Lithuania has decided – an alternative rock band Katarsis is going to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place in Basel, Switzerland in May. The band says that the country is doing an experiment by selecting them, but it might pay off.
Before the Saturday final, the bookmakers predicted that Katarsis would win a ticket to Basel.
“We saw the stats, but we didn’t believe in them, so we went on stage wanting to do our best. We also tried not to look at the others and not to feel competition. We had a feeling that there was a theoretical possibility of winning but we didn’t think that we would be here,” Lukas Radzevičius, the band’s lead singer, told a press conference after the EUROVIZIJA.LT final.
Other band members – bassist Emilija Kandratavičiūtė, drummer Jokūbas Andriulis, and guitarist Alanas Brasas – agreed that they “hadn’t thought about what we would say if we were chosen” to represent Lithuania at Eurovision.
The band thanked the audience for their huge support – they won Lithuania’s national selection after receiving three times as many votes as Lione Ceccah, who came in second.
“It’s a special feeling to perform on such a stage. It feels like you are walking and singing on a cloud. Compared to the semi-final, it was a completely different emotion. Although it seemed that we would be more nervous in front of a huge audience, such a supportive crowd only energised us,” the band’s lead singer said after the final at Kaunas Žalgiris Arena.
An alternative rock band is an unusual choice for Lithuania’s Eurovision entry. However, Katarsis believes that they could perform well in Basel.
“We got a lot of attention, and it was also about the fact that a lot of people watched the selection because they finally felt they had a taste of their preferred music in it,” Radzevičius said.
“Something unexpected has just happened in Lithuania, so there could be something interesting in Europe too. The country is doing a huge experiment by selecting us, but it could pay off. We will just try our best to do something different, something unique so that Europe can feel what we feel,” he added.
According to the band, they do not want to drastically change their performance for the big Eurovision stage.
“We are quite simple, and our performance reflects that. So, the concept will remain, but we will do our best to realise it fully,” they said.
The song Tavo Akys (Your Eyes) that the band performs in Lithuanian was written by Katarsis’ lead singer Radzevičius, who said it is “his observation about relationships”.
“The song Tavo Akys is the most pompous song in our band’s work, maybe somewhat aggressive compared to the others, but we thought that it would be the right song [for Eurovision], with its alternative character, which may be over the top, but is of a high quality,” Radzevičius stressed.
Lithuania will perform at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in the second semi-final on May 15. The grand final will take place on May 17.
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