In December Lithuania confirmed that its preselection for Eurovision Pabandom Iš Naujo had been confirmed for 2021 and that 23 acts would be taking part. Well January brings some sad news: One of them just withdrew from the competition.
Well-known singer and Eurovision 2011 alum Evelina Sašenko was among the favourites to challenge The Roop. But because of travel restrictions in Lithuania due to COVID-19 pandemic, she’s decided to pull out. Evelina said that she can’t leave her house and travel so easily, which won’t allow her to prepare a performance worthy of such a competition. You have to respect her respect for the show.
Evelina is familiar to Eurovision fans since she already represented Lithuania in Düsseldorf with the beautiful ballad “C’est ma vie”. She successfully qualified from her semifinal and finished 19th in the Grand Final.
She previously revealed that the song she wanted to perform in 2021 is called “Malda/Prayer” or “We Are Strong”. The song is about the difficulties brought about by the pandemic.
Broadcaster LRT officially confirmed her withdrawal today.
Will other acts withdraw from Lithuania’s “Pabandom Iš Naujo” 2021?
There are also rumours that Gintarė Korsakaitė has had to withdraw from the preselection. However, neither the singer nor the broadcaster have confirmed that in Lithuanian media. ESC Portugal says the singer has confirmed the news with them.
The first show will air on January 16th.
Currently there are 22 acts competing in this year’s selection show. They are:
Aistė Brokenleg
Aldegunda
Be U
Black Spikes and Indre Launikonyte
Cosmic bride (Natalja Chareckaja)
Donata Virbilaitė
Evita Cololo
Gabrielė Goštautaitė
Gabrielius Vagelis
Gebrasy (Audrius Petrauskas)
Martyna Jezepčikaitė
Milita Daikerytė
Norbert / Norbe
Rapolas Meškauskas
Sunday Afternoon (Vilija Matačiūnaitė)
The Roop
Thomas Tumosa
Titas and Benas
Twosome
UnoBand
Voldemaras Petersonas
What are your thoughts about Evelina Sašenko leaving? Which act are you most excited to see perform in the nation selection? Tell us your thoughts below!
No loss at all. She’s so boring!
When I was trying to bring up how the travel restrictions and virus prevention measures might affect the broadcaster’s ability to put on the national final, this is what I was talking about. I’m sorry Evelina won’t be able to perform this year. Will there be more withdrawals because the artists are unable to travel freely to reach Vilnius to perform in the national finals? I hope the bulk of them are residents of Vilnius so they can get to the studio easily.
The broadcaster has released the final song list, so the final number is 21. There should be no more withdrawals. I hope so.
Let’s cross our fingers. I noticed that heat 1 has 11 singers, but heat 2 only has 9. I bet Evelina and the other woman (forgot her name) were probably originally assigned to heat 2 before they withdrew.
The heats will get rearranged I think. There should be 10 in every heat. The Roop goes straight to the final.
I wonder when the article about the revealed song titles will be up on wiwibloggs.
Agreed. Evelina is a great vocalist and I hope to hear more from her in the future.
Yes, it’s the same singer. 🙂
The broadcaster failed so hard. They could’ve sent The Roop and don’t even think twice about it. Yet they will air a selection a that’s full of uncertainty just to milk the format. Classic LRT.
Kind of sad for her, but hopefully we can see her in another year! this has been a strange national selection season so far~~
There’s 21 acts left, not 22 (Gintar? Korsakait? withdrew also). Your count above is only 21.
well, don’t really care.
on the other hand I can’t believe there’s less than 2 weeks till the beginning of the national final season.
how empathetic of you
sorry I didn’t read the article, I thought it was on her own will not because of the situation..
First of all: Do care, or come across as a total douche bag. You choose.
Second: the National final season started with the Albanian selection in December!!!