artists to fill in where Yulia and Lena left off. I also believe Yulia and Lena made a big mistake IF they have actually left Ivan (and this isn't just psychologically induced confusion). It will be very sad if the two people closest to the man didn't even realize the reality of their success.

RowerB, I agree with the author's statement. I quote another few lines that the author wrote:

Julia and Lena are only good when they are together. I cannot see them having successful solo careers at all, for the reasons Maksim Kononenko stated in his article.

For me, listening to Julia or Lena on their own will be like listening to some recycled, second-hand artists. It'll be wierd.

But, I'll be happy to see new girls take Julia and Lena's place in Tatu. It'll be fresh, interesting and fun. :D Like Maksim said, Russia is full of 19 year old girls with awesome voices. Julia and Lena's voices are nice, but not "wow". At least not for me.

I have no interest in tATu without Yulia and Lena, I will however follow both girls' post-tATu careers (especially Lena's). ;)

If Ivan can make tATu a success with two new girls, then he truly is a genius, but I'll never accept them. :bebebe:

Thanks for the translation Kate. :done:

Thanks, Kate.

Ivan said himself that t.A.T.u. are Yulia and Lena. He's not going to make another t.A.T.u. No worries.

If so then skip the part completely, please. We know your view in the matter, and there is no point to pointing it out again and again.

Thank you for the translation though. I might read it one day even.

happy news:D Thank you for those, forre :rose:

Yulia defended Ivan on her birthday when her father was trying to run him down.

I hope they stay together whatever happens, ideally with Neformat, but when I heard their voices on the New Years Eve collaboration thing, I realised they sound great doing any style of music.

Thank you very much katbeidar for translating this! :)

The author makes some great points and it's a very well written, interesting article. I agree that Ivan is a unique, excentric producer with crazy, brilliant ideas, but he's not an alchemist. As Ivan said himself a while ago on a Russian talkshow; he saw something in the girls he wanted to show to the world. Ivan said the same thing about Demyan, who has a very unique personality. Similarly with Tatu, the project is based on the girls' strong personalities, charisma etc - Ivan (&co) developed the shape and forms around the group. The author seems to miss that one of the key aspects to Tatu's success is precisely due to these two girls carrying the project. I also think the girls' voices are underestimated. They don't have the most technically great voices and Yulia has problems with her vocal chords etc, but they certainly have very distinguished timbres and that accounts for very much.

I'll continue to be sceptical about this whole conflict, but if it turns out to have been true all along, I think that the first rumour about Sergej Pimenov being asked to become Tatu's new producer sounded like a pretty interesting idea.

thank you for the translation, Kate.:D

think it's unlikely the girls will succeed if they go on with solo careers. I don't think so.
But if they keep singing together, and THE SAME STYLE of music they did before, I don't see why not having success - even if under a different name. And I'm sure they've learned a lot of tricks from Ivan on how to get attention.
I agree with haku, the project wasn't going anywhere, everything was going too slow with Ivan - and you can't be slow in the music industry, especially after you had a lot of success, you just have to take that success and turn it into more success quickly and stay on top. I mean, I remember the girls saying, when they were in the US promo tour, that they were already recording their new album in Moscow back then. That is in February 2003 - they only started to record the album a year later, and still in a very slow and chaotic atmosphere. And while losing time without releasing any new material, they (well, Ivan!) made the girls look like clowns because of so many ridiculous 'scandals' and PR stunts.

Thanks katbeidar
;) this sounds interesting...:rose: <-- to you! :)

They've said it a million times "Yulia and Lena are Tatu"

There isn't anyway around that.... and well, i'm not thrilled about the "Tatu Album" with other singers in it.... not at all.


although, everything is so contridictary, i don't know what to believe anymore

word! we've all came to a "trust no one" situation :none:

btw, tnx kate for the article and forre for the heads up :done:

Very perceptive statements indeed. Too many people tend to forget this unfortunately. Thanks for the reminder. :done:

Interesting article. Thanks.

thanks for the tranlation katbeidar! :rose:

I thought about this mess and honestly I start thinking that there's no tatu without ivan nor without lena and yulia. I have no idea what exaclty went wrong between them but I would appreciate if they would continue together.

yeahhooo thanks kate this is more uplifting...

thank u kate ! :rose: :coctail:

very well said convol :done:

Yes.

I don't know if Ivan is Tatu or not. I've only known Tatu for half as long as some of you guys (since June 03), and I don't live in Russia (far from it! :gigi:). So I really don't know a whole lot about him.

But I do know that Tatu is Lena and Yulia. Tatu with anyone else is not Tatu. It's just any old pop band. Giving some other faces the name "t.A.T.u." is just a BS facade. I don't care if they are really lesbians and are the hottest girls on Earth. I don't care! If they are going to use the same name with different girls, they can stuff it, cause I'm not buying it. I'd give money to Y&L's solo career 10 times over before I gave money to some copycat Tatu. Give it some new name, and I'd give it a look - but otherwise, look for donations elsewhere. I mean think about it in other terms: would the same situation work anywhere else? What if Amy Lee got tired of singing (I dread the day!), and they found some other chick to sing, and still called it "Evanescence"? That's not Evanescence. It's just any old band. You can't get rid of the core personality of the band and act like it's the same. Can you even imagine that?! I don't think so. So why should it be any different here? Sure you can get rid of instrumental players in the background, but you can't get rid of the part of the band that everyone sees and carry on like nothing happened. Calling anyone other than Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova "t.A.T.u." is a flat-out lie, and anyone who tries to do so (Shapovalov) should be looked at as someone who's lost their marbles.

P.S. - I wouldn't cross-post anything without permission and/or credit. :done:
*pumps fist in the air* :D :D

So....he hasn't lost ALL his marbles! ;)
Lets not be mean, now! :(

Kate: I sincerely apologize for anything I might have said in the past that was, shall we say, antagonistic. You're constant (unappreciated by some?) translations are worth their weight in gold. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't get most of the Tatunews I do get. :rose:
I dont think that needs capitals. I wouldn't mind some experimenting with, some hard rock, lets say. :) Like HSIN, but a step or two further. They can have variety. I don't know why you see keeping the same track as being so important. :hmmm: What really matters is that they keep togther, even with a different name.

Hi
 

I don't think that tatu necessarily needs Lena and Yulia. I think it is all about the music. If Ivan finds some talented girls who are able to be tatu, then I think it could still exist. They probably won't be as big as the original tatu and the mystery is gone (which is a huge component!!) but it might work. It won't be as successful but it is sure to sell a lot of records if the material is good!!!

Anyway, Yulia is really annoying!!! She's totally unprofessional. I could understand her not wanting to go all the way to Singapore but to not show up for the music video shoot when there are a whole bunch of people counting on her! That's pathetic. On a film or music video set, time is money!!!! Even though she's a star, that is totally disrespectful. Maybe she has her reasons for wanting to screw Ivan over that we don't know about but if he isn't being an asshole and it wasn't because of him that she didn't show up, than that is totally unprofessional and she deserves to be fired.

Re: Hi
 

:eek: :none:

is this really your opinion? that tatu could still exist without the girls? it's not just about the music anymore, is it? it's about the girls' personas and what they have contributed to the image of the group. t.A.T.u. without them would just be a name. switching singers but keeping the name is too black and white this late in the game. it's not easy to just focus on the music and ignore the singers NOT being yulia and lena. Not to mention, their voices wouldn't be there. and neither would they.

Re: Re: Hi
 

Hi, from a business stand point it could work. They might even attract new fans but the music has to be stellar!! I'd miss Yulia and Lena but to be honest, right now I'm kinda sick of them! They always looks so bored. It would be nice to see a new tatu, to bring the energy back. If they had not done the reality show or the documentary, I would probably not have this opinion. I would think that tatu is Lena and Yulia but now that I've seen a bit of their real lives, I'm kinda bored with them. I liked the mystery. I don't know if a new tatu could work but it would be really interesting to see!
I've never heard of any manager recasting a group! That's hilarious!!! I'd really like to see it.

BTW, you probably connect more and emphasize more with Lena and Yulia. At this point, I don't really care about them. They seem a little bit boring to me. I cared about them more before but I don't really now. I still luv the music of tatu! but Lena and Yulia acted like total divas in both the documentary and the reality tv show. They were almost completely lifeless! I've only seen a few clips but if the other clips are anything like the ones that I saw, I don't really feel sorry for them. I can't feel sorry for someone that bores me to death, unless I know them or something tragic happens to them. And as a listener of music, I want something energetic, fresh, emotional and lively.

I used to listen to songs by tatu like 'Klowny' and feel emotion but now when I listen to a song like that, I don't feel as much emotion because I imagine the Yulia (the diva from the documentaries) and Lena (the boring girl from the documentaries) singing it.

Ivan seems more fun which is why I'm stil interested in the project of tatu. The documentary and the reality show was a completely bad move!!! The reality show was promising but when neither Yulia or Lena were present in Podnesbaya (can't spell) for that long, it really started to piss me off!!!!

Can't Yulia or Lena ever smile or ever have fun? They seem like they have no fun!!!! which is why I'm thinking that maybe a new tatu will have more fun. I don't like to watch two girls who are bored out of their minds all the time. I want to watch two girls who are having fun!! and who want to work and want to have a career!

But I don't really blame the girls. It's not their fault. It's the ill-conceived ideas of Ivan which have made me think this way.

But Yulia and Lena can still sing in an another project so it's not so sad. They can call themselves taty and the new group can call themselves tatu. Now, that wold be confusing!!!!

It's already been done, at least in Europe, like with the band 2unlimited:

2unlimited at their beginings...
...and 7 years later.

:D

Well it rarely happens but it does. It happened with the 70s fad disco outfit Boney M, with the 80s sham Milli Vanilli and the 90s techno duo E-rotic.

wow
 

that's so interesting! I've never heard of that!