Today the rehearsals for Eurovision 2023 continue in Liverpool. Countries rehearsing on Day 3 include Estonia, Iceland, Greece, Poland, Slovenia, Georgia, San Marino, Austria, Albania, Lithuania and Australia. The tenth to rehearse today is Lithuania’s Monika Linkytė.
Monika Linkytė’s first rehearsal
The next to take to the Eurovision 2023 stage at Liverpool Arena in Liverpool was Lithuania’s Monika Linkytė. Monika will be competing in this year’s competition with her entry “Stay” following on her win in the national selection .
Following Monika’s first rehearsal a clip of what went on was posted on the official TikTok account of the Eurovision Song Contest. The clip showed Monika before and after she took to the Eurovision stage for the first time, as well as giving us some insight into how well her first rehearsal went.
What did we learn about Lithuania’s staging?
Monika is sticking with orange as the colour of her dress for the performance, although with a more pared-down style this time around. Per the Eurovision liveblog, Monika and her backing singers are delivering vocally as expected and projecting all the way to the back of the arena.
What we thought of Monika’s first rehearsal
After Monika’s first rehearsal we gave our initial thoughts on the snippet that we saw.
Who is Monika Linkytė
Monika Linkytė’s road to Eurovision began in 2007, when she participated in Lithuania’s national selection for Junior Eurovision. Following this, she competed in the Eurovizija national selections in 2010, 2011 and 2012. She also participated in Lietuvos Balsas, the Lithuanian edition of The Voice, where she placed second.
In 2013, Linkytė returned to Lithuania’s Eurovision selection, now retitled Eurovizijos Atranka. She performed “Baby Boy”, written by Sasha Son, but was unfortunately forced to withdraw after the semi-finals after being diagnosed with laryngitis. She returned the following year and placed fourth. In 2014, she also represented Lithuania in the international New Wave competition, where she achieved fourth place.
Linkytė achieved her dream of going to Eurovision in 2015, after winning the national final alongside Vaidas Baumila with the song “This Time”. They achieved 18th place at the contest in Vienna. Following this, she released “Po dangum”, which was certified platinum in Lithuania. This was followed by her debut album, Walk With Me. She was later awarded the M.A.M.A. Award for Best Song, Best Album and Best Female Act. In 2016, she moved to study in London at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute.
She was due to return to the Lithuanian national selection once again in 2022, but had to drop out due to illness. In an interview with Eurovision World, she said that her participation in the 2023 edition of the selection was a last-minute decision, which began with a joke from a friend!
Talking about her entry, “Stay”, she said:
“The song is about healing yourself, about learning about yourself a little bit more, and it asks you to stay: To stay with yourself and when we’re connected with ourselves, then we can be connected with the whole world, and that’s part of the healing.”Monika Linkytė
“Stay” is written by Linkytė, alongside Krists Indrišonoks.
Lithuania’s Eurovision Journey
The Baltic nation made its debut at the Eurovision Song contest in 1994, where Ovidijus Vyšniauskas represented them with the song “Lopšinė mylimai”, which placed 25th. Since then, Lithuania has participated 21 times and made the Grand Final 14 times. LT United gave Lithuania their best ever Eurovision result back in 2006, where the country placed 6th.
Lithuania’s latest Eurovision participation saw them being represented by Monika Liu, participated with the song “Sentimentai”. Qualifying for the final, Lithuania finished in 14th place overall, with 128 points.
What do you think of “Stay”? Can Monika Linkytė bring Eurovision to Lithuania? Let us know your thoughts! Also, be sure to follow “That Eurovision Site” on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as we prepare for Eurovision 2023!
News Source: That Eurovision Site
Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming
