Facts & Figures: Interesting facts about Elena Sergeevna Katina, also known as Lena Katina – Digital Intelligence

Elena Sergeevna Katina, also known as Lena Katina, is a Russian singer and songwriter best known for her work with the Russian duo tATu. She began her career at the age of eight, joining the Russian children's band Avenue and shortly thereafter Neposedi. In 1999, producer Ivan Shapovalov selected Lena Katina, along with Julia Volkova, for his project tATu. The duo would later become one of Russia's most successful pop music acts. The group produced several hits, including "All the Things She Said," "Not Gonna Get Us," and "All About Us." Their first single, "All the Things She Said," reached number one in 19 countries, including the UK, Russia, and Australia.

In 2009, Katina embarked on a solo career, forcing tATu to take a break. In 2011, Katina and Volkova officially separated to pursue their solo careers. That same year, Katina released her first mainstream single, "Never Forget," which reached number one on the MTV Russia Top 10 and won the MTV Russia Video of the Year award. The track also reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and number one in Greece.

In 2014 she released her debut album This Is Who I Am, followed by her second album, the first in Russian, Mono, in 2019.

Katina was born on October 4, 1984, in Moscow, the daughter of musician Sergey Katin, who worked with Dyuna, Marina Khlebnikova, and other representatives of the Russian show business. At the age of four, at her father's suggestion, Katina began attending various sports and music clubs. At seven, she entered a regular school and a year later a music school with piano lessons. At ten, she joined the children's group Avenue as a soloist, where she sang for the next three years. At thirteen, she became a member of the vocal and instrumental group Neposedi (Fidgeters), where she met and befriended Yulia Volkova. At an audition, she sang a song in French, and the jury was impressed by the quality of her voice. Lena soon left the group due to her age—Neposedi is for children up to fourteen years old. At fourteen, she was successfully cast as a member of the pop duo tATu.

The creator and then-manager of tATu, Ivan Shapovalov, explained that the idea for tATu arose from the general fascination and fantasy of men for lesbian schoolgirls, as he knew that the duo would be very attractive to a diverse fan base.

After a casting call of 400 girls, Shapovalov, then 14 years old, selected Katina for tATu. While the project was still in development, Katina had the opportunity to record demos (under the name tATu) such as “Belochka” and “Yugoslavia.” Some time later, Julia Volkova, then 14, joined the project, and in 2001 the duo became famous in Russia and later worldwide.

Once Shapovalov was satisfied with his choice, he signed Volkova and Katina to tATu, but the contract with Shapovalov also required the girls to present a lesbian image. After they parted ways with Shapovalov in 2004, the girls testified that Shapovalov had created the lesbian image and that they were even told what to say in interviews.

tATu soon became the most successful Russian group of all time, producing a string of hits such as “All the Things She Said,” “Not Gonna Get Us,” and “All About Us.” They also participated in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing in third place with “Ne Ver', Ne Boysia.” In 2007, Katina starred alongside her bandmate Yulia Volkova in the film You and I, which starred Mischa Barton. Directed by Roland Joffe, the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and was released in 2011 and 2012.

On December 13th, Katina was asked in a live chat what she thought of Volkova's new video “All Because Of You”, to which she replied: “I think it [All Because Of You] is very Julia. Julia is Julia.” The rest of her comment was lost due to technical problems in the live chat.

Since early childhood, Katina's hobbies have included artistic gymnastics, ballroom dancing, figure skating, swimming, and horseback riding. She is also a skilled pianist and enjoys reading, especially romance novels. In a 2006 TeleHit interview, Katina said that in her youth she enjoyed listening to artists such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Pink Floyd. She has two half-siblings: a younger paternal half-sister named Katya and a maternal half-brother named Ivan. She was raised religiously and was a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. On the NTV talk show "Sekret Na Million" (roughly translated as "A Million Secrets"), she revealed that at the age of 11, Katina was assaulted by a pedophile in the elevator of her apartment building. She and her mother reported the incident to the police, but no further action was taken.

In August 2013, Katina married her boyfriend of three years, the Slovenian musician “Sash Kuzma” (Sasha Kuzmanović) of Serbian and Slovenian origin, in Moscow and Ljubljana.

In November 2014, Katina announced during a concert in Rome that she was three and a half months pregnant with her first child. On May 22, 2015, she gave birth to her first child, a boy named Aleksandr, in Moscow. The couple divorced in November 2019.

Katina made her film debut alongside Julia Volkova and Mischa Barton in the 2008 film *You and I*, which tells the story of two teenage girls who meet and fall in love at a tATu concert in Moscow. The film is based on the novel *tATu Come Back*, which itself is based on true events.

Lena portrayed the fairy Zarina in the Russian dubbing of the Disney film The Pirate Fairy, which was released on February 13, 2014.

The video for “Lyubov' v Kazhdom Mgnoveniy” (Love in Every Moment) was released in 2014 as a short film titled Together Apart, part of Cornetto's marketing project Cornetto Cupidity. In the film, Lena is one of the Cupids trying to reunite a young couple in a long-distance relationship.

Katina has made her latest project for the upcoming romance fantasy series Vladimir & Oksana in Love Country, which debuted in January 2022, and in which she voices the Persian cat Babushkin.

 

 

 

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