Another national final weekend is upon us and Lithuania is back again for Heat 2 of Pabandom iš Naujo! 2021. As the journey towards selecting their Eurovision 2021 entrant continues.
Pabandom iš Naujo!… a Heat 2 Discoteque
Tomorrow the second Heat of Lithuania’s selection for Eurovision 2021, Pabandom iš Naujo! continues. 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 moved Aistė Brokenleg, who was originally set to perform in Heat 1, over to Heat 2 to even both to ten acts.
However we get a bonus treat tomorrow night. As returning winners, The Roop who have automatic qualification to the Final, will be the special guest interval act! They will ensure the heat gets higher, as they perform their new entry ‘Discoteque’ for the first time, ahead of the Final on 6th February 2021.
Below is the running order and some of the songs already released:
- UnoBand – ‘Eisiu’
- Rapolas – ‘Degam‘
- Sunday Afternoon – ‘Open‘
- Aistė Brokenleg – ‘Home’
- Cosmic Bride – ‘Solitary Star’
- Norbertas – ‘Man In Need’
- Gabrielė Goštautaitė – ‘Freedom‘
- Gebrasy – ‘Where’d You Wanna Go‘
- Evita Cololo – ‘Be paslapčių‘
- Gabrielius Vagelis – ‘My Guy‘
Five acts will join the five Qualifiers from Heat 1 advancing 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 second Heat will include – Ramūnas Zilnys (Editor-in-Chief LRT Popular Music), Vytautas Bikus (Songwriter/Composer), Ieva Narkutė (Singer/Songwriter), Gerūta Griniūtė (LRT Radio/TV Host) and Stanislavas Stavickis-Stano (Singer/Songwriter). As well as 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!
Will you be watching Pabandom iš Naujo!? Let us know! Stay up to date by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! As well as subscribing to our YouTube channel. Where you can watch our reactions to the news in the upcoming months. You can also follow our Spotify for more music from your favourite acts!