Russian Olympic team walk out to ‘faux-lesbian’ pop duo t.A.T.u at opening ceremony

The Russian Olympic team walked out to the music of ‘faux-lesbian’ pop duo t.A.T.u. at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

The duo are most famous in the West for their 2002 hit “All The Things She Said”, which received attention at the time for a suggestive video which showed the two singers, Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova, dressed as schoolgirls kissing in the rain.

If made today the duo’s 2002 music video might see them facing arrest under last year’s ‘gay propaganda’ law, which prohibits all “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations”.

However, this evening the Russian Olympic team walked out to a remix of the group’s lesser known song ‘Not Gonna Get Us’ during the athletes’ parade in Sochi.

It had been rumoured that the duo would feature in the opening ceremony in some way, despite the fact they often speak in favour of LGBT rights.

Last August, Lena said the anti-gay laws in Russia were “weird” because “a lot of people from the government with the big positions are gay”.

As the country’s most successful pop act, they also entered Eurovision for Russia in 2003, and performed as an interval act in 2009, where they sang with the Russian Army Choir in front of a giant pink tank decorated with flowers.

Though Yulia is bisexual, Lena has previously confirmed she is straight, and that the band’s lesbian image is an “act”.

Yesterday, lesbian Dutch snowboarder Cheryl Maas was the first athlete of the games to conduct a symbolic pro-gay protest.

Watch the music video for ‘All The Things She Said’ below:

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• Dec 09 2023

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