Lithuania in Eurovision
Since their nul points debut in 1992, Lithuania have been perennial underachievers at Eurovision, having only made the top 10 twice out of 20 attempts, while also failing to qualify for the Grand Final on seven occasions.
Their best result was their 6th place finish in 2006, while their second top 10 finish came in 2016 with Donny Montell’s entry ‘I’ve Been Waiting For This Night’.
2021 Entry: The Roop – ‘Discoteque’
Semi-final: The Roop will open semi-final 1 in slot 1
My Eurovision Scoreboard Fan ranking: 8th out of 39 entries
Odds to win ranking: 8th out of 39 entries
Odds to qualify from semi-final 1 ranking: 3rd out of 16 entries
(as of 30 April 2021)
About the artist
Taking their name from an old English word for making noise, The Roop were founded in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, in 2014. A pop rock outfit consisting of lead singer Vaidotas Valiukevičius, percussionist Robertas Baranauskas and guitarist Mantas Banišauskas, The Roop began life with two studio albums in 2015 and 2017, followed by an EP in 2018.
That same year they entered Lithuania’s national Eurovision selection program, Pabandom iš naujo! (PiN), with their song ‘Yes, I Do’, finishing second in the public vote and third overall. Their second attempt in 2020 proved far more fruitful, with their quirky dance track ‘On Fire’ claiming a thumping victory with 59% of the televote and winning the jury vote as well.
Despite the cancellation of the 2020 Song Contest, the Roop gained immense popularity in their home country of Lithuania, with ‘On Fire’ going to number one in the charts, and the band winning four M.A.M.A. awards, Lithuania’s leading music award.
This year, they returned to PiN as automatic qualifiers to the final. This year’s entry, ‘Discoteque’, romped home with 87% of the televote, restamping their tickets to Rotterdam.
About the song
The song, a darkly pulsating electro-pop dance number, frequently returns to a call to dance alone; evoking the solitude of the pandemic while inviting the listener ito a different plane of existence – free of worldly issues and concerns and limitless in movement, music, and expression.
As frontman Vaidotas Valiukevičius says: “Rather often we say that we are free and that we live in a free world. But most of our restraints come from the inside. So this song and movement aims to liberate our minds, which contain too much self-criticism, fear of appearing different, reluctance to accept our bodies.”
Aussievision podcast Lithuania episode
Check out the Aussievision podcast review and rank episode including comments from the team. Listen via:
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