Buranovskiye Babushki engage in Mortal Kombat

You may remember the Buranovskiye Babushki (Buranovo Grannies) for their 2012 Eurovision smash hit Party for Everybody. Now the party-loving grandmothers are swapping their dancing shoes for a fighting spirit, taking on the theme song for video game Mortal Kombat.

Hailing from Udmurtia, between the Volga and the Urals in Russia, the Babushki recently recorded a Russian-language version of the theme song to advertise upcoming screenings of the Mortal Kombat (dir. Paul W. S. Anderson) films — loosely based on the video game — on television channel TNT4.

“I knew that there was a video game. For a long time I didn’t understand what children were shouting [...] ‘Back-back-forward-forward-X!’ I thought that was how a crab moves [...] It turns out that means a deadly blow,” said Anna, one of the members of the group.

The idea of getting the Babushki to appear in an advert for Mortal Kombat was the brainchild of TNT4 director Gavriil Gordeyev, who reportedly showed the group a number of clips in order to familiarise them with the film. However, the women were less than impressed — legendary Russian bogatyrs (warriors) would have kept the world much safer, they argued.

Source: TJournal (in Russian)