04 July 2023 , 10:49
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Controversial pop star Julia Volkova is unrecognisable 20 years after the BBC banned her raunchy music video.
The singer and her bandmate Lena Katina portrayed an underage lesbian couple in T.a.T.u's All The Things She Said, which raised more than a few eyebrows in the noughties.
Fans will remember Julia, now 38, sporting spiky, short hair in the video and minimal make-up. But now, she's got her glam on, ditched the school uniform and looks like a completely different person.
Posed to perfection in an Instagram photo, the singer, stunning in a yellow plaid dress, wears her long, dark hair with a tint of red in loose curls.
Controversial pop star Yulia Volkova is unrecognisable 20 years after the BBC banned her raunchy music video
T.a.T.u raised a few eyebrows in the noughties (PA)Boasting flawless make-up, including a bold smokey eye, peach blush and pink lipstick, she told her followers: "Everyone knows how often I like to change hairstyles, haircuts, colour, and especially, my love is long hair."
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Julia and Lena shot to fame with All the Things She Said, which was banned by Top of the Pops and ITV's CD:UK, who deemed it 'unsuitable for children.'
By 2011 Tatu had gone off the radar, but did perform in May for the first time since their last reunion in 2016, singing Not Gonna Get us before Zenit St Petersburg's clash with Spartak Moscow.
They shot to fame with their no-nonsense attitude (PA)
The girls went off the radar in 2011 (Getty Images)Tatu came out of retirement as Putin's censors reportedly seek to delete any trace of the band band amid a crackdown on LGBT material as part of a wave of repressions in Russia during the war in Ukraine.
However, speaking ahead of the match in front of thousands of Russian fans, Julia and Lena sang: "Nothing can stop this, Not now, I love you, They're not gonna get us."
Julia is now a mother of two while Lena, now married to millionaire businessman Dmitry Spiridonov is pregnant with her second child.
The pair also performed during the Opening Ceremony of 2014's Sochi Winter Olympics before Julia revealed she had beaten cancer, but a "mistake" during surgery left her with damage to her singing voice.
The singer claimed the mishap during her Moscow surgery had left her initially unable to speak.
Adding she'd recovered from thyroid cancer but needed further surgery in South Korea to restore her voice, she said: "It was a critical moment for me. When the surgery was over, I had to open my eyes and start talking. But it didn't happen.I was whispering.
"Forget about singing. I could not say hello on the phone, people were not hearing me. I lost lost my voice because of the doctors' mistake. I mean they hurt my vocal nerve. I had a thyroid cancer. They damaged my vocal nerve."
Despite the pain, Julia seemed determined to put the past behind her, concluding: "All the worst is behind me. I never think why or what for."
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