A NINETIES pop duo who reached Number 1 as their infamous music video caused a global storm are unrecognisable 26 years on.
The band burst onto the international scene kissing and cuddling onstage while wearing scanty school uniforms – posing as a lesbian couple.
Singers Julia Volkova and Lena Katina, both 40, were in the notorious Russian fake lesbian t.A.T.u. pop duo.
The pair emerged as a phenomenon in 1999, the year mad Russian dictator Vladimir Putin first came to power.
And 26 years after the pair released their first track, Julia and Lena look unrecognisable compared to when they were at the height of their fame.
More than two decades ago, Julia and Lena defied their critics and topped the charts in many Western countries as well as Russia.
As they took Britain by storm, fuming TV presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan launched a campaign to ban the duo's Number One hit All The Things She Said music video, showing them kissing in the rain.
ITV refused to play the clip on Ant and Dec's morning music show CD UK, insisting: "It is not really suitable for children."
The infamous music video has accumulated over a whopping 453 million views on YouTube.
Iconic Julia, who has bravely beaten thyroid cancer twice, is said to have spent at least £22,500 on facial plastic surgery, according to surgeon Denis Agapov.
The mum-of-two has previously revealed to fans to have had a breast enlargement and botox.
She said: "Initially, I was just interested in how it was. It's fashionable. Everyone does it, and I want to do it too."
But she slammed critics of her new appearance, adding: "It's not like I don't accept myself".
Meanwhile her co-star Lena also has two children, one son, aged nine, from her first husband, Slovenian rock-singer Sasho Kuzmanovich, and another, aged one, from her marriage to millionaire Dmitry Spiridonov.
But their lesbian act would probably land them in prison in modern Russia due to repressive mad Vlad Putin laws, despite being invited by the Kremlin leader to perform at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Putin's puppets look to erase any trace of t.A.T.u. band amid a hardline crackdown on so-called LGBT propaganda.
Pro-Putin MP Tatiana Butskaya has demanded a full ban on t.A.T.u content, while access to a social media community surrounding the band has been restricted.
"Never in my life in our childhood did it occur to me that a girl could be with a girl, until t.A.T.u popped up," said Butskaya who complained the duo's creativity "promoted" same-sex relationships.
The Russian MP has also horrifically compared homosexuality with liver disease and tooth decay.
On the band's Instagram, a video of Julia, who is now a solo singer, shows her performing at her 40th birthday this month singing the main t.A.T.u. hits to an adoring crowd.
Fans are desperate to see Julia and Lena perform together again following their 2023 reunion performance at the Winline Match Tour in Saint Petersburg.
One Instagram commenter said: "I miss them, I [would] love it if they do another album and a big world tour."
Another said: "How nice to see them, they're the best!"
And: "I loved them!"
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