The end of inCulto's video.

The video's not part of a scheme to get more Euros into the Lithuanian economy, but it is an alleged attempt at spreading goodwill among Europeans. The song, "Velkuom" or "Welcome," is inCulto's offering to represent Lithuania in the Eurovision contest this year in Greece. Lithuanian free-lance artists Pet Punk, who had previously animated inCulto's great video for "Boogaloo," animated this one as well. Mix in a little viral marketing, and, well, our email boxes are full.

Yet despite how pleasingly cute the song is (including the jarring reference to sex tourism), and despite how popular it was in Lithuania itself (Eurovision representatives are voted on by the people, American Idol style), it came in second place. The winning song, "Mes nugalėtojai!" or "We Are the Winners," is by nonce-band LT United. Group founder Andrius Mamontovas refers to LT United as a "rinktinė"—an all-star team, of sorts, employing the sports metaphor that unites LT United's effort to win Eurovision with Lithuania's success on the international basketball court. This peculiar move—of making a nonce-band—has been controversial, and the song itself has stirred controversy as well, even if only since it uses the word "Eurovision," which is apparently against the rules.

On the flip, I try to document, with videos and links to articles, about the phenomenon of LT United, and why, perhaps, the diaspora should be sending around clips of "We Are the Winners" instead of "Welcome."

Cocky Marijonas?

This theory is all fine and dandy. What about the song? Ui...

I heard the song long, long before I saw a video of a performance of it. To say I was unimpressed is to give the song too much credit. It sucks. The music is awful, and the lyrics are probably even worse. They mix both a boastfulness ("We are the winners of Eurovision") and a misplaced appeal to the Eurovision voters ("So you've got to vote (vote!) vote (vote!) vote for the winners!"), almost daring them to vote for any other song. Mix in a sly reference to Mamontovo hit "Mono arba stereo," some at first out of place bilingualism from polyglot Vee ("De Vilnius cité à Paris, LT United ici" and "Chantons la même chanson, yeah, we've got it goin' on"), and you have not much in the way of improvement. Again, the song really sucks.

And that wasn't my impression alone. This article in Lietuvos Rytas includes quite a lot of negativity, and the Eurovision selection coordinator's attempt to describe the song as a reimagining of Queen's "We Will Rock You" is feeble at best, relying on the strawman of similarity to anthemic "Ant kalno mūrai"—a resemblance unmentioned by anyone else in the article. It gets better. Vilniaus Didžiojo Universiteto Professor Artūras Tereškinas explains that the popularity of the song is indicative of a national psychology riddled with sadomasochism:

Galbūt kažkas slypi mūsų masių psichologijoje. Mes esame savotiškai sadomazochistai: mums patinka tyčiotis iš žmonių, kurie ateina, neprofesionaliai dainuoja scenoje. Mes juokiamės, tyčiojamės iš jų, paskui imame dar ir nusiunčiame į Euroviziją, kad iš jų pasityčiotų visa Europa.

Lithuanians have intentionally sent a terrible band and a terrible song to Eurovision so that they can be mocked by all of Europe? Is this sort of like punting instead of putting forward your own best effort? It could be. Videos of the live performance of the song are available all over the internet, and very frequently comments attached to the video are mocking and dismissive. "Stupid Lithuanians," the commenters seem to sneer, "thinking that this farce will do anything whatsoever at Eurovision." But the mockery also carries with it the darkened edge alluded to by the sadomasochism. Markus Larsson, writing for Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, according to Omni, considers the song to be not a source for ridicule of Lithuanians but rather, along with the entries from Poland and Monaco, abuses of the human rights of its listeners.

So to track LT United so far, we have discourses of sports, of nationalism, of collectivity, and now of human rights and sadomasochism. This is quite a provocative song in this era of the EU.

Lithuania, isolated from the world.

It's surprising that inCulto—who have a great song, "EU Shake It!," on their album PostSovPop and who sing a majority of their songs in Spanish—would adopt such reactionary nationalist imagery (or let Pet Punk do so) for their entry to Eurovision. But the over the top use of that imagery does explain why the post-World War II diaspora community (that is, most people who would ever come across this article) are so won over by it. It relies on a myth of uniqueness, a uniqueness that can be maintained only by keeping the rest of the world in the shadows. Lithuania is Shangri-La, a place forever worried about being discovered, exploited, and diluted by the global community.

Vee: Chantons la même chanson.

And what that, then, does, is rearrange the cockiness into, instead, an effort at integration like that accomplished by basketball. The goal of LT United, seemingly, is obviously to win, but winning doesn't mean Lithuania makes great pop; it means more simply that Lithuania is a functioning member of the European community, contributing and competing in everything, on a par along with the rest of the EU nations. The nationalism of LT United takes a step back (in comparison to "Welcome"), and what remains important is unity. Mamontovo and Marijono words at the start of their video, "Our strength lies in unity," recall Marxist slogans that emphasize the power of the collective, of class action. But that unity is very importantly limited not just to the form of the nation. LT United glorifies unity as such, either the unity of a team, of a group, of a nation, of a class, or of the world in and of itself. Here Vee's words are especially valuable: "Chantons la même chanson." We are all singing the same song. This is a much more palatable politics, then, which makes "We Are the Winners," aesthetic concerns aside, a better candidate for Eurovision, and a better reflection of Lithuania.