Khuy Voyne!

t.A.T.u. in the famous "Khuy Voyne!" shirts. This style was worn on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, while short-sleeve T-shirts with typed serif text were worn on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and TRL, and short-sleeve T-shirts with the original text style were worn on Last Call with Carson Daly.

Khuy Voyne! (also transliterated as Hui Voine; Russian: Хуй войне!, IPA: [ˈxuj vɐjˈnʲe], lit. 'Fuck war') is a phrase developed by former t.A.T.u. producer Ivan Shapovalov during the duo's promotional tour in the United States in early 2003.

Origins and the Iraq War

On February 25, 2003, the women performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and mocked NBC's insistence that they neither kiss nor comment on the Iraq War by performing "All the Things She Said" from their first English album 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane in white T-shirts that bore the slogan across the front, and by blocking their faces with their hands as they kissed during a break in their performance. The stunt prompted NBC to ban t.A.T.u. from any future performance, but it also helped their international record sales.

On February 26, when the shirts were banned from Jimmy Kimmel Live! and replaced with ones that said "Censored", they wrote the slogan on Jimmy Kimmel's hand. The two also wore the shirts to TRL on March 3 and Last Call with Carson Daly on March 5.

The documentary Anatomy of t.A.T.u. states that when the slogan was being created, Shapovalov said that it is a Russian slang way to say "No to War" (Нет войне!), however the slang translations may vary to "Dick to War" (word-by-word) or a creative way of saying "Fuck War".

Russo-Ukrainian war

A rally in support of Ukraine, organized at Stanford

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the phrase became an anti-war slogan (along with “No to War” — «Нет войне»), often used at protest rallies both within and outside Russia. The online media outlet Mediazona later launched a podcast of the same name.

See also

• Opposition to the Iraq War
• Putin khuylo! – a phrase associated with the Russo-Ukrainian War and Russian President Vladimir Putin; commonly translated as "Putin [is a] dickhead"