YULIA VOLKOVA

'Yulia Olegovna Volkova' () is one of the two members of the Russian music duo t.A.T.u..
Volkova was born into the family of a businessman in Moscow on February 20th, 1985. At the age of 6, parallel to ordinary school, Yulia entered a music school and began learning how to play the piano. When she was 9, Volkova became a member of the children's singing chorus Neposedi, singing the Russian folk song "Oy, to ne vecher" at the casting. A year later, Lena Katina joined Neposedi, and they became good friends. At age 11, Yulia switched from ordinary school to a school fostering artistic talent, and three years later left Neposedi to join t.A.T.u.
She has insisted that she was banned from Neposedi for drinking and swearing, but Neposedi representatives deny this, saying that she simply graduated as all of their members did at a certain age. Volkova was chosen as the second member of t.A.T.u. in 1999, after Katina had already been chosen and recorded several demos herself. To be in the band, she had her naturally blond hair dyed black and shortened.
Volkova began to record songs in English with t.A.T.u. despite having very little knowledge of the language. An English teacher was hired to help her improve her English skills. In earlier interviews, she often gave little more than one-word answers in English, and Katina had to often translate what she said for the reporters. In more recent interviews, she has shown that her English pronunciation skills have improved due to a six-month residency in Los Angeles to record Dangerous and Moving and Lyudi Invalidy in 2005. Volkova's English is also expected to improve greatly as they will be spending another half year in America recording their third album. Also, when t.A.T.u. planned to head west, Volkova's name was changed to ''Julia''. Since coming back from the west, and the release of more recent albums, she goes more by ''Yulia''.
In February 2003, Volkova was reported to have had an abortion, as she was seen at an abortion clinic in Moscow. This was confirmed by Volkova in the documentary series "Anatomy of t.A.T.u." in December later that year. In early 2004, Volkova's voice began to deteriorate during the recording of t.A.T.u.'s second album, which was documented on the reality show ''Podnebesnaya''. Due to the stress put on her voice by notes then-producer Ivan Shapovalov insisted she sing, she developed a vocal fold cyst. Despite reluctance on behalf of the management of t.A.T.u., and Ivan Shapovalov himself, she underwent surgery to remove the cyst in October 2004. Her contract stated that any financial loss due to her hospital stay and recovery would be her liability. Not only did the surgery leave a large scar on her neck, but it also severely delayed the band's progress. She is currently undergoing therapy to repair her voice.
In May 2004, Volkova announced that she was pregnant and that her long-time boyfriend Pavel (Pasha) Sidorov fathered her child. She gave birth to daughter Viktoria Pavlovna Volkova on September 23, 2004. Volkova split up with Sidorov in Spring 2005.
Volkova is currently expecting her second child.[1]

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