Months after Lithuania concluded its national selection contest for Eurovizija 2014, we’re still confused by the process. It was one long trainwreck that resulted in Vilija Mataciunaite wearing rubber on stage in Copenhagen while screaming “Attention!” Can we please not repeat that again this year, Vilnius?
Alas, state broadcaster LRT has announced that it will stick with its un-winning formula from last year. It will stage a separate contest for the artists and songs, and pair them up over the course of eight shows and two finals (one for song, one for singer).
LRT is now accepting applications from interested singers. Rules require that they be citizens of Lithuania. LRT will issue its call for songs in the coming weeks. Songwriters do not need to be citizens of the country.
We already know of one singer who is keen to make her mark on Lithuanian TV: Laurita, a topless singer who performs wearing just a maple leaf. We are not kidding. According to Balsas, she promises, “to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest and seize the agonizing Lithuanian pop scene.” God help us all.
Photo: Eurovision.tv (EBU)
Oh nooooooooooo. Will they please get back to a national final that makes sense? That selection last year didn’t turn out well at all. It worked for Germany in 2010, but Lithuania didn’t get good enough songwriters in their case. I even thought it was a good idea at first, but then it was clear that the songs had handcuffed the performers. In the end, there was no point – go figure that Vilija won with a song that she had co-written. It makes no sense to expect that out of a handful of songs and a handful of performers,… Read more »
I don’t like the structure of selecting the performer and the song separately, I think the performer should go with a song that fits them in all senses, and one with which they feel comfortable, so it should be something for them to select… but oh well. Good luck Lithuania.
Well, there always has to be one country we shake our heads at and go “why?”
You are so mean, William! I liked Vilija & she deserved our attention. It was a great performance with a hot dancer. I would like more.
I wish Lithuania well in 2015.
@D Totally agree! I want to hear Lithuanian in ESC.
This is great news, as I loved their weird and complicated selection, even though the winner wasn’t that worthy.
My advice for Lithuania:
Don’t sing in English, Lithuanian is such an interesting language and whenever the Lithuanian singers sing in English they always have such a strong noticeable accent which makes their songs seem less appealing.
Considering I’m half Lithuanian, I always feel the need to root for them. However, most of the time I’m disappointed. The last Lithuanian entry I liked was 2009’s by Sasha Son but I wasn’t even too crazy about that one and haven’t liked any other one really. I hope Lithuania can find something out of this madness they call Eurovizija and get a qualifying act which they surprisingly find more often than not.
I hope they end high for a change.
With a pretty popsong that could actually happen. 🙂