Introduction

• Participant(s): The Roop
• Song: Discoteque
  
• Writer(s): Vaidotas Valiukevičius, Mantas Banišauskas, Kalle Lindroth
• Composer(s): Vaidotas Valiukevičius, Mantas Banišauskas, Robertas Baranauskas, Laisvūnas Černovas, Ilkka Wirtanen
• Broadcaster: LRT
  
• Social media:    
  
• Team review: 

The Roop has been selected last year already to rock the ESC with the up-tempo song “On Fire”. Due to the cancellation of the ESC in Rotterdam last year, they could not fly to Rotterdam. The Roop have been at the top of the bets, so a first victory for Lithuania would have been close.

The Lithuanian broadcaster LRT has allowed The Roop to compete again in the national final, set as a finalist. But it was almost clear that The Roop is going win another time, the expectations were high but with the new song “Discoteque” another strong entry is being produced. The song is again at the top of the bests and The Roop will be among this year’s favourites in the ESC in Rotterdam.

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 new song “Discoteque” is another real dance song with a straight rhythm and a striking melody. It’s about dancing alone, make your home a disco and this is quite real, as the discotheques are closed everywhere and many people yearn to dance again. The inspiration of the song, when Vaidotas has been out in the countryside of Lithuania and wanted to dance. The big question, can he dance alone? Yes, everybody can do, is the answer.

With this up-tempo number a well-choreographed choreography and a catchy melody, it’s a perfect precondition to shape up in a good place. The song “Discoteque” is even stronger than “On Fire” and will definitely bring the people to dance either in the Ahoy Arena or the TV spectators around the globe. Nevertheless this could also be a good summer hit, it’s radio-friendly and really catchy.

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 will be the 21st time in the Eurovision Song Contest this year. Due to the Corona pandemic all entries will not be taken into consideration, at the ESC was cancelled.

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. The chance for Lithuania reaching the Top10 is relatively low at 10%. Last year’s entry “On Fire” by The Roop has been handled as one of the big favourites. The group will start this year as well.

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

• “Happy You” | Aivaras
  Rank 23, Tallinn 2002
• “Little By Little” | Laura and the Lovers
  Rank 25 (Semi-Final), Kiev 2005
• “Love Is Blind” | Donny Montell
  Rank 14, Baku 2012