Queens of Roses: “Our job is not to fight for a winning spot but give emotions and joy.”

As we look ahead to the second heat of Pabandom iš naujo, we were fortunate enough to interview the group Queens of Roses ahead of their performance in the national final this weekend. Together we talked about their ten year anniversary, their experiences in the Lithuanian national final, and much much more. Check it out!

Hello there – thank you all for taking some time to speak with me today! For those who are encountering you and your music for the first time, why don‘t you tell us a bit about yourselves?

Well hello, we are Queens of Roses, a trio from Lithuania. Three lead vocals, three different sounds and tones, three different souls and personalities. One great team with a mission to provide joy through the shared love for music.

I’m certain that some of our readers out there might be curious to hear about your origin story as a group. How did you three meet and when did you decide to start performing together?

To be honest, our band already has a long history, we believe this year is our 10^th anniversary this year.

We started as a duo in the rock fesivals. After X Factor Lithuania we became a girlband of 4 and called ourselves ”4 Roses”. Over time the composition of the band varied while we settled with 3 members remaining and adjusted our name to “Queens of Roses”. There were a few changes in group members by this day, but you don’t just meet the right person you search till you find the right match and it is very hard to replace someone. It may seem that being in a girlband you don’t need many qualities but in most cases it is a lot harder than to go solo. You have to sing perfectly, be able to hear one another, be able to move on stage, have the presence and character to be able to capture people’s hearts and also share a spotlight with colleagues, to be able to make decisions in a team of three ladies and take responsibility for more than just yourself. We are glad we manage to do it well.

That makes a lot of sense, I’m sure it is a challenge! I also wanted to ask, I remember you all from the first year I watched the Lithuanian pre-selection Eurovizijos Atranka in 2017 and 2019. When you think back to those experiences what was your experience like on the show?

We always have the greatest time when participating in Eurovision pre-selections. We love the process of creating performances, thinking of styles and messages we would like to translate to the viewers. For this reason, we are always choosing songs that are out of our comfort zone, that requires some show or interesting approach or simply an idea of how to justify the weird names that our songs tend to have. For us Eurovision is the sweetest challenge.

Speaking of comfort zones, “Pabandom iš Naujo“ looks very different to the multi-show format that Eurovizijos used when you last participated. Are there any changes to the national selection format that you are or aren’t looking forward to?

We would probably say that the changes do not affect us too much, because no matter the format we still are only concentrated on the performance itself which never changes. “Get on the stage and do your best” – this is all that matters and all that we think about. The only thing that is taking away a little this year is that we do not have a live audience in the studio when performing. And sensing the people around is the best feeling and it often lifts the performance quite a bit.

You mentioned you love to have weird names for your songs, and this year your song is titled “Washing Machine”. Can you tell us a bit more about the message of your song?

Once again, the crazy names of our songs. 🙂 Well at least we do not mean the washing machine literally here and this is not about us becoming housewives 😀 Anyway, as probably all the songs, “Washing machine” can mean many different things to people. The lyrics talk about some playboys or playgirls that we all meet in our lives at some point and once we reach different levels of maturity we start speaking different languages.

But in general, we see the meaning as a very often miscommunication between people, between couples, between generations and etc. This is a very common problem these days and this is causing problems worldwide. Anyway, we are kind of making fun of this situation and the washing machine sounds play the part of someone that we just don’t understand! So we are approaching this situation with a hint of a humor.

I know that the rehearsal process for a show like this can be very long and arduous – how have preparations been going for the live shows on your end?

We laugh that we are a little bit like a last-minute student this year. We have started to fully prepare for the show only a good week before the actual filming. So yes, the process was intense for us, even a little nuts. But I believe this is how we function best. You just concentrate all your energy to the final result and you work day and night to make it happen. Might sound like a torture, but we actually have a lot of fun. Feeling drained from doing what you love is a positive feeling that could be compared to the feeling of accomplishment.

Speaking of intense and nuts, the winner of Pabandom iš naujo will go on to Turin this coming May. What would it mean to represent Lithuania at the Eurovision Song Contest this year?

This would obviously be a great honor. We do believe that we would represent our country well and the song would catch Europe’s interest. Anyway, we are not thinking about winning when participating. We are there to meet our colleagues and perform the best we can and provide a great show for the viewers. And whoever’s message reaches the most hearts are the ones that has to go spread the message further. Our job is not to fight for a winning spot but give emotions and joy to people that are listening to us. This is how we see our mission as musicians.

For those who want to connect with you ahead of or after the selection– where can they find you and your music?

We are always glad to contact the people that are interested in our music or in our lifestyles as musicians in general. For the music and videos we have our accounts on Spotify and Youtube. And for our daily, weekly crazy band’s life visit Oueens of Roses accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

Last question – is there any message you’d want to share with the ESCUnited readers?

Living in a crazy times as we all are now, we would like to remind everyone to not forget to share a smile with your close ones and strangers and simply spread love! Also, listen to the music, feel the music, share the music. It heals souls. Best wishes from our trio!

Well I want thank you so much for taking some time for us and we wish you the best of luck during Pabandom iš naujo!