The first heat of Lithuania’s Eurovizijos Atranka 2020 was filmed on Tuesday 7 January. This means we now know the first 12 acts who will appear in the televised broadcast on Saturday 11 January.
Eurovizijos Atranka 2020 Heat One
Things will be a little different in the 2019 pre-selection, as stated by LRT.
In previous editions, the jury points were released immediately after filming. However, that won’t happen this year. Instead, the expert scores won’t be revealed until the end of the television broadcast.
It is hoped that this will stop the jury ratings from affecting viewers’ votes.
The panel members for episode one are Darius Užkuraitis, Giedrė Kilčiauskienė, Gerūta Griniūtė, Leonas Somovas and Vaidotas Stackevičius.
TIESIOGIAI iš „Eurovizijos“ atrankos užkulisi?
Posted by LRT on Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Furthermore, the judges’ feedback will also change. Instead of commenting after each performance, the jury will only do so in a few dedicated commentary spots throughout the show.
Additionally, in order to stop competitive televoting, the viewers’ voting results will only be announced at the end. Previously, the televote rankings were visible throughout the show.
This should make each episode much more interesting, ensuring that the suspense will build right up until the last moment.
Six acts will qualify from this heat and move on to the semi-final stage. That means, we’ll be saying goodbye to the remaining six.
Now let’s get to know some of the 12 competing acts:
Monika Marija – “If I Leave”
Monika Marija Paulauskaitė is trying her luck in Eurovizijos Atranka for a third consecutive year. She started her music journey by winning The Voice of Lithuania in 2018. Now she is a judge on The Voice Kids and Seniors.
After competing with two entries last year, this time she only has ‘‘If I Leave“. It is another powerful ballad which showcases Monika Marija’s amazing vocal skills. The song was written by Monika Marija and Marius Leskauskas.
Glossarium — “Game Over”
We first got to know this hard rock group in Eurovizijos Atranka 2019. Their not so bad result encouraged them to try their luck once more. “Game Over” is a rock song written by the band themselves. Glossarium is a five man outfit, led by vocalist Saulius Sivickas.
Aistay – ‘‘Dangus man Tu” (You are my Sky)
Aistė Tomkevičiūtė-Pajaujienė rose to fame on The Voice of Lithuania, where she reached the live shows.
Her song is in Lithuanian and written by Aistay herself with the help of music producer Niko Barisas. “This song is about heaven and earth – about the love of a man and a woman, a tremendous attraction, about a lasting and irreplaceable connection,” said Aistė in an interview.
Petunija – “Show Ya”
Agnė Šiaulytė is a solo dream pop/indie pop artist and a member of various electronic and folk music projects. She debuted as a solo artist in Eurovizijos Atranka 2016 “Tomorrow”.
In late 2019 Petunija released her eponymous debut album. “Show Ya” is taken from the same record.
Andy Vaic – “Why Why Why”
Andrius Vaicenavičius is the leader of the indie-folk band Kūjeliai. Now, Andy has embarked on a solo career.
“Why Why Why” is an upbeat pop song about self-doubt and other peoples’ opinions. It was written by Andy himself, along with Faustas Venckus.
Aika – “Paradas” (Parade)
Jekaterina Fiodorova is a professional jazz and pop singer and songwriter. She started her music career on The Voice of Lithuania.
In 2016. she competed in Lithuania’s Eurovision selection with “Be Free”. Then she performed under the stage name Catrinah.
This time, her song is in Lithuanian. It was written by Aika and music producer Germanas Skoris.
Gabrielius Vagelis – “Tave Čia Randu” (I find you here)
Gabrielius also started his music journey on the Lietuvos Balsas (The Voice of Lithuania). He’s taken the Eurovizijos Atranka plunge on multiple occasions — 2020 will be his fifth try.
“I Find You Here” is in Lithuanian and is quite different to what he usually performs. Music and lyrics where written Gabrielius Vagelis, arrangement by Bjorn Holmesland and mix and master by Snorre Bergerud.
Eurovizijios Atranka 2020 Heat One Remaining acts
The heat one line-up will be completed by:
- Baltos varnos – “Namu dvasia” (Spirit of Home)
- Justinas Lapatinskas – “High Way Story”
- Lukas Norkūnas – “Atsiprasyk” (Say sorry)
- Donata Virbilaitė – “Made of Wax”
- Meandi (Saulius Šemiotas) – ‘‘DRIP”
Who you think going to be the six qualifiers? And which song are you most excited to hear on Saturday? Let us know in the comments below.
Read more Lithuania Eurovision 2020 news here
Collage via LRT
Gabrielius was amazing during the filming of a show, and a big surprise for me was MEANDI, that was actually the best performance of the night. Gabrielius has better song though
I already save Gabrielius’ song to my favorites. I hope he can sing good live.
Gabrielus all the way. Monika’s song is very poor this year.
Why is everyone praising these two. You know there are way better artists in the selection, right?
Latvia and Lithuania is actually the same country
I literally can’t find a single difference between Latvia and Lithuania. Even their languages sound identical
Do you get paid for this rock’n’troll? 😛
Did I say anything bad?
https://university.which.co.uk/subjects/geography
So distinguishing between those 2 countries requires geography skills on the university level hahaha?
That’s like saying US and Canada is the same country. Or UK and Ireland. As a Lithuanian, I cannot understand Latvian language at all. Nor it does sound identical to Lithuanian. Even if we share some similar words, the languages are not mutually intelligible.
and now comes the moment when we forget this selection till its grand final.
I dont know i feel so tired after listening all these songs 🙁 bring back Ieva and Donny ….
I like the song from Gabrielus the best….beautiful modern ballad……ticks a lot of boxes….but how do you chop 43 secs off this entry without destroying the flow of the song?
In the video, the music starts at 00:12, and then it’s instrumental only starting at 03:10. So the song itself is actually within the 3-minute limit already. 🙂
I love slow electro-pop songs, so this is my immediate fave from this batch.
He has a potential tu pull a Kristian Kostov in May.
Six getting through from each heat still feels a bit too much.
They could’ve made it into a 4 night event, with only 4 qualifiers from each heat and 12 finalists. I am fine with this format because some slower songs may get a momentum later on. Especially since they didn’t release all 36 in December. Maybe too early to say because there are 5 more songs to come, but Monika, Gabrielius, Aistay and Andy woul have to be four of the qualifiers unless they botch their live performances.
Hopefully, that’ll be what they eventually go for. No NF should need the song performed on three separate occasions…
Repetition can become exhausting indeed. Sweden makes it work with AC, so maybe Lithuania could switch to that format and ditch the semis?
Heats – 12 songs, 3AQs, 2AC, 7 get eliminated
AC – 3 duels, 3 winners
Final – 12 songs
But I would also be okay with just 3 heats, 4 qualifiers and a final.
12 songs compete and half of them get through just like most selections… I don’t see what’s wrong with that. Eventually they’ll get to only 8 in the final.