Lena Katina

Elena Sergeevna Katina, better known as Lena Katina, is a Russian singer and songwriter who is best known for her work with Russian duo t.A.T.u. She started her career at the age of eight joining the Russian children's act Avenue, and soon after that, joining Neposedi. In 1999 Ivan Shapovalov chose Lena Katina for his project, t.A.T.u., as well as Yuliya Volkova. The duo would later become Russia's most successful pop music act. 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" peaked at number one in 19 countries including the UK, Russia and Australia. In 2009 Katina began a solo career, which caused t.A.T.u. to go into a hiatus. In 2011 Katina and Volkova officially split to pursue solo careers. That year Katina released her first mainstream single "Never Forget", which in 2011 reached No. 1 on the MTV Russia Top 10 and also won the MTV Russia - 2011 Video Of The Year. The track also reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play and reached No. 1 in Greece. In 2014, she released her debut album, This Is Who I Am. Katina was born in Moscow on 4 October 1984 to the musician, Sergey Katin - who collaborated with "Dyuna", Marina Khlebnikova and other representatives of Russian show-business. Starting at just 4 years old, on her father's initiative, Katina began to attend various sport and music clubs for the purpose of fostering plastic arts and artistic talents. When she was seven Katina entered an ordinary school and within a year she entered music school for piano classes. When she was ten she joined the child-group "Avenue" as a soloist, where she would sing for the next 3 years. When she was 13 she became a member of vocal and instrumental group "Neposedi" (Fidgets) where she met Yulia Volkova with whom she became friends. At the casting, she sang a song in French and the jury were astonished by the quality of her voice. Soon Lena left the group due to her age - children sing in "Neposedi" up to 14 years old. At the age of 14 she was successfully cast as a member of the pop duo "t.A.T.u.". Since her early childhood, Katina's hobbies have included artistic gymnastics, ballroom dancing, figure skating, swimming and horse-riding. She is also a skilled pianist and also enjoys reading, especially romance novels. Katina stated in a 2006 TeleHit interview that she used to listen to artists such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Pink Floyd when she was younger. She has two half-siblings, a younger paternal half-sister Katya and a maternal half-brother Ivan. She had a religious upbringing, and was a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. Katina made her film début alongside Julia Volkova and Mischa Barton in the 2011 film You and I, the story of two teenage girls who meet and fall in love at a Moscow t.A.T.u. concert. The film is based on the novel t.A.T.u. Come Back, which was in turn based on true events. Lena voiced the fairy Zarina in the Russian dub of the Disney film The Pirate Fairy which was released on Feb.13, 2014. The video of "Lyubov' v Kazhdom Mgnoveniy" (Love in every moment) was launched in 2014 as a short film named Together Apart that is part of the Cornetto marketing project Cornetto Cupidity. In the film, Lena is one of the cupids that try to bring a young couple through a long distance romance together.