A decade or so ago, Russian pop group t.A.T.u. sufficiently titillated the world with their faux-lesbian antics that they shifted five million copies of their album 200km/h In The Wrong Lane. Their time in the spotlight was short-lived, however. When fans realised that Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova did not spend their spare time pashing in the rain while in school uniforms, and their act was in fact the creation of creepy pop svengali Ivan Shapovalov, their sapphic bubble burst.
If you wanted to, you could quite easily spend a whole afternoon in a Wikipedia black hole reading about t.A.T.u.’s various break-ups, reformations and personal dramas, but suffice to say, the last few years have seen the group in something of a lull. They recently made an appearance at the Sochi Winter Olympics, but Yulia made headlines this week for a very unfortunate appearance on a Ukranian talk show, during which she condemned gay people.
E Online report that the trouble started when she was asked how she would feel about having a gay son.
“I would condemn him, because I believe that a real man must be a real man,” she said. “God created man for procreation, it is the nature. The man for me is the support, the strength of … I won’t accept a gay son.”
She then went on to invoke the classic “I have many gay friends” defense, saying “I want to say that I’m not against gays, I just want my son to be a real man, not a fag … I believe that being gay [is] still better than murderers, thieves or drug addicts. If you choose out of all this, being gay [is] a little better than the rest.”
For the record, though, she’s pretty chill when it comes to girl on girl stuff. “It seems to me that lesbians look aesthetically much nicer than two men holding their hands or kissing,” she said.
Sigh. At least we can all agree on the fact that ‘All The Things She Said’ is a stone cold banger, right?
UPDATE: Overnight, Yulia’s band mate Lena posted an update on her own Facebook page, clarifying her position on the whole kerfuffle. It read:
“Hey, all! I am seeing some comments 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! Xoxo” -Lena Katina
Photo: Koichi Kamoshida via Getty Images
