It’s the Eurovision down season, and don’t you for a second think we’re going to stop speculating, arguing, and pushing our heated opinions. Our latest series will look at the national finals of Eurovision, and discussing how we would reform the national finals of Eurovision. Today we’re having a look at Eurovizija.LT.
In part 18 of this series Euan, Georgia and Angus discuss what changes they’d make to Lithuania’s national final.
What is Eurovizija.lt?
Lithuania has used a national final to select its Eurovision representative for all of its entries bar its debut in 1994. The national final itself has undergone frequent name changes and small format changes. From 2020 to 2023, the country used “Pabandom iš naujo!” (translation – We try again!) as its national final. Most recently in 2024, Eurovizija.LT was the name of the national final. There were 40 participants across 5 semi-finals, with two participants advancing to the final from each.
Do we like what the NF does so far, and do we think there’s a chance of it producing a winner?
Georgia
Generally, I would say so. Like its Baltic brethren Estonia, Lithuania has had a strong streak over the last few years, with consistently solid results but not quite reaching that top-tier contender level. However, I think Lithuania has the capability to produce a winner in the near future. There’s a strong music scene, interest from the general public in Eurovision and momentum from previous results. It’s just a matter of whether they can capitalise on all of that.
Angus
I’ll be frank: Eurovizija.LT was one of the biggest downgrades in national final history. From the visual identity to the songs to the format, everything was worse. That being said, there were still good songs to enjoy and the overall production of the NF was still good as well. Producing a winner might be a tricky proposition, but I have definitely heard songs in Lithuanian NFs that I could see winning Eurovision.
Euan
As the site’s resident Lithuania stan I feel it’s my duty to hype up the best national final of the year. But more seriously I think I do need to say I hate it with an absolute passion. I love what Lithuania is in Eurovision, I love what you’ll find in Lithuanian NFs, but by god do I find the structure of the show frustrating. There have been sure fire top 5 entries, and even some winners that just lost in a mess of a show.
What changes would we make to the National Final?
Georgia
This isn’t that important, but change the name LRT, please. I’m nitpicking, but tweeting “Eurovizija.LT” and Twitter thinking it’s a link annoys me. But, in terms of changes to the actual show, I think the change I would most like to make is making it a smaller show. I don’t mind the format (having multiple semi-finals spread across a few weeks with two artists advancing to the final from each) but I feel like five shows and 40 participants is too much. While we didn’t see it this year with Silvester, five semi-finals could possibly lead to recency bias, favouring contestants that advance from later semis. I think potentially shortening it to maybe 3 semi finals with 10 participants each may be a good idea.
Angus
5 semi-finals? LRT is worse at math than PBS Malta and their 3 QFs and 1 SF that they had in 2023! While I don’t necessarily agree with Georgia that the show should be slimmed down, either a smaller show or returning to the Pabandom format would be an improvement. The judges add nothing to general proceedings and I worry about the impact they may have on the televote. Also, holding a superfinal in a final with only 10 songs is just a very, very silly thing to do.
Euan
Starting off with voting. If you’ve read any of the other articles in the series you will be familiar with my disdain towards non-proportional televotes. I won’t waste your time with another rant; the need to be removed from any NF. Otherwise with voting I think the most important change LRT could make in Eurovizija would be to bring back some form of app voting. Lithuania really does suffer from a small televote in the semi finals. Simply not enough people vote and it really skewers the voting so some acts who are able to mobilise a highly motivated fan base, that isn’t necessarily going to translate to real support in the final. Make it easier and cheaper to vote, and really encourage people to participate in the selection. On the topic of voting; this isn’t so much of pressing relevance because they didn’t have it last year. However, LRT does love an international jury. Please never bring them back. Lithuania should pick Lithuania’s entries. Contrary to Angus, I think the Superfinal should remain, but I do still lament the left field Shower victory from last year that would have been the most aggressively Lithuanian thing to have happened in Eurovizija.
Before going into the big weighty stuff like the structure of the shows, there are a few minor changes that I would make. Firstly, bring in a language rule, or at least earmark a certain number of songs making it to the shows being in Lithuanian. It’s appalling how many songs are in English and in this day and age there really is no excuse for not promoting your own language. Secondly, please have a ridiculously long Mango-style interval act every year. That was majestic and it needs to continue. The third minor point is that LRT really needs to give some more funding or guidance with the staging. The semis are not fun to watch. Some acts are coming to the semis with a full package and great staging, but most are just… nothing. I know LRT doesn’t have the same budget for this compared to some others, especially with the volume of competing entries, but giving the acts something more to work with would make for such better entertainment than what we’re getting now.
Moving onto the structure. End the pre-recorded shows. It feels naff, and honestly cheapens the experience. It doesn’t have the same excitement or fluidity that you get in a live broadcast, and in some years it hasn;t been so bad, but this one was particularly not great.
I like the jurors’ comments, even if I don’t understand them until I read what they said on twitter, and think that should stay. I do think there needs to be some more consistency with the jury. All shows of each stage should have the exact same jurors, circumstances willing, to create some semblance of consistency in the jury vote. I do also take issue with the fact that the jury has the likes of Vytautas Bikus, and Ieva Narkutė on it when they should be writing the songs or performing, but I’ll get to that in a moment.
I know this is controversial, and the fandom as a whole tends to dislike them, but LRT really needs to organise a writing camp in the summer for entries. Lithuania as a whole really doesn’t get that many submissions when compared to other NFs. There’s a wealth of great songwriters and established musicians who wouldn’t necessarily want to compete, but could still be encouraged to participate in some way. It’s done wonders for some countries, and as Nemo can attest to; can produce winners.
I’d keep the roughly 40 acts participating in the show, but I think LRT needs to take a more proactive approach in finding established, good talent for the final. I’d carve out half of the ten acts for Automatic Qualifiers picked by LRT. It’s keeping the chance for new talent to still make it in, but also lets major acts participate without the risk of some embarrassment by getting stuck in the semi finals. And to be honest, given the terrible quality that was the 2024 entries as a whole, it could do wonders in improving the average.
Now for how the other five acts are picked…. For me Lithuania was best during the 2014 and 2015 NFs when the artist and song were selected somewhat independent of each other. If I could change Eurovizija, I’d take all the songs submitted in the open selection and let them be whittled down alongside the acts in the exact same way as was done a decade ago. Essentially Eurovizija would be in three parts: The whittling stage for the open submissions and artists, the semi finals, and the final. With all three stages having some degree of separation between them like Eesti Laul to prevent any regency bias like how Georgia raised, but also to give the artists time to tweak the songs and performances, and to make them truly theirs.
Stage one would take about 30 musicians and as many songs and whittle them down a la 2014, until we have a final five acts and final five songs. Stage two would then commence earlier in the real New Year, and see five semi finals with each semi final dedicated to a single song remaining. Each act would perform their own interpretation of that song in any style they wish. Every semi final the public and the juries would then rank all acts’ interpretation of each song, and allocate the act the song that they have the most support behind. For example if act A won two semi finals, they would be allocated the song with the highest amount of support associated with them, with the song in the other semi final going to the next highest placing act in that semi final.
For stage three it’s just a bog standard national final. This satisfies the level of chaos that a Lithuanian NF should have.
Do we think any reforms are likely to happen to this NF?
Georgia
Well, aside from the name changes that happen once every couple of years, probably not. But, I think overall, Lithuania’s national final is doing good things. Just change the name, please.
Angus
Nope. The new format has had basically no impact on Lithuania’s good run of results, and it does feel like LRT are pretty damn happy with the show they have. Then again, I don’t need a lot of changes, so I don’t necessarily mind keeping things (mostly) as they are.
Euan
I really doubt we’re going to see any changes to Eurovizija, and if there are any they’ll probably be minor tweaks. LRT seem (inexplicably) happy with the format at the minute. And tbf it is warranted since they’re now in their longest qualification streak.
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 22 times and made the Grand Final 15 times. LT United gave Lithuania their best ever Eurovision result back in 2006, where the country placed 6th.
In 2024, Silvester Belt represented Lithuania, participating with the song “Luktelk”. Performing in the first semi-final, Silvester qualified for the final in fourth place. In the Grand Final, Lithuania finished in 14th place overall, with 90 points – 32 points came from the juries, with another 58 points from the televote.
What do you think about our reforms? As always, let us know what you think by commenting down below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky for all the latest Eurovision news!
News Source: That Eurovision Site
Photo Credit: LRT / E. Blažio
Tim J