Another national final weekend is upon us and it is Lithuania’s turn to begin their selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 to be held in Rotterdam this May. Ahead of tomorrow’s broadcast, LRT has filmed and revealed the running order for Heat 1 of Pabandom iš Naujo! 2021.
Pabandom iš Naujo! … Well actually tomorrow
Tomorrow the first Heat of Lithuania’s selection for Eurovision 2021, Pabandom iš Naujo! begins. Already this week filming has taken place and further details about the show have been revealed. Due to the withdrawal of Evelina Sašenko and Gintarė Korsakaitė, LRT have moved Abrokenleg from Heat 1 to Heat 2 to even both to ten acts. Returning winners, The Roop of course have automatic qualification to the Final. Thus 21 acts will compete in total. Below is the running order and some of the songs already released:
- Black Spikes ft. Indrė Launikonytė – ‘Don’t Tell Me‘
- Thomukas – ‘Wish’
- Be U – ‘Love Yourself’
- Voldemars Petersons – ‘Never Fall for You Again‘
- Martyna Jezepčikaitė – ‘Thank You Very Much’
- Donata Virbilaitė – ‘The Way I Am‘
- Twosome – ‘I Love My Bear‘
- Milita Daikerytė – ‘Shadows’
- Aldegunda – ‘Sit Down’
- Titas ir Benas – ‘No’
Five acts from both Heats will advance to the Semi-Final. This will be from a combination of 50% Lithuanian jury voting and 50% public televote. Although voting lines will be open throughout, the results will only be shown on screen at the end of the broadcast to avoid the audience being influenced. The jury for the first Heat will include – Ramūnas Zilnys (Editor-in-Chief LRT Popular Music), Jievaras Jasinskis (Composer), Vytautas Bikus (Songwriter/Composer), Ieva Narkutė (Singer/Songwriter) and Aistė (Lithuania 1999). As well the regular hosts Vytautas Rumšas and Ieva Stasiulevičiūtė, Lithuania’s 2015 representative Vaidas Baumila also joins the team this year. Watch the broadcast tomorrow night at 8pm CET on the LRT website here.
Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest
Lithuania debuted at the contest in 1994. Their first entrant, Ovidijus Vyšniauskas with the song ‘Lopšinė mylimai‘, finished last with nil points. However, this didn’t deter them from continuing; they have participated every year since 2004.
The semi-final era has seen some mixed results. With Lithuania’s best finish coming in 2006 with LT United’s ‘We Are The Winners‘. Despite the title, LT United could only manage 6th. Lithuania’s only other top 10 came in 2016, when Donny Montell finished 9th with ‘I’ve Been Waiting For This Night‘. Overall, Lithuania has qualified in 9 out of 16 attempts since the introduction of the semi-finals.
Last year The Roop won the rebranded national selection, Pabandom iš Naujo! Their viral hit ‘On Fire’ topped both the jury and televote and was among the early favourites for Eurovision 2020. However last March the EBU had to announce the cancellation of the contest due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Now that The Roop are making a 2021 comeback, can they be successful once more? They believe so. We will have to watch and wait!
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