"Love One Another"?...

Oh my! The faux lesbians of the Russian duo t.A.T.u were on the verge of making a comeback, about to release a new single and going on tour. A music video for the song "Love In Every Moment" was supposed to be released within the next couple of months. But, it seems that we have another Army Of Lovers type-of-drama on our hands! Singer Lena (the red haired one) and her management team released the following statements yesterday:

"Hi guys! Unfortunately, we have some bad news for you.

You probably had heard about t.A.T.u. promo tour in Slovakia and Czech Republic. Today all the t.A.T.u. events we cancelled. Including t.A.T.u.'s concerts in Minsk (Belarus) and Moscow. All the collaborations between Julia and Lena were terminated because of pressure of Julia and her team on Lena.

Hello guys,

For the reason of incorrect behavior from Julia’s side concerning me, I must announce that our future collaboration has become absolutely impossible. Aside from many crude and hurtful statements made about me, Julia gave me an ultimatum: she declined to participate with me in t.A.T.u. if I do not comply with her and her team in all aspects regarding the creative direction of t.A.T.u.. Otherwise she will find a different red-headed, curly-haired girl to replace me.

Besides that, I was threatened with the fact that Julia, using her close ties to the heads of Channel 1 Russia, will shut down my solo project in Russia. In this instance I consider our future collaboration to be impossible as well as communication between us.

I am sad that our fans’ hopes of a t.A.T.u. reunion will not come true. I hope you understand and I want to say thank you for loving and supporting me always. Thank you.”

UPDATE:


And then there's this:




It seems that the song/video will be released after all - Lena said this in a new interview:

"I do not know why Julia and her team continue to mislead the fans and organizers of concerts, for example in Slovakia, and saying on a TV show that I missed the plane and therefore had not arrived. Of course, this is not true! I will not change my mind about the group or communicate with Yulia Volkova. In Krakow I’m going to shoot the film and the clip. This is not a song of t.A.T.u., it’s a joint creative project of Elena Kiper, consisting of four people, including Volkova, Legalize and Mike Tompkins, on which I still have contractual obligations and that I must fulfill. The only condition was that I would never meet with Yulia Volkova - on the set and in the studio, so we’re going different flights have different times on the set. I hold no grudge against Julia, but at some point it comes a time to say "I’ve had enough."

This comes after several reports about the girls having massive problems with working together in the past - in fact, they had announced in 2011 that the group was disbanded for good after selling around 13 million copies of their albums. They did however do a couple of live performances in 2013, as well as this month - including a performance before the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Sochi.

Media reports expressed surprise at this performance, given the lack of LGBT rights in Russia, especially the Russian law banning gay "propaganda" aimed at minors that is being used to discriminate against gays. Their early act, including lesbian kissing, and showing homosexuality and bisexuality to minors, would be illegal under current Russian law.The ceremony's director, Konstantin Ernst, said t.A.T.u.'s "Not Gonna Get Us" was chosen because it's one of the few Russian pop songs that international viewers might recognize.

While the girls clearly have a lot of issues (both in general and towards each other), I have enjoyed most of their output and it would have been fun to get some new material from them. But for now, here are some of their best singles: