Lithuania’s Eurovision nominees The Roop are gaining ground as the song contest favourites in the run up to the finals in Rotterdam on May 12–16.
On the official Eurovision YouTube channel, The Roop is starting to trend with over 600,000 views. They are far ahead of the second most-watched entry by Australia’s Montaigne.
Read more: Lithuania picks Eurovision hopeful – video
Meanwhile, the band posted a video on Instagram with instructions on how to repeat the catchy, flashmob-inspired dance to their song, On Fire.
The Roop was also voted as the audience’s favourite on a popular Eurovision blog, wiwibloggs.com, and has also attracted a range of covers – from acoustic version by Bjelle, to a heavy metal entry by Jumbo.
On Fire was the second attempt by The Roop to reach the Eurovision finals. Two years ago, they fell short of the top spot with their song Yes, I Do.
The group’s lead singer, Vaidotas Valiukevičius, previously released two solo albums. His career began in the 90s with a boyband Kosmo, followed by a solo act Milanno.
Valiukevičius wrote the song On Fire to challenge the society's tendency to “write-off” people from a certain age group, he said.
Vote recount
LRT and audit company Grant Thornton Baltic recounted the Eurovision votes on February 17 after a large chunk of the votes were received after the counting had stopped.
The top spots didn’t change, however, and The Roop remained the audience favourites with 50,139 votes against 15,962 for the runner-up Monique.
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