Less and less time remains until the grand premiere of the highly anticipated new romantic comedy Single Valentine. The new picture, which can boast of an entire crew of prominent Lithuanian actors headed by the charismatic Vytautas Šapranauskas, is also exceptionally rich in terms of music – Single Valentine’s viewers will have a chance to hear songs by Lithuania’s most prominent musicians and emerging talents, as well as acclaimed foreign musicians.
Music was front and center in creating the mood for Single Valentine. Pieces performed by artists such as Andrius Mamontovas, the groups Biplan, Sel, G&G Sindikatas, 69 Danguje, and InCulto, the young talent GJan, Deividas Norvilas-Deivis, and film composer Titas Petrikis will play as viewers observe four couples and their relationships. In addition to Lithuania’s most popular performers, the audience will be able to hear music performed by the Latvian groups Instrumenti and The Hobos, as well as the Hungarian Amber Smith. The M.P.3. music agency helped the filmmakers develop the soundtrack.
“It’s not often that a song that is extremely popular and well-liked is right for a movie. Either the period is wrong, or the script is a problem because it’s unclear where such familiar music is coming from. We have characters in the film, radio hosts, so it was thanks to them that songs that everyone knows well found their place on the soundtrack. And there are a lot of them. We chose them to emphasize the emotion of the film and to add a new touch of emotion,” said Donatas Ulvydas, one of the movie’s directors and producers.
The makers of the new Lithuanian romantic comedy got lucky – the musicians willingly shared their work and songs. One of the first “members” of the soundtrack was Andrius Mamontovas. “Ever since Donatas did a few great videos for my songs ‘Mono arba stereo’, ‘Ar tai būtum tu?’ and ‘Kai tu atversi man duris’, I’ve wanted to write music for one of his movies. I still haven’t had the chance to work specially on a specific project, but the fact that my instrumental music worked for Donatas is a great joy and honor for me,” said Mamontovas, with the Single Valentine premiere drawing near.
Biplan vocalist Maksas Melmanas, who thinks that the new movie will be a mood lifter for many, also shared his positive experience. “It’s nice that our songs made it to one of Donatas Ulvydas’ movies, since he was the director for the ‘Labas rytas’ video, which was one of our first. Almost 15 years have passed since then, but now we’re working together again, and we’re really pleased with the fact that our paths have crossed once more. I’ve seen some of the scenes from Single Valentine. In my opinion, it’s an upbeat, light, and good film that puts you in a good mood and brings positivity that there’s never too much of in our lives. I’m really looking forward to the premiere,” said the musician. Incidentally, Biplan is the group that is preparing the movie’s biggest musical surprise. Viewers will find out about it in the near future.
Composer Titus Petrikis also contributed to the musical aspect of the film project. “Lithuanian comedies rarely appear in our cinema, and as we know, popular songs usually play in comedies. The main problem is to unite those very different songs. As a composer, my task was to create and play in musical segments, and combine the tracks in such a way for us to return the viewer to the main theme of the movie,” he explained.
Young Lithuanian singer GJan was surprised when she was asked by the makers of Single Valentine to let them use her music for the movie. “When I found out that the filmmakers want to use my music for the movie, there was this huge ‘Oho!’. I never thought that I’d find so many like-minded people who listened to me, or that my songs would ever play in a movie. It’s strange, but really great,” she said with a smile.
On the soundtrack, viewers will also hear InCulto’s new song “Something”, which is from Closer Than You Think, the group’s last album. Of course, this piece also has a romantic implication – Jurgis Didžiulis wrote the song for his wife, Erica…
Latvians are proud to have contributed to Lithuanian creative work
In addition to the numerous Lithuanian musicians, Instrumenti – the extravagant musicians from neighboring Latvia – have also added variety to the Single Valentine soundtrack. “This is something of an experiment. We heard the compliments that went out to the movie’s creative team for Fireheart: The Legend Of Tadas Blinda, which was a great success. We know that a lot of people will see Single Valentine as well. We wanted to be part of it. It makes us proud that so many Lithuanians will hear our music in their homeland and beyond its borders,” asserted the Latvians, adding that they plan to watch the movie before their concert in Vilnius on February 15th.
Moviegoers in Lithuania, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and the UK will be able to see the intriguing Valentine, four unexpected couples in love, and myriad jokes and rousing conversations starting on February 8th.
via Single Valentine soundtrack – music by Lithuania’s most popular performers | 15min.lt