(Russian pop duo Tatu put on a lesbian act that is largely
seen in Russia as an attention-getting gimmick. They posed for
photographers during the MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony last November
in Lisbon, Portugal. (Jasper Juinen/Associated Press) )
A pseudo-lesbian pop duo, a famed opera singer and a romp through
Russian history await viewers as the Sochi Winter Olympics launch Friday
with an opening ceremony meant to showcase to the world the ultimate
achievement of Vladimir Putin's Russia.
In a provocative choice, Russian singers Tatu will perform before the
3,000 athletes march through a stadium on the shores of the Black Sea,
one of the many newly built facilities in the most expensive Olympics in
history.
The women in Tatu put on a lesbian act that is largely seen as an
attention-getting gimmick. It contrasts with the very real anger over a
Russian law banning gay "propaganda" aimed at minors that is being used
to discriminate against gays. Some world leaders and activists have
protested the law, and President Barack Obama is skipping the opening
ceremony and sending a delegation that includes prominent gay athletes
instead.
The opening ceremony is Russia's chance to show itself and its
post-Soviet identity to the world. It is likely to lean on Putin's
version: a country with a rich and complex history emerging confidently
from a rocky two decades and now capable of putting on a major
international sports event.
'Simple metaphors'
The ceremony will focus on Russia and Olympic ideals of sportsmanship
and achievement — not on repression of dissent, fears of terrorism or
international political tensions over neighbouring Ukraine.
For people who don't know much about Russia, the ceremony's director,
Konstantin Ernst, promised "relatively simple metaphors" — and no
obscure references, like the nurses in the London Games' opening
ceremony representing the National Health Service, which he called one
of the most "incomprehensible" moments in Olympic history.
Ernst said Tatu's Not Gonna Get Us was chosen because it's one of the only Russian pop songs that international viewers might recognize.
