Lithuania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, with the Lithuanian entry selected by a national final - Eurovizijos dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka 2010 - organised by Lithuanian broadcaster LRT. On 4 March the final of Eurovizija 2010 was held, where it was decided by a joint jury and televoting decision that InCulto would represent Lithuania at the Contest in Oslo, Norway with the song "Eastern European Funk".
Before Eurovision
Possible withdrawal
In December 2009 it was announced that LRT would formally withdraw from the 2010 Contest owing to problems in finding the required funds to send a Lithuanian entry to the Contest. A total of 300,000 litas was required by LRT to send a Lithuanian delegation to the contest in Oslo, Norway. However funding was given by Lithuanian company Teo LT which allowed a Lithuanian participation. According to Nerijus Ivanauskas, deputy director of Teo LT, "it was decided to support LRT for two reasons: the internationalimage of Lithuania and Teo LT digital development".
Eurovizija 2010
Three semi-finals were aired and the top three from each semi-final advanced to the final on 4 March 2010. LRT also selected three wildcard acts for the final out of the remaining non-qualifying acts from the semi-finals. The results of each of the 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.
Competing entries
On 6 January 2010, LRT revealed the first details of the national final. Songs could be submitted to LRT until 24 January 2010. Songwriters of any nationality were allowed to submit entries, but performers were required to have Lithuanian citizenship or be residents of Lithuania in order to be eligible to participate. LRT received a total of 81 submissions, and 36 of them were chosen to compete at the selection, which were announced on 1 February 2010.
Semi-final 1 (13 February 2010)
The first semi-final was aired on 13 February 2010 where eleven acts competed for three spots in the final. Donata Virbilaitė was to perform during the semi-final with the song "Nupirkta pasaka", however the song was withdrawn before the show. Sasha Son & Nora, Aistė Pilvelytė and Monika Linkytė progressed to the final. Sasha Son & Nora were the winners of the jury vote, however Aistė Pilvelytė was the clear favourite of the public vote, receiving four times more votes than the runner-up.
Semi-final 2 (20 February 2010)
The second semi-final was aired on 20 February 2010 where eleven acts competed for three spots in the final. Merūnas was to perform with the song "Rosa" during this semi-final, but withdrew beforehand due to medical issues. AGAMA, Ruslanas Kirilkinas and Donatas Montvydas progressed to the final, with Donatas Montvydas receiving the most points from both the jury vote and the public vote. However, on 22 February 2010, Donatas was disqualified from the competition after it was revealed that his song, "Running Fast", had been performed before 1 October 2009, breaking fundamental Eurovision rules. He was replaced by Amberlife, who came fourth.
Semi-final 3 (27 February 2010)
The third semi-final was aired on 27 February 2010 where twelve acts competed for three spots in the final. InCulto, Evelina Sašenko and Merūnas progressed to the final, with InCulto winning with full marks from the public vote but only placed fifth in the jury vote. On 1 March 2010, all three jury wildcard entries were announced to have been selected from this semi-final: Ramūnas Difartas, Jūratė Miliauskaitė and Eden.
Final (4 March 2010)
The final took place on 4 March 2010. The nine entries that qualified from the three semi-finals and the three wildcards from the eliminated entries, all together twelve songs, competed during the show. "Eastern European Funk" performed by InCulto was selected as the winner after receiving the most points from both the jury vote and the public vote.
At Eurovision
Lithuania competed in the second semi-final of the contest, on 27 May.
Split results
In the Semi-final 2 Lithuania came 12th with 44 points: the public awarded Lithuania 8th place with 65 points and the jury awarded 13th place with 27 points.
