4 Roses: “Butterfly has a very light and innocent name but a deep message” (Lithuanian candidates – Exclusive Interview)

ESC+Plus has talked to 4 Roses, candidate group of this year’s Lithuanian national selection for Eurovision, “Eurovizijos 2016”. 4 Roses will perform “Butterfly” in the fifth heat set on February 6.

ESC+Plus: Hello! First of all, thank you so much for your time and congratulations on having been selected to take part in the Lithuanian national selection for Eurovision 2016!

E+: Can you tell us about you, your musical career and important achievements?

Well, we have to begin with the fact that our musical career started many years ago, but as solo artists or duets. Our journey as 4 Roses started only 3 years ago, when we were formed into a group during our participation in the Lithuanian X Factor. Despite the fact that we were of different musical styles and life understanding, we managed to win the 5th place at the show and remain one of the most successful acts of that year. Since then, we have released 5 singles, toured around our country and some neighbour countries with many projects that we made in those years and participated in some of the biggest social action projects.

E+: What impelled you to take part in Eurovizijos 2016?

As a group we are still young, so we didn’t participate in many contests before, but we just felt that it was time. Mostly in our country no one looks serious at girl bands and we know that we will meet the preconception that we are more about the looks than the actual talent. But we are ready to prove everyone is wrong; we are all fighters that represent strong and brave women.

E+: How did you feel during your first performance at Eurovizijos 2016? Did you expect to get the ticket for the next round?

Of course there’s always some stress before the performances, because you know you have to give your best. But we are not new to this and once the music started we felt confident, because we had made some changes from the original version of the song and it has become very close to our sound. Though, we knew that we are dependent on the people who work on the other side, like sound engineers, because it is always a bigger challenge to make three vocals sound great together, but we trusted ourselves and the song.

E+: What it would mean for you to represent Lithuania?

We come from a small country that has had many struggles during its history and our generation still have a lot deeper feeling of patriotism. That’s why representing our country would not only be a great honor but also a huge responsibility. Having the opportunity to do that would be a challenge and a great opportunity for us and our music career.

E+: Can you tell us about your song? What is the story behind the lyrics?

The song Butterfly has a very light and innocent name, but the lyrics itself carries a whole deeper message. Once you get into it, you can find your story there; we all did. Some people lose their partners in the battle of love; some others lose someone who was very important and close to them in a battle of life; or simply lose themselves. Every person has some bad experiences, hard times or big losses in their lives, then the world seems so unfair and you feel down. Those are the moments when you need a helping hand, which can make you stand up on your feet and heal yourself. In this song we motivate people to take the needed help and start a new day with their wings spread wide.

E+: Why do you think your song has to be selected for Stockholm? What are you strengths to reach the top in the competition?

Talking about the song, I guess it always comes to a matter of taste. Some may like dance music, some light easy songs, others power ballads…, and Eurovision is the type of contest where you never know what is going to work. We have a great song, with a strong message and a good musical arrangement. Talking about our strengths, after our first performance we got comments that we often sound like three soloists, but we don’t actually see it as a bad thing. We are three experienced and strong soloists. That means it triples the abilities.

E+: Will you change anything from your stage performance for the next stage of Eurovizijos 2016?

We are actually planning to make some changes, maybe to show another side of the song. At the first show we concentrated on a vocal and musical arrangement rather that the performance or the presentation itself. So we will try to look for some different decisions to make it more readable and touching.

E+: Do you usually watch Eurovision? What are your favorite songs in the history of the competition?

As people who are involved into pop music, we always watch Eurovision. We often even get together for that, to analyse the performances and our opinions don’t always match. Giedrė is into harder power music and Akvilė is also more into rock sounds, while Dileta is of a bit different genre, even her vocal is more soulful than the power ones of Giedrė and Akvilė. That‘s why the opinions vary. Akvilė almost always agrees with the winners, Dileta loved Belgium the previous year with the song Rhythm Inside and Giedrė’s all times favorite still remains Alyosha with the song Sweet people.

E+: If you could choose a Eurovision former participant to sing along with, who would it be?

Many of us – many different opinions. Though, most of the former participants were great and it would be an honor to sing with them. It is practically impossible to choose one, not even mentioning that Eurovision gave start to or was a part of a career of many international superstars like ABBA or Celine Dion, it has a lot of new fresh sounds and participants every year.

E+: Besides Eurovision, what are your plans for this year?

We have a much tensed year, so besides our participation in Eurovision, we are preparing for a new TV project here in Lithuania. The show will be a competition of national folk dance ensembles. We will be generals of one of them and our mission is to introduce the folk dances to a wider part of a society and to adapt it to be interesting for younger people. We will not only sing there, but also try to dance. In addition to that, we are also working on a new single, which we are planning to release by the end of winter. We also want to maintain the tempo of our concerts marathon.

E+: Finally, can you send a message for our readers and Eurovision fans?

We would like to wish everyone a lot of positivity and love for the music, because those are the few ingredients that can heal many wounds. To be more detailed, appreciate the people who you select to represent your country, that means a lot of hard work and responsibility, so don’t spread the hate as long as you are not able to do better.

E+: Thanks for your time and good luck!