200 км/ч по встречной полосе: Международный прорыв t.A.T.u.

200 km/h in the Wrong Lane (also titled t. A. T. u. in Japan) is the second and first English language studio album by Russian music duo t. A. T. u., released on 10 December 2002, by Interscope Records. It is the duo's first studio album to be associated with Interscope after signing to Universal, the label they signed to in 1998. Due to the duo's lack of English vocabulary, the album was produced and written by producers such as Trevor Horn, Martin Kierszenbaum, Sergio Galoyan, Robert Orton and Ivan Shapovalov, who was placed as the duo's manager and executive producer. 200 km/h lyrically explores themes such as teenage rebellion, love, sexuality, sadness, independence and social rebellion. The album received mixed reviews from contemporary music critics. Many critics praised the catchiness and production standards, while ambivalent towards the duo's tacky imagery and vocal abilities. Upon its release, it debuted inside the top ten in many European countries including Denmark, Austria, Finland, and Italy. It became the duo's best selling album on the US Billboard 200, peaking at 13. The album became the highest selling album in Russia, with estimated shipments of one million copies. They went on to promote the album with their Show Me Love Tour. One of the three official singles, "All the Things She Said", became one of the most successful singles of the 2000s, charting at the top spot in over 20 countries. The song was responsible for bringing the group to the spotlight, particularly with the accompanying music video, which caused international controversy. "Not Gonna Get Us" and "How Soon Is Now?" charted moderately worldwide. With the sales, they became the first Russian act to have an album charting in many charts worldwide and the second to chart on the US Billboard 200, following Gorky Park in 1989.

Prior to t. A. T. u., Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina had auditioned as members of Neposedy, a group produced by Ivan Shapovalov and his business partner Alexander Voitinskyi. Shapolavov has said the two girls stood out from the rest of those that auditioned; however, 14 year old Katina was initially the only one chosen for the group. She sang "It Must Have Been Love" and later recorded a demo release of "Yugoslavia" for the "1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia". Later though, Shapolalov decided he wanted to create a duo, and 14 year old Volkova was recruited. When both Katina and Volkova were cast for the group (under the name 'Taty'), they began to record their first album. Then, in 2001 the duo released "200 Po Vstrechnoy", which became successful in Poland and Russia. While the album was in development, their producer Alexander Voitinskyi left the production, leaving the album unreleased. However, Shapolavov later signed Elena Kiper as the new co producer and co writer for the album. With the success, Shapovalov decided to sign the duo to Interscope and its parent Universal at the headquarters in Russia. The duo started recording the album at Trevor Horn's home studio in London and having some recording sessions in Los Angeles. When the duo were signed and ready for recording, both Volkova and Katina felt it was easy to understand the English language. However, during the times recording in studios, Volkova constantly lost her voice. The first track, "Not Gonna Get Us" is a Eurodance inspired song, with influences of dance pop and rock. "All the Things She Said" was the first single released and the second track on the album. The song opens with dreamy, trance gated synthesizers and then shifts into a guitar based pop rock style with Trevor Horn's trademark huge drum sound. The line "I'm in serious shit, I feel totally lost" in the first verse would be sung normally in live performance; on the album, however, the word is censored and was completely removed in the music video. The third single, "Show Me Love", was released in Poland. The song was described as "neutral". It has a synthpop and electronica style. "Malchik Gay" (translated to: Gay Boy) is the seventh track on the album. AllMusic named it as an album highlight because the lyrics, which were written by their producers, had received a lot of attention. It is an acoustic song concerning homosexuality. "Stars" is the eighth and final original track on the album. The song "tries for smooth world pop with an extended Russian rap, but doesn't linger in anyone's memory after it's over." Katina also said of Volkova's dangerous driving that inspired the title. The artwork and photoshoot off the album was shot by Sheryl Nields. There are three official covers to the album. The international version featured both Volkova and Katina leaning on a motorbike, with Katina leaning on Volkova. The Russian version includes the shot of the duo kissing in catholic school uniforms similar to the clothes they wore in the "All the Things She Said" video with Volkova showing her back to the camera and hiding face of Katina with her head. For the Japanese cover label has also used a shot of girls in school uniforms due to anime popularity in this country. Because the album issued music videos, a "G" rating was issued on the cover off the album physically. After their manager admitted to portraying the girls as lesbians to market their music and aimed t. A. T. u. to create a sexual imagery for men who enjoy pornography, media outlets had criticized him and t. A. T. u. ITV banned the video from its show CD:UK, as producer Tammy Hoyle responded "We could not show the video on CD:UK because it is not really suitable for children." Despite banning the video, the group performed the song on many live performances including MTV, Top of the Pops and many more. Reviews on the group's image were immensely harsh; AllMusic review for 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane labelled the band as a tawdry gimmick. A writer from The Daily Telegraph expressed the video as "clichéd", while it "titillating on a very base and adolescent level, only serves to cheapen the song's lyrical impact. The video is also a sign of how blurred the line between entertainment and exploitation has become".

The group's Show Me Love Tour was originally commenced in early 2003. In March 2003, the group announced dates for their "Show Me Love Promo Tour" in the United Kingdom. However the next month, the group dropped the dates and did not perform at the concert, due to poor ticket sales. The concert was just days after the cancellation. BBC News stated that only a fraction of the tickets were sold for the concert and said the stadiums (held in London and Manchester) had around capacities of 10,000. After the lawsuit, the group also cancelled their Asian promo tour for Japan and China, due to Yulia's sickness, who needed urgent surgery. The same month, the group postponed their German Promo tour, due to a late invitation to the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, where they performed. The following month they also cancelled their Riga concert and Japan concert in June, which led to a lawsuit from Pasadena Group Promotion, asking $180,000 in damages, as they did not receive any official letters regarding the cancellation.

Despite tour cancellations, the group performed in many associations. To promote "All the Things She Said", t. A. T. u. performed the song on many television shows in the United States. They first appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where the girls created confusion, because they kissed each other without first having been granted permission to do so. They performed the single on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, AOL sessions, MADtv, Carson Daly Show, TRL and the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. They also performed the song on shows in many other countries such as CD:UK in the UK and Top of the Pops in Italy.

"All the Things She Said" was released as the first single off the album in August 2002. It initially received mixed reception, praising the catchiness and creativeness, while criticizing the repetition. The song topped many charts around the world, including Australia, Germany, France, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The song peaked at number twenty on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the highest Russian act to do so. The song was directed by their manager Ivan Shapovalov, with the girls in school uniforms kissing. "Not Gonna Get Us" was released in May 2003 by Interscope Records, both physically and digitally. It was met with favorable reception, praising their departure from their first single and felt it was radio friendly. The video was also shot by Shapolavov, where it features the girls escaping a supposed prison like environment and escaping in a construction truck. "Ne Ver', Ne Boysia" was used as the official Russian entry to the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest. Released as a promotional single in May 2003, the song came third in the competition, only because of the lack of voting opportunity from the United Kingdom and Ireland. "Show Me Love" and "30 Minutes" were both released promotionally in Europe, not managing to receive success critically or commercially. Music video's for each single were released though, with "30 Minutes" receiving controversy due to nudity. "How Soon Is Now? ", A cover from The Smiths was the final single from the studio album. The song received mixed reviews, praising the potential while criticizing the production and the duos vocal abilities. The song managed to chart moderately around Europe and Australia.

200 km/h in the Wrong Lane received mixed reviews from contemporary music critics. Entertainment. ie gave it a favorable review, awarding it three stars. They had said "A teenage lesbian duo from Russia may sound like a marketing man's fantasy rather than a living, breathing pop band." and finished saying "Tatu's novelty value won't, of course, last forever. But for now, they're as entertaining as anyone in mainstream chart music." staying in the charts for thirty three weeks in total. In October 2005, the album sold 760,000 copies in North America, according to Nielsen Soundscan. As of a 2012 Niselen SoundScan update, the album has sold 831,000 copies there, becoming the group's best selling album there and was certified gold by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 500,000 copies. The album debuted at number nineteen on the Australian Albums Chart on 30 March 2003, the highest debut of that week. It remained in the top forty until its tenth week, where it dropped to forty four and stayed for eleven runs. The album entered at number nine on the New Zealand Albums Chart, becoming the second highest charting album of that week and the group's only top ten studio album. The album descended all its way to number thirty eight and stayed at total of twelve runs through the chart. In Japan, the album sold more than 300,000 copies in just two days, making them the most successful Eastern European act to have the most sales in a week. As of 2010, the album has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.

In October 2012, the group's previous record labels Interscope and Cherrytree Records announced they would be re releasing the album under the name 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane: 10 Year Anniversary Edition, as recognition of a ten year anniversary from the original version. The album contains a new song entitled "A Simple Motion", which is the English version of their Russian single, "Prostye Dvizheniya". Back in 2008, there was an interview with the duo where they said that there is still an English version of "Prostye Dvizheniya", but it remained unreleased. This song is the original 2002 version that was never released.