Controversial Pop Star Unrecognisable 20 Years After The BBC Banned Raunchy Music Video

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Twenty years after the BBC barred her obscene video from Top of the Pops, Noughties pop diva Julia Volkova, 38, appears drastically different in recent social media photos.

Volkova and Lena Katina, members of the pop group Tatu, who are both now 38, originally achieved fame in 1999, the same year the Russian ruler first assumed power.

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With her 368k Instagram followers, the Russian singer showcased her gorgeous new hairstyle and makeover.

She chose to wear her long, brunette hair in loose curls and a beautiful glam makeup look.

She captioned it: 'Everyone knows how often I like to change hairstyles, haircuts, color, and especially, my love is long hair.' 

Tatu recently held a reunion at Vladimir Putin's favorite football team despite attempts by his ardent supporters to get the event canceled because it was "LGBT propaganda."

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Tatu are well known for their 2002 song All The Things She Said, whose sensual music video featured Yulia and Lena as an adolescent lesbian couple and ignited outrage around the globe.

In the video, the couple could be seen kissing passionately in the rain while being observed by other schoolgirls.

Even on Ant and Dec's morning music show CD: UK, ITV declined to air the clip, insisting: 'It is not really suitable for children.'

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Tatu gave a performance yesterday, their first since their last reunion in 2016, before Zenit St. Petersburg's match against Spartak Moscow, which the home team won 3-2 to win the Russian Premier League for the sixth consecutive season.

Tatu came out of retirement as part of a wave of repressions in Russia during the conflict in Ukraine, as Putin's censors work to erase all evidence of their band.

In front of tens of thousands of Russian supporters, they sang the following before the game: 'Nothing can stop this, 'Not now, I love you', 'They're not gonna get us'.'

Lena, who is now wed to rich businessman Dmitry Spiridonov, was plainly pregnant with her second child while Yulia is now a mother of two.

Although they did come together for a special concert seven years ago, Tatu has not existed since 2011.

Despite this, they face a crackdown on the Kremlin-approved VK social media platform.

Tatiana Butskaya, a 47-year-old MP who is fervently pro-Putin, is calling for a complete ban on Tatu content and claiming that the duo's originality "promoted" same-sex relationships.

'Never in my life in our childhood did it occur to me that a girl could be with a girl until Tatu popped up,' said Butskaya.

According to Butskaya, a pediatrician and vice chairman of the committee on families, women, and children in the Russian parliament, girls started to "hold hands" and this behavior became usual.

She told a conference: 'A song is not just a rhythm and words, it's 'Look at me, do as I do, try, it's okay'.'

The MP has gone so far as to compare homosexuality to liver illness and dental decay. 'A boy should look like a boy, a girl should look like a girl,' she said.

'And if you have a disease, then it should be treated, and not bragged about.’

'A boy should be like a boy, a girl should be like a girl.'

However, when Yulia and Lena rekindled their relationship, her hero Putin utilized them to launch the 2014 Russian Winter Olympics.

The war in Ukraine and the recent wave of censorship are seen as examples of how the West is infecting Russia with foreign values.

When the two appeared on the international scene kissing and hugging on stage while donning skimpy school uniforms, they caused a stir in Britain and other countries.

Yulia, who is also an actress, tried in vain to get elected to Putin's party; a party official praised her for being "bold" and "professional." '

‘Yes, I have sinned and made mistakes, but I always found the way through pain, tears, and suffering…,' she said at the time. Yulia hasn't ruled out making another run for an MP.

The singer received criticism for saying she would shame her son if he came out as gay while appearing on the Russian TV program Lie Detector in 2014.

'Yes, I would condemn him, because I believe that a real man must be a real man,' she was translated as saying.

'God created man for procreation, it is nature. The man for me is the support, the strength of… I won't accept a gay son.'

She added the following to support her claim:  'And a man has no right to be a f*g. Two girls together – not the same thing as the two men together. It seems to me that lesbians look aesthetically much nicer than two men holding their hands or kissing.’

In Britain, she outraged Judy Finnigan and Richard Madeley, who started a campaign to outlaw the All The Things She Said video.

The couple overcame critics and reached the top of the charts in numerous Western nations, including Russia, at the height of their renown.