As a queer person growing up in the midst of the global transitionary period between the late 90’s and the infancy of the 2000’s, unconsciously searching for my “tribe” in a socially heteronormative society; mainstream media always seemed to boil gayness down to a one dimensional caricature, which in all honesty is probably why the experience of “othering” and all out abuse came thick and fast in the early years of my academic career. Even a hint of gayness became a point of mental contention due to a hinted culture war, emboldened by political discourse and religious persecution instilling heavy doses of internalised homophobia; that is until the Muscovite Europop duo t.A.T.u shocked the world with the release of the electronica based alt rock smash hit ‘All The Things She Said’.
The track’s lyrical content conjured images of Shakespearean star-crossed lovers and the yearnings for accepted liberation from the throes of suppression, while its video became scandalous due to its overt use of sexually charged imagery, which included the duo in soaked school girl outfits, locked behind a seemingly endless wire fence all the while making out in front of a disapproving elderly crowd.
The video’s symbolism surrounding the proudness of public displays of affection for queer people (besides many other alternatives), quickly gained contemporary cult classic status, which now and even then felt immensely ironic considering the long-standing and at times brutal anti-gay sentiments expressed by Russia. It was in a way trailblazing for these young women to express their overt sexuality in a way that the majority of the western world found either extremely uncomfortable or intriguingly confronting.
As the globe marvelled or in other cases condemned t.A.T.u’s unapologetic appeal; details about the band’s supposed gayness being nothing more than a marketing ploy proposed by producer Ivan Shapovalov, began to enter the public consciousness when a behind-the-scenes documentary entitled Anatomy of t.A.T.u confirmed that both singers Lena Katina and Julia Volkova were both heterosexual.
After the initial revelation of purposeful deception came to light, the band would eventually hit out at their long time producer in the midst of the rumours of the band’s dissolution; Volkova had stated “(Shapovalov) spends his time thinking up scandals instead of planning our artistic work…”, while Katina followed up that the disgraced producer “…made us out to BE lesbians when we were just singing FOR lesbians. We wanted people to understand them and not judge them. That they are as free as anyone else”.
In a bid to rectify their image due to a public consensus of deliberate queerbaiting, t.A.T.u issued a joint statement in the Spring of 2007 dedicated to their gay fanbase in anticipation of their second album release; in it they said that “…many of our fans of alternative sexual orientation thought that we lied and betrayed them. This is not true! We’ve never done that and we’ve always advocated love without boundaries.”, which went some way of settling tensions as they followed up their position by taking a break from recording in L.A. to fly into Russia and attend the Moscow Gay Pride demonstrations, alongside such high profile supporters as Richard Fairbrass of Right Said Fred, Peter Tatchell and Nikolai Alekseev to name a few.
Although their statements and actions aimed to clearly display the extent of their allyship, it came to light that old habits of marketing gloss overs always die hard. In the summer of 2014, just over three years after the demise of the duo’s time working together, Julia Volkova appeared on a lie-detection panel show in which she was asked “will you condemn your son if he turns out to have a non-traditional sexual orientation?”, to which Volkova replied “Yes… I think that a man should be a man. It’s how god intended it to be, I think, because this is the only way to procreation [sic]. Without men there would be no children, we couldn’t give birth. Also for me, man is the support, the strength. Definitely not. I would not support him.”
When the interviewer then continued by clarifying that she didn’t share the same opinion in connection to a daughter, due to differences in obtainable freedoms between the sexes, Vovolka replied with “…I believe that for men it is a bad freedom. Nowadays there are lots of frivolous girls available and there is no prohibition. But men have a different kind of freedom. A man has no right to be a fag”; although she followed this up by indicating that she is “…not against gays, I just want my son to be a real man, not a fag” and stating that gays are “better than murderers, thieves and drug addicts. If you choose out of all this, being gay (is) a little better than the rest.”
It’s hurtful enough to see a beacon of light in the eyes of queer people use such derogatory terms for them so frivolously on network television, it’s worse that she saw it being no big deal to support the act of condemnation and making such abhorrent comparisons. It conjures a distinct overwhelming despondency that especially made myself as well as many others feel like they were locked behind those endless wire fences shown in ‘All The Things She Said’, being forced to stare into a disapproving crowd and with these comments in mind we can’t help but place her as its ringleader.
Continued watching of the video clip in question felt torturous as we dove deeper into its runtime; especially considering how impactful her part in the faux-lesbian act had on other queer people like myself, as well as how her entire career was born out of the manipulation of the male gaze through tokenistic slants of “alternative sexual oriented people”. In retrospect, the mind’s eye has essentially boiled her down to a caricature-like figure head of bigoted hypocrisy, more than happy to take a bite out of the hand that fed her.
Although the right to freedom of opinion and expression is a point no one on this platform would ever argue with (considering all of us would be seen as hypocrites and out of a gig), Volkova’s statements came as a painfully stark reminder of how far our global community still needs to go in order to ensure the safeguarding and acceptance of all our citizens; the only silver lining to this story came in the form of a reactionary post from t.A.T.u’s fellow lead vocalist Lena Katina, who in response to Volkova’s comments posted her feelings on Facebook, in a statement that read… “I am seeing some comment lately regarding my position about LGBT and my religion. I can say one thing: God is teaching us to live in love, to be tolerant and not to judge other people! And I do so! Love is love and it is a wonderful feeling! I think everybody should be free to love who they love and be with who they want to spend their life with!”
It’s genuine messages of acceptance such as Katina’s that help to plant the seeds of hope for a wider circle of allies ready and willing to act as champions for the LGBT+ community; it also unfortunately establishes quite the dichotomy for this once revered pop group.
Although they’re no stranger to scandal, including a plethora of lawsuits filed for cancelled tour dates, derogatory lyrics which were perceived as inherently ableist as well as reports of in-band fighting that lead to extended periods of silent treatment between the duo.
t.A.T.u’s presence in noughties pop culture is undeniable, and still intensely respected in contemporary soundscapes. Such esteem of the duo has been documented by the various covers of t.A.T.u’s work by artists such as Infected Rain’s lead vocalist Lena Scissorhands, Poppy, Polina, Arty etc. as well as exemplified by the buzz centred around the recent announcement of a special one off tribute show in honour of ‘All The Things She Said’s upcoming anniversary.
There’s the opinion that we as appreciators of multi-art mastery are in need of separating the art from the artist, which as valid as it may seem on paper creates a moral dilemma in the hearts of those affected by the less than redeemable qualities of an idol whose pedestal remains uncontrollably shaky even on the good days.
Although t.A.T.u’s duplicity was enforced by a management team striving for misguided notoriety, we can’t deny that Volkova’s conduct has damaged the image of t.A.T.u beyond recognition, but should we remain optimistic about her capacity for compassion and acceptance of a community that embraced her for allowing them to be seen. As much as her recent political aspirations left much to be desired for any progressive listener, we return to Katina’s optimistic message of love trumping all continues to stand true for any individual hopeful of someone’s driving force behind the personal revision of their moral compass.
As disheartening and soul crushing as these string of unfortunate events are, ‘All That She Said’ is an iconic mesh of “fuck it” attitude and dynamic yearning that helped shape so many people’s harrowingly formative years. We know that music is a comforting influence in our daily lives, so we can’t deny ourselves the empowerment we felt telling ourselves that we’re not alone, listening as we cried into our pillow while familiar shivers travelled up and down our spines. That experience is one that will never truly be forgotten, especially for those who sought sanctuary in a musical fantasia because the real world left us with no place to truly call home.