Irina Smelaya

In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Aleksandrovna and the family name is Smelaya.

Irina Aleksandrovna Smelaya (Russian: Ири́на Алекса́ндровна Сме́лая; born 21 December 1991), better known by her stage name Tatarka (Russian: Татарка, lit. 'Tatar woman'), is a female hip-hop artist from Tatarstan, Russia. Her songs are written in Tatar and English.^[1]

Irina Aleksandrovna Smelaya Ири́на Алекса́ндровна Сме́лая
Smelaya in 2019
Background information
Also known as	Tatarka
Born	(1991-12-21) 21 December 1991 (age 33) Naberezhnye Chelny, Tatarstan, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Origin	Saint Petersburg, Russia
Genres	Cloud rap
Occupations	Vlogger singer
Years active	2015–present
Labels	Little Big Family
Spouse	Ilya Prusikin ​ ​ (m. 2016; div. 2020)​

Music and vlogging

Smelaya was born in Naberezhnye Chelny. She currently lives in St. Petersburg and is a vlogger. Her YouTube blog named "Tatar Days" (Татарские будни, Tatarskiye budni) has almost a million subscribers.^[2]

"Altyn" ("gold" in Tatar) was her first song, which was launched in 2016 and praised her in the Russian music scene.^[3]

Smelaya is currently^[when?] working on recording her debut album. It is known that the album will be in two languages, Tatar and English.^[4]

Personal life

Smelaya married Ilya Prusikin, the vocalist and frontman of the Russian pop-rave-band Little Big, on 6 July 2016.^[5]

She gave birth to her and Prusikin's son Dobrynya on 26 November 2017.^[6]

Smelaya and Prusikin publicly announced their separation on 21 August 2020.^[7][8]

Discography

Albums

Name	Information
Golden Flower	Release: 29 October 2020 Label: Warner Music Russia Format: Digital distribution

Expanded Plays

Name	Information
Demo Life	Release: 5 July 2024 Label: self-released Format: Digital distribution

Singles

Year	Name	Album
2016	Altyn	Non-album single
2017	U Can Take (feat. Little Big)
	Pussy Power
2019	AU
	Arriba (feat. Little Big & Clean Bandit)
2020	Vroom	Golden Flower
	Bubblegum
2021	Kawaii
	Loli Boy (feat. Cream Soda)	Non-album single
2022	Feel My Vibe
	Black Dress
	Туган як
2023	Dance with Me
2024	Dumb
	Матур кызлар

Video Clips

Title	Year	Notes
Altyn (Gold)	2016	At the end of 2016, Tatarka released her debut video for the song "Altyn", in which the singer dances in front of cars, wearing the clothes of the popular designer Gosha Rubchinsky. During the first week of its release, the video gathered over 3 million views, and was included in Afisha's "100 great clips of the year" of 2016. The genre of the song can be described as cloud-rap, as well as being primarily in Tatar language. The music video promoted Samsung's new phone at the time – the Galaxy S7 Edge, and the music video itself was shot completely with this phone.
U Can Take (feat. Little Big)	2017	This song marks Tatarka's first collaboration with other music artists. The song is also written in Tatar, with the part of Ilya Prusikin, Irina's husband, being performed in English. The clip "U Can Take" was filmed in Thailand, while the artists were on vacation. On its first day of release, the video collected more than 2 million views.
Pussy Power	2017	After recognizing her popularity among the foreign audience, Tatarka produced this song completely in English language. Tatarka has assured that her album will be in both English and Tatar language. Evident in the song's lyrics and music video's theme, Pussy Power presents a strong pro-feminist commentary.
Au	2019	This song recorded in Tatar language. The clip was filmed in Uzbekistan, in Tashkent, Khiva, Chirchik and other cities.[9]
Kawaii	2020	From Golden Flower album.
Boys & Girls (mood video)	2021	From Golden Flower album
LOLI BOY		Non-album single

Participations

• 2014 – Little Big – "Public Enemy"^[10]
• 2016 – Little Big – "Big Dick"^[11]
• 2016 – Little Big – "Hateful Love"^[12]
• 2018 – Bread – "Shashlyndos"^[13]
• 2019 – Animal Jazz – "Feelings"

See also

• Little Big (band)
• Ilya Prusikin
• The Hatters