LITHUANIA – LT United’s Andrius Mamontovas in a recent interview revealed how the 2006 entry WE ARE THE WINNERS was inspired. The reason was one: GREECE 2005 winner entry MY NUMBER ONE.
First, it started as a joke. I called one of my colleagues and said “I have an idea for a song, it’s just a very simple song, it says “We Are The Winners”. The year before the winner was Greece with a song called My Number One and I thought this is why they win because they call their song number one. Even if we were to take the last place, it would be even more ironic. So I thought this was good material to go there and just have some fun.
“We Are the Winners” was the 2006 entry into the Eurovision Song Contest for Lithuania, sung by Lithuanian all-star group LT United.
The song, thematically reminiscent of Queen’s “We Are the Champions”, is a cheery tongue-in-cheek celebration of their supposedly inevitable victory at the Eurovision Contest in the form of a football chant, with the chorus repeating “We are the winners of Eurovision / We are, we are! […] So, you gotta vote, vote, vote for the winners!”.
We Are The Winners was one of the few Eurovision songs to get booed. As Lithuania had not qualified for the final at the 2005 contest, the song was first performed in the semi-final. In the grand final, it was performed 18th, following the Netherlands’ Treble with Amambanda and preceding Portugal’s Nonstop with Coisas de nada. At the close of voting, it had received 163 points, placing 5th in the 23-strong field and qualifying Lithuania for the final.
In the final, the song was performed 14th, following Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Hari Mata Hari with Lejla and preceding the United Kingdom’s Daz Sampson with Teenage Life. At the close of voting, it had received 162 points, placing 6th in a field of 24 and giving Lithuania an automatic final berth at the next Contest. Its best points haul was from both the United Kingdom and from Ireland. At the after show press conference, winners Lordi sang the chorus of We Are The Winners as they entered. To date, the entry’s final position of 6th is the highest-ranking entry for Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Perhaps fittingly for a football chant-style song, LT United also recorded a version for the 2006 Football World Cup with slightly altered lyrics (“We are the winners/Are you with us”, for example). This recording appeared to be intended for any team to adopt, since Lithuania did not qualify for the finals of World Cup 2006. The refrain of the song was performed live by Robbie Williams during his show in King Baudouin Stadium (Brussels) on June 13, 2006.
In Lithuania We Are the Winners as CD single officially was released on June 7th, 2006 thru M.P.3 record label and it became fastest selling CD single in years. On June 21st, 2006 it was certified golden (passing 3000 units of CD sales) and on August 1st, 2006 it was certified platinum (reaching 5000 units of CD sales). It became the first platinum single in Lithuania in four years.
