Introduction

• Participant(s): The Roop
• Song: On Fire
  
• Writer(s): Vaidotas Valiukevičius
• Composer(s): Vaidotas Valiukevičius, Robertas Baranauskas & Mantas Banišauskas
• Broadcaster: LRT
  
• Social media:        
  
• Team review: 

In the recent Eurovision history of Lithuania, the country has become one of the countries with the most extensive selection process Pabandom iš naujo! 2020: six live shows will be presented at the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT. 60 songs have been submitted and 36 qualified for the show.

With a clear result, both from jury and public votes, the winner The Roop with the song “On Fire” could be declared. They won the ticket for Rotterdam. But the ESC has been cancelled so at this stage it’s not clear if The Roop has the right to go next year or start at least as a finalist.

The Roop is a group for three musicians: Vaidotas Valiukevičius (vocals, keyboard), Mantas Banišauskas (guitar) and Robertas Baranauskas (drums) which has been founded in the capital Vilnius in 2014. Their debut album “To Whom It May Concern” has been released in 2015. The second album “Ghost” has been published in 2017. The Roop is doing a mix of pop, rock, dance and indie. They like festivals and have been touring throughout the world e.g. Belgium, Germany, France, Romania, Serbia, Portugal, Australia, Brazil, Colombia and USA.

The song is called “On Fire” and it’s about our own underestimation that age can prevent us from been brave, creative, confident, exited and full of energy:

“They told me maybe I'm too old.
But there's fire in my soul.
The heat is getting higher
I feel that I'm on fire”

This song has not excited the Lithuanians only, the Europeans were delighted and it immediately jumped on the top list of the bettings. With this song Lithuania would have had the first real chance to win the Eurovision Song Contest. Many people believed that this is the song for Europe and “On Fire” would have had the best chances. The stage show, which can watched in the video clip has been created by Indrė Juškutė and Adomas Jablonskis in an artistic and minimalist way.


History

• Debut: 1994
• Participations: 21
• Victories: 0
• Finals: 13 (9 since 2004)
• Top 10: 2
• Chances for Top 10: 10%
• Chances for Final: 53%

For Lithuania it would have been the 21st time in the Eurovision Song Contest this year. The debut entry from 1994 “Lopsine Mylimai” by Ovidijus Vysniauskas came last with zero points – not a good start, unfortunately. While the Baltic neighbour countries Estonia and Latvia had a better hand in choosing successful Eurovision entries including two victories each, Lithuania never shaped up that well, beside of two exceptions: “We are the winners” by LT United in 2006, this entry ended up 6th in Athens and Donny Montell’s “I’ve been Waiting For Tonight” with a 9th place in Stockholm 2015. At least Lithuania has qualified nine times for the Grand Final out of 19 participations including last year. The chance for Lithuania reaching the Top10 is relatively low at 10%. Last year’s entry “Run With The Lions” sung by Jurijus Veklenko made an 11th place in the Semi Final and therefore could not qualify for the Grand Final in Tel Aviv. The Lithuanians songs were mostly sung in English, beside of first two years due to the language rule, so it was probably obvious for the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT to be understood worldwide with the songs in English and to shape up better.

Biggest successes

• 1x 6th place
  “We Are The Winners” |LT United (Athens 2006)
• 1x 9th place
  “I’ve been waiting for tonight” |Donny Montell (Stockholm 2016)

Video Nostalgia

• “Lopšinė mylimai” | Ovidijus Vysniauskas
  Rank 25, Dublin 1994
  
  
• “Love Or Leave” | 4Fun
  Rank 21, Helsinki 2007
  
  
• “When We're Old” | Ieva Zasimauskaitė
  Rank 12, Lisbon 2018