Thank You #Kaunas2022

Yesterday, in Kaunas, which is European Capital of Culture in 2022, thousands of people gathered at the Town Hall Square for our concert on Thursday evening. Thank you for such unity and wonderful energy! It will stay in our hearts for a long time.

Next week, July 20 this year's biggest THE ROOP concert will take place in Vilnius, Lukiškės prison 2.0. Here we are preparing a spectacular show and many surprises, and new merch and the latest album "Concrete Flower" will be available for purchase during the concert.

ATTENTION! Lukiškės prison concert is our Grand Show. Unfortunately, the same concert will not happen again. We try to make one concert a year unique and different, so it only happens once. This year, it will be in Lukiškės prison 2.0. We rehearse a lot, put a lot of energy and creativity. We invite you not to miss it and be a part of it! Tickets can be purchased here.

Photos by Dainius Dambrauskas

2 Big Shows in Lithuania

2 big concerts in Lithuania. The first one is part of the European Capital of Culture @Kaunas2022 program, which will take place on July 14 on the Kaunas Town Hall square. he next one is our Grand Show - July 20 in Vilnius, ex Lukiškės prison (bilietai.lt). See you there!


Sending good vibes from our studio🖖

#7 "Wabi Sabi" Story

Concrete Flower #7 “Wabi Sabi“

In the traditional Japanese aesthetic philosophy wabi sabi is a view of accepting impermanence and imperfection. Wabi sabi is the beauty of imperfection. The song talks about relationships which are never perfect. One must accept them with all their cracks and flaws. Like the wabi sabi cups, broken and restored with gold glue, become more valuable than brand new, smooth vessels.

Vaidotas Tossed the Coin at the American Football Baltic League finals

Today we watched the Baltic League American football final, where Lithuanians @vilniusironwolves and Estonians @tallinnkings met.
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It is a tradition in American football that an invited guest throws a coin at the beginning of the game. This time it was Vaidotas. Before the match, the captains of both teams, the referees and the guest go to the center of the pitch. The teams choose heads or tails and then the guest, after the referee's signal, tosses the coin. This determines who starts.
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At the end of the match, the Lithuanians took the silver, and the gold went to the Estonians. We congratulate both teams on a beautiful game and wish them never give up and keep moving forward!

Photos by Viktorija Makovskaja

"CONCRETE FLOWER" CD Is Finally Out!

Many of you have been asking when the physical format will be available. Here it is, we finally have the CD of our latest album "Concrete Flower" in our hands!

We wanted the CD packaging to be special. Therefore, right after unpacking, your fingers will feel the softness of the silk surface (soft touch technology), the stripes passing through the flower and Robert's glasses will shine in your eyes.

Inside you will find a 20 page booklet. It is special because we are telling the stories of the creation of each of our songs there. In addition, we invite you to get involved in the creation of illustrations. The booklet contains drawings that we have started and that you can finish and share with us.

Here you will find the hits "On Fire", "Discoteque", the song dedicated to Ukraine "Love Is All We Got", the playful "Ohmygodable", the latest single "Let's Get Naked" and, of course, brand new songs.

You can buy the album in our E-SHOP or on July 20 at the Grand Concert in Vilnius, ex-Lukiškės prison.

P.S. We are still waiting in line for LP production. We will have it at the beginning of autumn.

#6 "Discoteque" Story

About the 6th song from our latest album “Concrete Flower”. An abstract version of the song, without vocals and lyrics, was sitting in our hard drive for a while. We just didn’t have the motivation to develop it further. Maybe the demo seemed unworthy of our attention and time.

One day Vaidotas traveled to a wooden cabin in Miškiniškės to finish writing lyrics for other songs and decided to go through some of the demos. Suddenly this song caught his attention, he started dancing in the cabin alone, and naturally the first line - “it is ok to dance alone” - was born.

Back in Vilnius Vaidotas showed it to others. Robertas said the song needed some improvements and grabbed bass guitar. Mantas joined in with his guitar and all together we refined the parts that are most clearly heard in the beginning of the song.

We then flew to Helsinki where finishing touches were put on the song and it gained its current sound. In the music video we are wearing yellow, which became a huge part of our identity.

We decided to enter Lithuanian National Selection for Eurovision again, because we felt that our journey was interrupted, and we wanted to continue it. We won the selection. The song beat Lithuanian records, won awards and rapidly spread around the world.

Finally we managed to get on the Eurovision stage in Rotterdam. We finished 8th. People were extremely involved in supporting us and launched “The Yellow Wave” - dressed in yellow, danced, filmed themselves dancing, hung posters on buildings, and wished us well. We are very grateful.

Biggest Show This Summer in Vilnius!

We have VERY VERY good news! On July 20 the grand concert of our long-awaited new album "Concrete Flower" will take place in Vilnius, where music will be combined with theater, visualizations and dance.

The team is already working: preparing an impressive dance performance that will become an integral part of the show. Visualizations are already heating up the computers, costumes are being sewn, and songs are being rehearsed. Let's dive into the artistic world of THE ROOP, travel through our sensitive inner experiences into the colorful, playful and free-flowing show.

We will provide more details soon. We ourselves are cheering like children.

We call this performance at Lukiškės Prison the most ambitious open-air summer show, which reminds us that the sky is not too high for anyone. Let’s discoteque!

The first tickets are cheaper!

Tickets: bit.ly/TheRoopLukiskese

#5 "Love Is All We Got" Story

About the 5th song from our new album “Concrete Flower”. As far as we know, we were the first band in the world to speak up openly and support Ukraine through music. We didn’t need any permission from above, and we didn't want to remain neutral. We didn't need to be explained whether it was a crisis, a war or an invasion. Everything was very clear.

We, Lithuanians, have a painful collective memory and it kept whispering that the tension and disturbance in the world was rising. But not even in the worst nightmare could we dream of a war starting in its roughest form.

Looking back at Lithuanian history, we remember experiencing Russia’s regime aggression multiple times. We were being occupied, exiled, killed. Each family has living memories of it.

So how did we survive? We are guessing it was because of love. Because of big love for our families, children, mothers, fathers, and our country. Love is the foundation which leads us through life.

Our nation like no other deeply understands and supports Ukraine. While editing the music video we added additional images of people gatherings, support and protest activities from Lithuania and around the world. It is important for Ukrainian people to see us all who see, feel and support. Blooming flowers symbolize inner force, hope and desire for peace.

Even now by listening to this song you can support Ukraine. All of the funds collected for streaming of our song LOVE IS ALL WE GOT on all platforms in 2022 will be used to support Ukraine. Music can contribute to the idea of a better world, and spread beyond borders and nations.

Thank you, KelmE!

In Kelmė we performed on a stage on the water. An interesting solution, only the viewers were quite far away. So Vaidotas decided to go to them. A crowd of several thousand people welcomed us with the utmost warmth. Thank you all!

#4 "Running From Myself" Story

Let’s talk about the 4th song from our latest album “Concrete Flower”. Vaidotas was staying in Fuerteventura island for a month to find himself and get away from everyday life. Friends allowed Vaidotas to stay in their newly bought empty house, but warned that the place hadn’t had any repairs yet and that it was completely empty except for two chairs and two closets.

It was fine for Vaidotas, he borrowed an air mattress and embarked on the adventure. The house had been abandoned for a while, so the first task was sweeping hundreds of dead bugs off the floor, and getting rid of the dead rat in the bathroom.

Once the house was clean Vaidotas set up a small studio in one of the rooms. Being absolutely alone, he would climb the mountains in the morning to greet the sun, and wander the city streets and observe people in bars in the evening.

During the heat of the day Vaidotas would sit in his mini studio with curtains shut and write music. That’s where “Running From Myself” was born.

Vaidotas understood that he had great fear of living and dreaming, so it was sometimes easier to run from your thoughts. But they still gain on you.

#3 "Ohmygodable" Story

The name of the song is a new, rarely encounterable word, defining a person or a phenomenon if you see which you would say “Oh My God!”.

The song was written in the woods of Aukštaitija national park, in wooden cabins in Miškiniškės, where we had our musical workshop - far from civilization and city tempo.

The visualization for “Ohmygodable” music video was inspired by a Greek myth of Pygmalion, who fell in love with a sculpture he had carved. This myth is particularly relevant today, because we live in the age of social networks, within which we create our own social network “sculptures”, wishing to be liked, accepted and significant. Probably every one of us has a bit of Pygmalion’s characteristics.

#2 "Let's Get Naked" Story

The song invites to have an open viewpoint, accept yourself and your body, open your soul. We were looking for a specific character for a role in “Let’s Get Naked” and Vaidotas stumbled upon a comment by a fan under one of THE ROOP Instagram posts. It was Spanish actor and dancer Alberto Velasco. So we wrote to him directly and invited to take part in our video. He said YES! So our fan (and now - friend) traveled from Spain to Lithuania to do that. That’s how unexpectedly this collaboration happened! In the music video we dive deeper. The action is taking place in Pakruojis manor, where ladies and gentlemen gather for an ordinary solemn feast. But the night takes an unforeseen turn once guests taste one dish. There are situations when titles and self-made images fall, and the truth reveals itself as naked as it is. In difficult times societies and state leaders unmask themselves. At the same time we discover ourselves: how do we behave when scared, having felt the taste of the horrible reality close by, where do we channel our energy, who do we become, and what principles steer us forward? In this music video we raise a common question - “where does a human being begin and end?”. From constrained convenience to dizzying madness? Is it liberation and return to one’s primal self or is it loss of responsibility - we leave the decision to the listener and the viewer.

#1 "On Fire" Story

We want to share the story behind each and every song from our latest album “Concrete Flower”. Let’s start with “On Fire”. We worked on this song for nearly 9 months, rewriting it multiple times until it started to sound the way we wanted. “On Fire” raises the topic of ageism and touches upon the personal history of the band, when one music manager refused to work together, because the band members were ostensibly too old to reach anything. We did not believe that. When the song gained its form and we finally recorded it, we realized we had no money for a music video, stage costumes, and proper preparation for the Lithuanian National Selection for Eurovision. It was sad because we felt that the song was strong, but we had no means to properly present it to people. Then Vaidotas came up with an idea to create a presentation about THE ROOP band, who we are, what does “On Fire” mean, added a private link to the song, and sent it out to friends and friends of friends asking for any kind of financial support. Shortly after, Vaidotas started active sales tactics by contacting everyone personally inquiring if they could help. Unfortunately, there were a lot of No’s. However, some replied they would help and it allowed us to collect a minimum amount for a music video and further promotion of the song. THE ROOP won the National Selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, which later was canceled due to the pandemic. Yet “On Fire” still reached its listeners, won numerous awards and became the band’s icebreaker.

Throwback To The Night We Qualified to The Grand Final Of Eurovision 2021

On this day last year THE ROOP was announced to have qualified to the Eurovision 2021 grand final. The moment was captured in a photo. It was a wonderful feeling to open the whole show as we were the first act to perform. Eurovision gave us a lot of wisdom and experience. We’ll be grateful for that all our lives. We are moving forward, just released a fresh album - “Concrete Flower” - and we are currently preparing a new live show. We can’t wait to meet our listeners live!

Listen to the album here: https://lnk.to/ConcreteFlower

#theroop #eurovision2021 #eurovizija #discoteque #roop #eurovision

Long-awaited "Concrete Flower" Out Now! 🌻

The new album does not only contain the latest "Let's Get Naked", hits "On Fire", "Discoteque", "Love Is All We Got", but also fresh unheard songs.
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The name of the album “Concrete Flower” talks about the force of a flower capable of breaking through concrete. This directly relates to the story of THE ROOP band.
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"Many people told us we were too old to achieve anything in music, one manager refused to work with us because of our age. Ironically, with “On Fire” - a song touching upon the topic of ageism - we managed to make an international breakthrough and pushed through the concrete attitude of some music managers", - recollect members of THE ROOP. Later, after participating in Eurovision with “Discoteque”, the band rocketed even higher attracting an even bigger crowd of fans, age ranging from toddlers to seniors.
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The album cover art project was led by Deimantė Litvinaitė, and the illustration was created by Taiwan-based studio "Damonxart". It's the top view of a blooming flower, breaking through grey concrete. The flower blooms in colors which dominate in the music videos of THE ROOP.
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"The name of the album and the cover also symbolize the history of Lithuania, which in 1990 broke out of the Soviet Union with great force", - says V. Valiukevičius.
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Members of the band state that the album “Concrete Flower” is dedicated to those who have the desire to live, want to move forward, and to those who need inspiration and motivation to reach their dreams.
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THE ROOP album is out in digital format, but very soon it will gain material form - CD, and a little later vinyl.
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@warnermusicbaltics #theroopalbum #theroopband #theroop #roop #concreteflower #newmusic #newalbum #lithuania #discoteque #onfire #letsgetnaked