Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

Prior to the 2021 Contest, Lithuania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty times since its first entry in 1994.

For the 2021 contest, the Lithuanian national broadcaster, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), broadcast the event within Lithuania and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. Other than the internal selection of their debut entry in 1994, Lithuania has selected their entry consistently through a national final procedure. LRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest on 31 March 2020 and announced the organization of Pabandom iš naujo!, which would be the national final to select Lithuania's entry for Rotterdam.^[2]

Before Eurovision

Pabandom iš naujo! 2021

Pabandom iš naujo! 2021 (Let's try again! 2021) was the national final format developed by LRT in order to select Lithuania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. The competition involved a six-week-long process that commenced on 16 January 2021 and concluded with a winning song and artist on 6 February 2021. The four shows took place at the LRT studios in Vilnius and were hosted by Ieva Stasiulevičiūtė, Vytautas Rumšas with Vaidas Baumila hosting segments from the green room.^[3] The shows were broadcast on LRT televizija, LRT Lituanica and LRT Radijas as well as online via the broadcaster's website lrt.lt.^[4]

Format

The 2021 competition involved 21 entries and consisted of four shows. 20 of the entries participated in the first two shows which were the heats. Each heat consisted of 10 entries and the top five advanced to the competition's semi-final. In the semi-final, five entries were eliminated and the top five proceeded to the final. The entry entered by the Roop, which were to represent Lithuania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 before the event's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, competed directly in the final during which the winner was selected from the remaining six entries.^[5][6] The results of each of the four shows were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and public televoting. The ranking developed by both streams of voting was converted to points from 1-8, 10 and 12 and assigned based on the number of competing songs in the respective show. During the first three shows, the jury panel consisted of five members, while the jury panel in the final consisted of seven members. The public could vote through telephone and SMS voting. Ties in all shows were decided in favour of the entry that received the most points from the jury.^[3]

Competing entries

On 31 March 2020, LRT opened two separate submission forms: one for artists and another for songwriters to submit their songs. Artists that applied to compete with a song were required to indicate which song they wanted to compete with on their application. The submission deadline for both applications concluded on 14 December 2020.

The two heats of the competition aired on 16 and 23 January 2021 and featured ten entries each. The respective heats were filmed on 12 and 19 January 2021. The members of the jury consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys (music reviewer; first and second heat), Vytautas Bikus (composer; first and second heat), Ieva Narkutė (singer; first and second heat), Jievaras Jasinskis (composer and musician; first heat), Aistė Smilgevičiūtė (singer; first heat), Gerūta Griniūtė (cultural presenter and event host; second heat) and Stanislavas Stavickis-Stano (singer-songwriter; second heat). The top five entries advanced to the semi-final from each heat, while the bottom five were eliminated.^[11][12]

Semi-final

The semi-final of the competition aired on 30 January 2021 and featured the ten entries that qualified from the heats. The show was filmed on 26 January 2021. The members of the jury consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys (music reviewer), Aistė Smilgevičiūtė (singer), Jievaras Jasinskis (composer and musician), Gerūta Griniūtė (cultural presenter and event host) and Stanislavas Stavickis-Stano (singer-songwriter). The top five entries advanced to the final, while the bottom five were eliminated.^[13]

Final

The final of the competition took place on 6 February 2021 and featured the remaining five entries that qualified from the semi-final alongside automatic qualifier

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "

Once all the competing songs for the 2021 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Lithuania was set to open the show and perform in position 1, before the entry from Slovenia.^[18]

The two semi-finals and final were broadcast in Lithuania on LRT and LRT Radijas with commentary by Ramūnas Zilnys. The Lithuanian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Lithuanian jury during the final, was Andrius Mamontovas who previously represented Lithuania in 2006 as part of LT United.

Semi-final

The Roop took part in technical rehearsals on 8 and 12 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 17 and 18 May. This included the jury show on 17 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.^[19]

The Lithuanian performance featured the members of the Roop in yellow costumes and performing on stage with pink and black stage colours and the LED screens displaying shapes, geometric images and a lightning effect. The band was joined on stage by two dancers which together performed choreography throughout the song. The performance also featured the lighting on the performers blacking out prior to the first pre-chorus to create a silhouette effect.^[20][21] The stage director for the Lithuanian performance was Povilas Varvuolis.^[22] The two dancers that joined the Roop on stage were Marijanas Staniulėnas and Miglė Praniauskaitė, while an off-stage backing vocalist was also featured: Algirdas Daumantas Ciūnys.^[23]

At the end of the show, Lithuania was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the final. It was later revealed that Lithuania placed fourth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 203 points: 137 points from the televoting and 66 points from the juries. ^[24]

Final

Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries were announced during the semi-final. Lithuania was drawn to compete in the second half.^[25] Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Lithuania was subsequently placed to perform in position 18, following the entry from Bulgaria and before the entry from Ukraine.

The Roop once again took part in dress rehearsals on 21 and 22 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. The band performed a repeat of their semi-final performance during the final on 22 May. Lithuania placed eighth in the final, scoring 220 points: 165 points from the televoting and 55 points from the juries.^[26]

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with a diversity in gender and age represented. The judges assess each entry based on the performances during the second Dress Rehearsal of each show, which takes place the night before each live show, against a set of criteria including: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.^[27] Jury members may only take part in panel once every three years, and are obliged to confirm that they are not connected to any of the participating acts in a way that would impact their ability to vote impartially. Jury members should also vote independently, with no discussion of their vote permitted with other jury members.^[28] The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form.^[29][30]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Lithuania and awarded by Lithuania in the first semi-final and final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Points awarded to Lithuania

Points awarded to Lithuania (Semi-final 1)[24] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Cyprus  Germany  Ireland  Norway  Ukraine  Israel 10 points  Sweden 8 points  Australia  Belgium  Italy  Netherlands  Romania 7 points  Malta  Russia  Italy  Sweden 6 points  Romania  Croatia 5 points  Israel  Ireland 4 points  North Macedonia  Germany  Malta 3 points  Azerbaijan  Croatia  Cyprus  Netherlands 2 points  Australia  Belgium  Russia 1 point  Ukraine

Points awarded to Lithuania (Final)[26] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Germany  Ireland  Latvia  Norway  United Kingdom  Italy 10 points  Estonia  Georgia  Ukraine  Israel 8 points 7 points  Belgium  Sweden 6 points  Australia  Malta  Latvia  San Marino 5 points  Cyprus  Finland  Italy 4 points  Denmark  Iceland  Poland  Spain  Ireland   Switzerland 3 points  Austria  Israel  Netherlands  Romania  Finland  Georgia 2 points  Moldova  Russia  Croatia  Estonia  Spain 1 point  Czech Republic   Switzerland  Germany

Points awarded by Lithuania

Points awarded by Lithuania (Semi-final 1)[24] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Ukraine  Ukraine 10 points  Belgium  Belgium 8 points  Russia  Australia 7 points  Malta  Israel 6 points  Norway  Malta 5 points  Sweden  Romania 4 points  Cyprus  Cyprus 3 points  Azerbaijan  Sweden 2 points  Israel  Norway 1 point  Ireland  Croatia

Points awarded by Lithuania (Final)[26] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Ukraine  Ukraine 10 points  Italy  Italy 8 points  France   Switzerland 7 points  Finland  Belgium 6 points   Switzerland  Portugal 5 points  Norway  France 4 points  Russia  Iceland 3 points  Iceland  Malta 2 points  Belgium  Bulgaria 1 point  Sweden  Israel

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Lithuanian jury:^[29][30]

• Jievaras Jasinskis
• Rafailas Karpis [lt]
• Giedrė Kilčiauskienė
• Raminta Naujanytė (Bjelle)
• Darius Užkuraitis [lt]

Detailed voting results from Lithuania (Semi-final 1)^[24]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Lithuania
02	Slovenia	15	9	13	11	15	15		14
03	Russia	10	15	14	9	9	11		3	8
04	Sweden	11	2	9	8	8	8	3	6	5
05	Australia	9	1	4	3	7	3	8	11
06	North Macedonia	14	13	8	15	10	13		15
07	Ireland	13	14	7	12	12	12		10	1
08	Cyprus	6	3	15	6	6	7	4	7	4
09	Norway	4	12	12	14	3	9	2	5	6
10	Croatia	3	11	11	7	13	10	1	12
11	Belgium	7	4	2	2	2	2	10	2	10
12	Israel	2	5	3	10	5	4	7	9	2
13	Romania	5	8	5	4	11	6	5	13
14	Azerbaijan	12	10	10	13	14	14		8	3
15	Ukraine	1	6	1	1	4	1	12	1	12
16	Malta	8	7	6	5	1	5	6	4	7

Detailed voting results from Lithuania (Final)^[26]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Cyprus	13	15	21	15	17	18		11
02	Albania	23	22	24	19	24	23		25
03	Israel	11	16	7	20	7	10	1	16
04	Belgium	6	4	3	3	1	4	7	9	2
05	Russia	16	21	16	24	19	19		7	4
06	Malta	15	8	9	8	5	8	3	15
07	Portugal	4	1	5	4	12	5	6	12
08	Serbia	24	23	25	23	21	24		21
09	United Kingdom	20	17	18	18	25	20		20
10	Greece	8	14	19	13	16	15		17
11	Switzerland	5	6	2	2	2	3	8	5	6
12	Iceland	10	7	11	5	9	7	4	8	3
13	Spain	22	19	12	16	13	17		24
14	Moldova	25	25	23	25	23	25		22
15	Germany	14	12	14	10	8	12		13
16	Finland	12	10	10	12	10	11		4	7
17	Bulgaria	7	13	8	11	15	9	2	18
18	Lithuania
19	Ukraine	3	3	1	1	3	1	12	1	12
20	France	2	5	6	7	14	6	5	3	8
21	Azerbaijan	21	18	20	22	22	21		14
22	Norway	9	20	17	17	6	13		6	5
23	Netherlands	19	11	15	9	11	14		23
24	Italy	1	2	4	6	4	2	10	2	10
25	Sweden	17	9	13	14	18	16		10	1
26	San Marino	18	24	22	21	20	22		19

Notes

References