Last night the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of musical unprofessionals — traveled to Vilnius’ Old Town to enjoy cepelinai, a potato-based dumpling dish that is hearty and tasty in equal measure. After our indigestion cleared, we gathered round the table to review Lithuania’s Eurovision 2015 act Monika & Vaidas. Did their song “This Time” leave us smiling ear to ear? Or was it more a case of “not this time”? Read on to find out…
Lithuania’s Eurovision 2015 song
Reviews: Monika & Vaidas with “This Time”
Angus: Monika and Vaidas might be ‘falling in love’, but that’s jumping the gun as far as I’m concerned. This is a sweet and sunny song, but charming chemistry aside there are better duets and better guitar-strum numbers in this Semi-Final. That being said, Lithuania qualified with a diabolical song in 2013 so with a cute one they might sneak through.
Score: 5/10
Anthony: Last year, it was a case of right singer, wrong song. So was it worth going through the entire Eurovizijos selection process again? “This Time” it worked and on the sixth time of asking, I finally get to see Monika Linkyte represent her country, and with an infectiously uptempo feel-good song. Add fan favourite Vaidas Baumila into the mix and it’s a win-win situation. Going for a duet clicked into place for Azerbaijan in 2011. Maybe history could repeat itself for Lithuania in Vienna.
Score: 8.5/10
Bogdan: I’m having Malta 2014 flashbacks when I listen to “This Time”, although it is a bit catchier than Firelight’s song and Monika and Vaidas are more endearing. Vocals and harmonies are on point and I’ll be glad if Lithuania advances to the Grand Final, despite their unfortunate position in the running order. Nonetheless, in the bigger picture, there are way better songs in competition (just look at their Baltic neighbours). “This Time” may be the cutest song, but that’s not going to cut it this time.
Score: 6.5/10
Chris: I find something really charming about “This Time”. Monika and Vaidas are like the Common Linnets on a lot of prozac, but the chemistry between the duo is undeniable. They mask a lot of the issues with “This Time” thanks to this chemistry. Good thing: The song itself isn’t anything marvellous and the relentless optimism drags on about two minutes in. I fully expect to see this in the final though, especially with their draw. The best Lithuanian entry for quite some time.
Score: 7/10
Deban: It’s hard not to like this feel-good pop number, and its equally endearing performers. “This Time” has some storytelling magic to it. It’s country, it’s pop, and it packs a punch with eye-candy.
Score: 6.5/10
Judit: After the Baltics decided about their acts for Eurovision, everyone was crazy about how strong their songs are. For me it’s a complete mystery how people can love Lithuania and Latvia. This song is a typical romantic duet, nothing special. It’s not a slow one, that’s why I can’t hate it, but clearly not a winner. They are cute but nothing more.
Score: 4/10
Padraig: Well isn’t this delightful! Finally a duo that aren’t plotting each other’s funeral. Vaidas and Monika are wonderful, their chemistry is infectious and the vocals are spot-on. “This Time” is three minutes of feel-good, heart-warming fun, something we’re running rather low on this year. And as for the repetitive lyrics? All the better for singing along to m’dear! Easily Lithuania’s best ever entry.
Score: 8/10
Robyn: There’s so much goofy, loved-up energy in this song. Monika and Vaidas have amazing chemistry – and check out those harmonies! But it feels like the performance is almost at the point of being a finale from a cheesy musical, and the song seems to run out of momentum in the final 30 seconds. The relentless upbeat optimism of “This Time” won’t be for everyone, but with so many dramatic ballads in the competition this year, a bit of happy love is a very welcome relief.
Score: 7/10
Sami: Vaidas and Monika are both so talented and their chemistry is something we haven’t seen from duos at Eurovision in years! Even though I cheered for Vaidas in their national selection, I think it was great choice to go with a duet, as the song works so well with two. This song is happy and that’s what we need this year.
Score: 10/10
William: They’re feeling love, but I definitely am not. This feel-good number gets boring after 40 seconds, and the repetition of luh-uh-uhve becomes incredibly grating. It’s slightly dated and unbearably cheesy, which is a shame because Monika & Vaidas are both fantastic vocalists who know how to perform. I wish Lithuania had given these fantastic artists a song I want to hear.
Score: 5/10
Our jury consists of 29 people, but we only have room for 10 written reviews. Here are the remaining 19 scores.
Denise: 8.5/10
Francheska: 3.5/10
Josh: 7.5/10
Kristín: 7.5/10
Liam: 6.5/10
Luis: 7.5/10
Marek: 7/10
Mario: 9/10
Max: 6/10
Mike: 10/10
Mikhail: 7.5/10
Patrick: 7.5/10
Ramadan: 5.5/10
Renske: 7.5/10
Rezo: 6.5/10
Sinan: 7.5/10
Sopon: 9/10
William C: 6.5/10
Zach: 4.5/10
To reduce potential bias, we drop the highest and lowest scores prior to calculating the average. We removed a low of 3.5 and a high of 10.
Love them
Nobody bullies my two darlings
Capiche
Yes It’s tacky
Yes It’s cheesy
Guess what ?
That was the whole intention
Wait for the live performance and you will feel the love two
????
9.8/10
This song is very catchy and memoriable. I love their chemistry and the duet kind of makes me want to dance along. I really, seriously hope they will qualify to the final and maybe even win the whole contest. Who knows? They’re in my top 5 for sure!
Hey erm Judges, most of y’all like this???
Dunno if we listened to the same song but it’s defo not this time for me.
Yes it’s an improvement from 2014’s “Attention” but nah fam.
And that kiss in the middle? Like seriously? I can’t deal.
this is definetly my least favourite from semi final 2, would rather see anyone else qualify instead of them
It’s gonna be a breath of fresh air in the constest. it’s so cheesy that it works. plus Vaidas is very atractive.
9,1/10
Very happy and I think it is great that Lithuania brings some happiness to the contest. Two charismatic singers, wearing nice and comfortable clothes and the kiss is awesome.
Charm, energy, and charisma carry this a long way. But I think it needs more delivery and staging tweaks to reach three minutes before tedium creeps in.
I Like Lithuania along with Malta my favourites for Semi Final 2.
i think that Lithuania can qualify along with Malta, Azerbaijan, Iceland, Sweden, Cyprus, but i hope Ireland
Televoters will love this I think. Juries too, but not at the same level.
The running order works for them too – they will open the show with this catchy tune (plus, both singers are atractive).
Lithunia will sail into the final.
I’d just be sad if Lithuania qualifies, it’d just block the final to another beautiful song that not many people like but me and someothers. I’m scared ’bout not to see Aminata in final, and instead of her see Lithuania or Switzerland or another
average-2000′-upbeat song. CONTINUE REVIEWING, WIWIBLOGGS! YOU’RE JUST THE BEST!!!!
The are the loveliest couple and the have a very and nice energetic song! Hope they’ll qualify!
A) Why do they sing in English? B) How tacky can you get?
I have to say, I am very underwhelmed. The music is actually not bad, good harmonics, but the lyrics are silly to say the least. And they have no chemistry to speak of. Disappointed, a lowest-common-denominator song.
C’est Ma Vie is the best Lithuanian entry, should’ve definitely done better in an average year. This isn’t as bad as Something or Eastern European Funk, but definitely isn’t good as C’est Ma Vie or Love is Blind.
TeleRoger, there are many good songs that deserve to qualify in the second semi final so it will be difficult
Catchy song goes
“round and round” in my head but then it’s gone
Love the kiss in the middle and “This time” hopefully a kiss won’t cause Eurovision panic with some broadcasters !!
The song deserves a chance in the final but not heard who it’s up against in the semis yet.
Am sure there are much worse entries!
I like the song, I like the act – a 7 from me 😀
One of the best entries this year and easily Lithuania’s best ever.
I agree with Sami in every single word……10/10!!!!!! Big love to Lithuania <3
The jury seemed to be very kind!
For some reason, the singers find a way of making the most annoying noises throughout their song. It’s a lot of work to get through the full three minutes and seems really dated.
4/10
Oh, it’s great that you reviewed Lithuania’s song and I hope that Vaidas and Monika will bring their best performance on Eurovision stage because they should improve it a lot… They made their national selection performances twice and both were a bit different, while still searching for the best melody. They should release their video soon, so then we’ll see more. Talking about lithuanian entries – yeah, a lot of people dislike eurovision selection in Lithuania, but it also seems that national broadcaster don’t know what to do when there are no good songs or songwriters… Yeah, there are lot… Read more »
I think Padraig’s comments match mine. It’s a great song.
BTW I am happy to read the Wiwi jury comments. Sure I won’t agree with them all. They don’t agree with each other. They are just giving their personal opinion. No point in dwelling on it. Move on.
@John. Yep I agree. Very rare. And like i said, I need a drink (and may have started at the time of the original post ;-). But I guess my point is that removing the highest and lowest with 29 jurors is only going to cause what I believe to be a max 0.34-0.35 point difference. Is that 0.34-0.35 relevant. Now, that I think about it, maybe…
Anyways, this is what nerds like me do. I’ve become my high school math teacher who used to remark that she would do math for fun in her spare time…sigh…where’s my bourbon?
all is ten and one is 0 I meant ***
@Zack, you’re thinking about it too mathematically. You’re stating things that are very low in probability statistically. I think it is necessary to remove lowest and highest scores to get rid of any votes that don’t go along with majority. If the data is not skewed (e.g. all the data is a ten), calculating the mean is not the best, so the most common value should be used (or the median, but they’re the same).
I think you guys have always been open and honest about what this jury is and who makes it up. So keep up the good work! I will say that with 29 jurors now, dropping the lowest and the highest scores really is not going to do much. I’m a nerd and did the math. Your methodology now yields a score of 7.07 (Standard Deviation [SD]=1.36). Without dropping these scores, the score is 7.05 (SD=1.57). Two other scenarios, both unlikely to happen: All but 1 juror gives a song a 10. The lone juror gives the song a 0. Current… Read more »
What I found great about Wiwi Jury is that everyone has a different point of view just like us, so I don’t understand why the disrespect in some of the comments about the scores. This is about personal musical taste just like everyone else has. See the scores, everyone has a different opinion about the song, it’s not unanimous. So calm down a little and enjoy music. This song is definitely a “love or hate” song, not everyone’s cup of tea. I think I said it on another post, Love the song, love their voices and love their chemistry… You… Read more »
@Easpag: Yeah, I’m salty though by no means am I lying. The picture is about how for example in the “Who Should Win Eurovision?” article in the main picture ( I.e the one visible in from the home menu ) they placed the picture of a couple of artists and not all the artists taking part in the Eurovision song contest. The also give certain artists more space in the main picture. Also it’s quite easy to cheat in the stupid poll. Tried it out myself last year by placing Malta from 12th position to 4th position in a poll… Read more »
@ John the studio version is already out though. Well at least here in the UK. The track was made available through iTunes together with 6 other entries through universal.
I liked the song a lot with the solo male vocalist. When I heard it was going to be a duet I was skeptical. I like the duet singing this as well, however i do not like them with this song. It is much better with a male vocalist. Her opening doesn’t work with this song. That said, I’m still cheering for each of the Baltics.
@Maltish salty much? They’re hardly going to say “well, turns out our poll is completely wrong and there’s no point in voting”, that would be like shooting yourself in the foot. Really, it’s not that difficult to comprehend. Not to mention that once you remove the affected voting options, the poll is very accurate as to what people feel.
I have no idea what your talking about of the picture thing.
They aren’t even great singers tbh. Monika’s voice just lacks in places and Vaidas’ is only slightly better. One of the few overrated songs this year (with Spain, the Netherlands).
I think you guys should establish some common parameters for assigning scores, otherwise they’re pretty meaningless. 10s should be reserved for songs you think deserve to win the contest imo.
Why is it that every duet and every slow song this year = The Common Linnets??
I think what saves this song from being unbearably cheesy is that they’re both amazing singers and their voices go really well together. Hope they don’t do the kiss in Vienna.
i like like it a lot, best lithuania’s enter ever, they deserve a final spot
I love their voices and how they fit together, their chemistry is very believable, and the song is bouncy with a great hook! If they leave in that kiss, that will do wonders for their staging! I’m hoping they do well.
Check out TOP 40 which is based on 100 personal charts and see where’s Lithuania placed!
And you CAN VOTE for YOUR TOP 10 in comments!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uZNomvbqJ5M&client=mv-google&hl=en&gl=LV
@Adam: I’m sure a couple of people in Wiwi’s jury, have witnessed alot of contests therefore I highly doubt they hold this year to high regard. Do you remember last years crop of “juries”, in which one gave 0-3 scores for every single score except for his uptmost favourites. If that’s bias I don’t know what is. Believe it or not this is the premier Eurovision site on the web yet it’s one of the most unprofessional sites out there from choosing pics of the artist according to their preferance to showing their polls as concrete facts when it’s clearly… Read more »
I can see this as a song where it is enjoyed by the public but still ends up disqualifying
Wow! I see that some of the jurors have already pulled out the 10’s, and it’s only the first review!!! Really, is it possible for someone to think that this is the best entry this year?! I certainly don’t think it’s bad, but a 10… As far as I’m concerned, it is a huuuuge improvement for Lithuania over last year’s atrocious number (I can’t even call ‘Attention’ a ‘song’), but this in itself doesn’t say much… It will stand out due to its happy nature (as opposed to the general mostly depressed atmosphere), and due to the singers – both… Read more »
Where’s Jacob Stepaschko’s comment / mark? He’s part of the team, right? ????
It probably will qualify for the final cause there are so many to vote for it (UK, Ireland, Latvia). That sucks cause a better song may not get through.
SF2 will probably be: Slovenia, Azerbaijan, Malta, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Ireland, Cyprus, Latvia & Lithuania (maybe Czech Republic over Lithuania).
Definite NQ: San Marino, Portugal, Poland, Israel.
@Maltish: unfortunately there is a thing called different opinions, where many people think this year’s quality of songs is one of the highest and therefore the songs are going to get higher scores. Whether or not Malta gets a low score is irrelevant to any claim of bias because people are either gonna like it or not
@Robyn: They’ve been quite consistent before and imo this years field of songs is quite comparable to last years, so there is no reason why this below average score should be given a 7. We’ll see later on though, how other songs rank up.
@Robyn – you nailed it! 🙂
For me this is bad song, and Eurovision is much more about geography than chemistry. Maybe they will qualify to final, but this is not a success. Only top 10 is good result at ESC.
I love this song – it has such an uplifting chorus and makes a change from the awful lot of doom and gloom featured this year. Easily Lithuania’s best song in years.
@William Adams Lee Adams: First of all thanks for taking the time to respond. We all know this song is at the lower half at this years Eurovision song contest. In previous years a 7 meant the song is at least decent. Unfortunately this song isn’t. Bet you guys are going to rank Malta lower than this ( Yes, I am also butt hurt that most of the time our song is always underrated by everyone )
By “chemistry” you mean that they are both attractive, smile a lot and that at some point they kiss? Disney-movie chemistry?
This song is ultimately as light and harmless as a balloon full of helium. Some call this charming, I say it is quite repetitive. I doubt they will make the cut. They are in the first position of a tough semi with many other duets following.
God works in mysterious ways, so does Wiwibloggs. How this thing can achieve 7/10 is beyond me.
4.5/10
It’s a jolly song and they do have great chemistry onstage, but it’s kinda cheesy.
So this received a 7/10. Can’t wait to see how much sweden recieves a 9.9/10. Stop the bias WiwiBloggs, this song doesn’t deserve a 7.