InCulto goes to Oslo

VILNIUS - On March 4, the band InCulto won the final of the Lithuanian song competition which qualifies this band of five men to go to the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo, Norway in May. The victorious, funky song is called Eastern European Funk. It left behind 11 other finalists, who were winners from three semi-final contests. The contest was held in the Lithuanian public TV studio.

The leader of InCulto is Colombian-born Lithuanian Jurgis Didziulis. The outcome of the contest depended, by 50 percent, from the phone calls/SMS voting of TV spectators and 50 percent from a decision by a jury of musical experts. InCulto won in both categories. It got 23,767 phone votes and the maximum of 12 points from the jury, which was especially happy with InCulto’s idea to present a striptease on stage: at the end of the song, the group throws away their trousers and stays only in shiny disco-style underwear.

“Now they can be called the ‘Lithuanian striptease eagles’,” Jonas Vilimas, producer of Lithuanian public TV, said during the contest evening.

The song is very jolly though its text has some strong social meaning. Its starts with a short history lesson for Westerners about Eastern Europe: “We survived the Reds and two world wars.” Then it talks about Eastern Europeans’ life in Western Europe: “Yes, sir, we are legal we are, though we are not as legal as you / No, Sir, we’re not equal no, though we are both from the EU / We build your homes and wash your dishes, / Keep your hands all soft and clean / But one of these days you’ll realize Eastern Europe is in your genes.” Although the main part is the refrain: “Get up and dance to our Eastern European kinda funk!” which has been sung with such crazy passion that it has the potential to inspire their female fans to jump on stage and begin dancing with the band, as has happened before, and to totally lose control of themselves.

Didziulis was congratulated by his army of fans in the Lithuanian TV studio, led by his wife Erica Jennings, who is an Irish vocalist with the Lithuanian band Skamp, which appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 held in Copenhagen, Denmark, with their song You Got Style. Skamp was 13th in Copenhagen.
After the victory, InCulto celebrated all night long in the Tamsta club in Vilnius. Pranas Emilijus Didziulis, two-year old son of Didziulis and Jennings, also was happy and applauded his father there.

InCulto’s leader, Didziulis, says that he would do everything to win in Oslo. He appealed to companies to support, financially, InCulto’s advertising campaign throughout Europe during the couple of months before the Eurovision contest. Didziulis said that he is ready to self-advertise everywhere, “even in a toilet of some elderly lady in the Netherlands,” as he described it.
On March 6, during the sitting of the council of the now ruling Lithuanian political party, the Homeland Union - Lithuanian Christian Democrats, Andrius Kubilius, the party’s leader and Lithuania’s prime minister, said that he took part in the phone voting and he voted for InCulto.

“Lithuania will go forward. Lithuania will change. The youth will go forward. It is why I voted for InCulto,” Kubilius said in his opening speech of the sitting.