She urged her fans NOT to vote for “Criminal” in the second-semi final of Eurovizijos Atranka last weekend…and they didn’t listen. A week after topping the scoreboard for the first semi final, Monika Marija ended up qualifying second with a second song, despite urging fans and members of the jury to not do so. Now, it is believed that only one of these will be performed at the final this Saturday.
Despite initially entering ‘Criminal’ to Eurovizijos Atranka, Monika Marija later decided to enter a second entry – “Light On” – to the selection. Nothing wrong with a back-up, eh? Interestingly, the latter has ended up outperforming her original submission in every stage of the competition; Light On topped both the televote and jury score in both its heat and its semi final, making it one of the frontrunners to win the entire selection.
In light of this, Monika urged fans and jurors not to vote for “Criminal” in its semi final, which took place last Saturday (16th February). She posted the following message via a Youtube video:
I’ll be very grateful to the jury, if you don’t give me points in this semifinal, and I ask the audience to save their money and I sincerely ask you not to vote for me and my song “Criminal” in the second semifinal. I am very happy that my work has received your attention and support, this Saturday I will sing your song “Criminal” with all my heart! And with “Light On”, we will meet in the finals.
Translation of Monika Marija addressing her fans via a Youtube video last week.
Ask, and you shall NOT receive…
Despite this message, fans and jurors went ahead and voted for her anyway! She ended up placing 4th in the televote and 2nd in the jury vote, qualifying in 3rd from last Saturday’s semi final.
However, according to DELPHI, Monika will only be performing “Light On” at this weekend’s final. This is due to the fact that the former has been performing better and that having two songs from the same artist in the final may split the vote and harm her chances of winning. It is worth noting that the two songs were never once performed in the same night during the course of the selection thus far.
This source also claims that an official announcement of the running order, along with which song will be replacing “Criminal” if it were to withdraw, will be released on Thursday by LRT. It is expected that Alen Chicco’s “Your Cure” will be taking “Criminal”‘s place in the final this weekend.
How do you feel about this decision? Let us know! In the meantime, be sure to stay updated with developments from LRT by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates!
