The third semi-final of Eurovizija.LT airs on Saturday, and eight more artists are primed to take the stage and compete for a spot in the final. One of those is returning band Baltos Varnos, who last competed in Pabandom is Naujo! in 2020.
This year they have returned more confident and prepared to tackle the national selection, and have a very different approach to the process. But you can read all about that below!
Hello there Baltos Varnos – thank you so much for making some time out of your busy schedule to talk with us today! Why don’t you tell our readers a bit about yourselves and the band?
Hey! Thank you so much for having us. About our band..? Well we are twins, for the start, and all our lives we have been on the stage in one or other form, we love it! Band Baltos Varnos (which means white crows) formed little by little, different musicians, different sounds, but the main thing in our music is that folk feeling, which we all understand in our own ways I guess.
Our band plays original songs which we create with my sister and our musicians give all the sound that we need (sometimes computer also).
On the topic of getting to know you better – what are some things that our readers might be surprised to learn about you – like hidden talents, secret hobbies, obsessions, etc.?
Oh, you want to spice things up?.. Most of our passion is about music and art, for example Teresė loves to go to her small house in a village and work with wood like making tables, rural music instruments or decorations. When I find free time, I love to go hiking or do yoga, sometimes I do some crafts while watching movies, (like our costumes tops that you will see on the stage, we decorated it ourselves).
We both love dancing, oh boy, we love it so much, especially by some Nordic folk music – it makes us fly.
I feel like every artist or band has an “origin story” – that moment in life when they realized they had a love for making music. When did you both realize your passion for performing and making music?
Honestly? I don’t think that we remember it. Our first stage was in kindergarten, and we know it only from photos (we have a really bad memory, I’m not kidding). Our dad is a musician and our mother engaged in visual arts, so that love for music and all creative crafts was given to us by our parents, but that was just the beginning, we had to work a lot to be where we are today.
And speaking of your music, I feel like you have a very unique sound across your music. How would you describe Baltos Varnos’ music and sound to those who aren’t familiar with your discography?
Uf… This is always a difficult topic, but recently, when we have to register our songs, we describe our style like pop/folk/indie, but we don’t really like any frames, we like emotions more!
In our solo concerts we always try to create this mystical, magical vibe with some madness, we like to be like witches, that you can never predict, but somehow want to engage.
I think I understand that magical vibe because I remember your last participation in 2020, and your performance definitely had that essence. What motivated you to return to the selection four years later and is your approach to the selection different this time around?
Hell yea, our approach is really different this year. We like the song that we presented four years ago, and we still play it with a big joy and flow, but this Saturday we are ready to dance. We have an amazing choreographer Justas Andriejauskas who brought us three dancers full of joy and madness, just what we needed to complete our witchy sisterhood.
Also, some magical forces brought us Šarūnas Kirdeikis, the director who saw who we were inside and helped convey that on stage.
This year you are competing with the song “In the Night” – can you tell us about the songwriting process for the entry and what message you hope it communicates to the public?
This song is an invitation to our sacred land, where all sisters and brothers come together in a common union and pour out the emotions of these complex, modern times. We believe that at this time, when the flow of information is endless, we are sometimes overwhelmed with both good and bad emotions, and such discharge moments are very necessary for all of us.
The song was originally created without thinking about Eurovision, the music and Lithuanian lyrics were created by Teresė more than half a year ago. When we decided to participate in Eurovision, this song took on a slightly different melody and after a long discussion we decided that English lyrics would be perfect for it.
Of course the semi-final is coming up quickly for you all. Without giving too much away, what can our readers expect to see from you during your live performance?
Well, our performance is already filmed and all we can say is that even we don’t know what to expect from ourselves. We tried to bewitch others, but it seems that we have bewitched ourselves and all we have left is to look from the side at the eyes and voices of our possessed bodies.
Well now, that’s spooky but also intriguing – I can’t wait to see! And of course the winner of Eurovizija.LT will go on to Eurovision so I wanted to ask, what are some of your earliest memories of the contest or favorite entries?
As long as we can remember, we always liked to watch Eurovision, especially in big companies, trying to predict who would win and each of us discovering our favorites. Since we play violins ourselves, we learned Alexander Rybak’s violin part as teenagers, and today we are fascinated by artists like Maro, Go-A, Daði og Gagnamagnið.
The national selections of Lithuania are no less intriguing, I think it is a very good platform to show your creativity, style and vision to a large audience, it is always interesting to see what new fellow musicians bring.
On the topic of platforms – where can our readers find you and support your musical career?
We are very happy to be able to call ourselves a concert band. We play a lot of concerts during the year and the biggest support for us is people coming to them. Also, listening to songs and sharing them in social spaces is very important to us and of course we are always happy to read messages sent by people where they talk about experiences related to our music.
So it’s simple, listen and come to the concerts, if you don’t live in Lithuania, it’s a great opportunity to come. Or maybe we’ll meet in Malmö?…
(You can also find them on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify!)
Do you have any final words or a final message you’d like to send to the readers of ESCUnited?
Just the thing that we are always repeating to ourselves – don’t worry, be happy!
A wonderful motto. Thanks so much Baltos Varnos – we wish you the best of luck in the Lithuanian National selection! 🙂
If #YOU want to support Baltos Varno’s pathway to Eurovision 2024 make sure you tune in to their semi-final on Saturday January 27th and vote!
