Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Lithuania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "This Time", written by Vytautas Bikus and Monika Liubinaitė. The song was performed by Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila. Lithuanian broadcaster Lithuanian National Radio and Television organised the national final "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka in order to select the Lithuanian entry for the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria. The national selection involved artists competing independently from their songs with separate selections running concurrently to choose the winning artist and song. "This Time" was selected as the winning song from a field of twelve competing songs. Three artists qualified to perform the winning song in the final round of the selection: Mia, Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila. While Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila entered the competition performing as solo acts, they joined forces as a duet for the final artist selection and were subsequently selected as the performers for "This Time".
In the second of the Eurovision semi-finals "This Time" placed seventh out of the 17 participating countries, securing its place among the 27 other songs in the final. In Lithuania's sixteenth Eurovision appearance on 23 May, "This Time" finished in eighteenth place, receiving 30 points.
Background
Prior to the 2015 Contest, Lithuania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifteen times since its first entry in 1994. Its best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in 2006 with the song "We Are the Winners" performed by LT United. Since the introduction of a semi-final to the competition in 2004, Lithuania, to this point, has managed to qualify to the final six times. In the 2014 contest, "Attention" performed by Vilija Matačiūnaitė failed to qualify Lithuania to compete in the final.The Lithuanian broadcaster for the 2015 Contest, who broadcasts the event in Lithuania and organises the selection process for its entry, was Lithuanian National Radio and Television. Lithuania has selected their entry via a national final since 1999. The national final has taken on different formats ranging from one evening shows to multiple week selections. For 2015, LRT continued the selection format used in 2014 where the artist and song were selected separately.
Before Eurovision
''"Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka''
"Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka was the national final format developed by LRT in order to select Lithuania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. The competition involved an initial twelve artists competing in an eight-week-long process that commenced on 3 January 2015 and concluded with a winning song selected on 14 February 2015 and a winning artist selected on 22 February 2015. In addition to the eight shows, LRT also broadcast a best of the national selection show on 28 February 2015 and a winning performer's support concert, where the audience can donate funds to support the selected entry, on 7 March 2015. All shows in the competition took place at the LRT studios in Vilnius and were hosted by Simona Nainė and Arūnas Valinskas. During the fourth show, Audrius Giržadas temporarily replaced Valinskas as the host.Format
The format of the competition involved artists competing independently from the songs, potentially being paired with any of the songs that were selected for the competition. Rule changes for the 2015 national selection included the ability for artists to indicate a preference to perform a particular song on their application form. After an artist was eliminated, the composer were consulted about whether the song would remain in the competition for other artists to perform. Should the artist and their song reach the final, the artist and the composer were to agree to allow the other finalists to perform the song. Monetary prizes were also awarded to both the winning song and the winning artist. The Lithuanian Copyright Protection Association sponsored a monetary prize of 15,000 LTL, awarded to the winning songwriters in order to encourage further development of the song in an aim to achieve international success. The winning artist were awarded 5,000 LTL sponsored by the Music Association Annual Awards in order to assist in their preparation for the Eurovision Song Contest.Twelve artists were selected for the competition. The first show featured the performers covering Lithuanian hit songs. The voting results from the first show were combined with those of the second show where the artists covered international hit songs. The first performer was eliminated following the second show. In the third show, artists performed the competing Eurovision songs. The two lowest ranked artists were eliminated from the competition. Two artists were eliminated during each of shows four, five and six. During show four, only one artist was eliminated due to the withdrawal of one of the contestants, Milita Daikerytė. Two songs were also originally meant to be eliminated on a weekly basis following show three; however, only one was eliminated after the third show, two after the fourth show and none after the fifth show. During show seven, the winning song was selected from the three songs that were ultimately selected as finalist compositions, while no artists were eliminated. During show eight on 21 February 2015, the remaining three artists performed their version of the Lithuanian entry and the artist-song combination that scored the highest after the combination of votes from the juries and the public vote was selected to represent Lithuania in Vienna.
Voting and results
The combination of jury votes and public voting decided the outcome of both the artist selection and the song selection. The ranking developed by both streams of voting was converted to points from 1-8, 10 and 12 and combined. During the shows, the public cast their votes through SMS voting. To vote for the songs, the public could cast their vote through an online voting platform on the LRT website. During all shows, a four-member Lithuanian jury panel with varying members from week to week provided feedback and scores to the competing artists. The scores from the Lithuanian panel were added to the points from three foreign music industry experts. The foreign experts that voted during the shows included Ralfs Eilands, singer from Latvia ; Lela Tsurtsumia, singer from Georgia; and René Romkes, organiser of the annual Eurovision in Concert event from the Netherlands. Peter Jenner, music manager from the United Kingdom, was originally included as a foreign expert, however, he was replaced by Eilands following the second show. In the case of a tie, the performer or song that received the most votes from the public prevailed. However, during the shows where the winning song and the winning artist were being selected, ties were decided upon by the jury votes.Competing artists and songs
In late October 2014, LRT opened two separate submission forms: one for artists and another for composers to submit their songs. The submission deadline for both applications concluded on 15 December 2014. The twelve competing artists were revealed on 18 December 2014. 168 songs were submitted to the broadcaster of which twelve were selected for the competition. The songs were released for listening and online voting on 13 January 2015.Artists
Songs
| Song | Composer | Place | Result |
| "This Time" | Vytautas Bikus, Monika Liubinaitė | 1st | Winner |
| "The Right Way" | Tina Almqvist Hilli, Daniel Persson | 2nd | Eliminated |
| "Dangerous " | Camilla Gottschalck, Christina Schilling, Henrik Szabo, Daniel Nilsson, Amir Aly | 3rd | Eliminated |
| "Not Perfect" | Edgaras Lubys | 4th | Eliminated |
| "Feel My Love" | José Juan Santana Rodríguez | 5th–9th | Eliminated |
| "No More Tears" | Patrik Öhlund, Madelene Hamberg | 5th–9th | Eliminated |
| "Skęstu" | Leon Somov, Linas Strockis, Monika Linkytė | 5th–9th | Eliminated |
| "Sound of Colours" | Daði Georgsson, Íris Hólm, Jonas Gladnikoff, Camilla Gottschalck, Christina Schilling | 5th–9th | Eliminated |
| "Take My Love" | Brandon Stone | 5th–9th | Eliminated |
| "Es tut mir nicht leid" | Natalja Chareckaja | 10th–11th | Eliminated |
| "Factory Hearts" | Darragh Reck, Barry Grace, Paul Murphy | 10th–11th | Eliminated |
| "Say You Love Me" | Edgaras Lubys | 12th | Eliminated |
Shows
Show 1 (3 January 2015)
The first show of the competition aired on 3 January 2015 and featured the twelve selected artists performing cover versions of hit Lithuanian songs. The show was filmed on 18 December 2014. All competing artists proceeded to the second show; no elimination took place during the first show, however, the scores the artists received from the jury and the televote were combined with the results of the second show. The Lithuanian jury panel that evaluated the artists consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys, Edmundas Seilius, Juozas Liesis and Linas Adomaitis.Show 2 (10 January 2015)
The second show of the competition aired on 10 January 2015 and featured the twelve selected artists performing cover versions of hit international songs. The show was filmed on 18 December 2014. The artist with the lowest score after the combination of jury and televote results from the first and second shows was eliminated. Rollikai was eliminated at the conclusion of the show. The Lithuanian jury panel that evaluated the artists consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys, Edmundas Seilius, Audrius Giržadas and Linas Adomaitis.Show 3 (17 January 2015)
The third show of the competition aired on 17 January 2015 and featured the eleven remaining artists performing the competing Eurovision songs. The show was filmed on 6 January 2015. Rollikai recorded a performance for the song "Sound of Colours", however, the performance was not part of the show as Rollikai were eliminated previously during the second show. The two artists with the lowest scores after the combination of jury and televote results, Reda Striškaitė and Wilma La, were eliminated. The Lithuanian jury panel that evaluated the artists consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys, Sigutė Stonytė, Vytautas Lukočius and Justė Arlauskaitė. Public votes for the songs were collected from 13 January 2015 until 17 January 2015 via LRT's online voting platform and were originally supposed to result in the elimination of two songs. However, due to the final scores among the bottom ranked songs being very close, only one song was eliminated. Eleven songs remained in the competition while "Say You Love Me" was removed after achieving only 144 votes.Show 4 (24 January 2015)
The fourth show of the competition aired on 24 January 2015 and featured the eight remaining artists performing the competing Eurovision songs. The show was filmed on 20 January 2015. Prior to the filming, Milita Daikerytė withdrew from the competition due to illness. Due to Daikerytė's departure from the competition, only one artist was eliminated during the fourth show. Tadas Juodsnukis was eliminated after achieving the lowest score from the combined jury and televote results. The Lithuanian jury panel that evaluated the artists consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys, Gediminas Zujus, Darius Užkuraitis and Ieva Norkūnienė. Public votes for the songs were collected from 19 January 2015 until 24 January 2015 via LRT's online voting platform. "Es tut mir nicht leid" and "Factory Hearts" were eliminated following the combination of the results of the public vote and the votes of a jury panel.Show 5 (31 January 2015)
The fifth show of the competition aired on 31 January 2015 and featured the seven remaining artists performing the competing Eurovision songs. The show was filmed on 27 January 2015. In addition to the performances of the competing artists, Rollikai's performance of "Sound of Colours", which was recorded during the filming of the third show, was screened as an interval act. The two artists with the lowest scores after the combination of jury and televote results, Liepa Mondeikaitė and Neringa Šiaudikytė, were eliminated. The Lithuanian jury panel that evaluated the artists consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys, Rosita Čivilytė, Gintaras Rinkevičius and Darius Užkuraitis. Two songs were originally to be eliminated following the fifth show, however LRT decided to extend the vote for an additional week and eliminate no songs.Show 6 (7 February 2015)
The sixth show of the competition aired on 7 February 2015 and featured each of the five remaining artists performing two of the remaining Eurovision songs. The show was filmed on 3 February 2015. The two artists with the lowest scores after the combination of jury and televote results, Edgaras Lubys and Jurgis Brūzga, were eliminated. The Lithuanian jury panel that evaluated the artists consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys, Rosita Čivilytė, Gintaras Rinkevičius and Darius Užkuraitis. Following two weeks of online voting, the combination of votes between the public and jury panel selected "Dangerous ", "The Right Way" and "This Time" as the three finalist songs. "The Right Way" was placed second by both the public voting and the jury, "This Time" was placed fifth by the public voting and first by the jury and "Dangerous " was placed first by the public voting and seventh by the jury.Song selection (14 February 2015)
The seventh show aired on 14 February 2015 and featured the three finalist artists each performing their version of the three remaining potential Eurovision entries. Artists were not be assessed or eliminated during this show; this show was used select the Lithuanian song for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. "This Time" was the winning song after receiving top scores from both the juries and the televoting. The Lithuanian jury panel that evaluated the songs consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys, Rosita Čivilytė, Gediminas Zujus and Vytautas Lukočius.Artist selection (21 February 2015)
The eighth show, the final, aired on 21 February 2015 and featured the remaining competing artists each performing the winning song, "This Time", selected from the previous show. Vytautas Bikus, one of the songwriters of "This Time", requested that Vaidas Baumila and Monika Linkytė perform the song as a duet, which LRT approved. The jurors that voted in the artist selection were Eric Lehmann, Ralfs Eilands, René Romkes, Rosita Civilytė and Ramunas Zilnys. In addition to performing their version of "This Time", Mia also performed the songs "Take a Look at Me Now" and "Dangerous " while the duet Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila performed the songs "Saulės pėdomis" and "Tiktai tu". The jury panel votes combined with the votes of the public televote selected Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila as the winners.Preparation
On 7 March 2015, LRT organised a winning performer's support concert where viewers could donate funds to support the Lithuanian Eurovision entry. In addition to performances from Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila, others performers included Justė Arlauskaitė-Jazzu, Rosita Čivilytė and Jurgis Brūzga. The show collected €20,843 from public donations. In late March, Linkytė and Baumila filmed the official music video for "This Time", at the Qpolo bar in Vilnius. The video, directed by Algina Navickaitė, was released on 13 April. Lithuanian and French language versions of "This Time" were released on 22 April 2015. The Lithuanian version had lyrics written by Vytautas Bikus while lyrics for the French version were written by Dominique Dufaut.At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. In the 2015 contest, Australia also competed directly in the final as an invited guest nation. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into five different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 26 January 2015, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Lithuania was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 21 May 2015, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.Once all the competing songs for the 2015 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 performing in position 1, before the entry from Ireland.
All three shows were broadcast in Lithuania on LRT and LRT Radijas, with commentary by Darius Užkuraitis. The Lithuanian spokesperson, who announced the Lithuanian votes during the final, was Ugnė Galadauskaitė.
Semi-final
Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila took part in technical rehearsals on 13 and 16 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 20 and 21 May. This included the jury final where professional juries of each country, responsible for 50 percent of each country's vote, watched and voted on the competing entries.The stage show featured Monika Linkytė wearing a bluish-pink white dress and Vaidas Baumila dressed in a bluish-grey costume. Baumila's suit was designed by Andrius Sergejenko, while Linkytė's dress was designed Kristina Kalinauskaitė along with citizens of Lithuania, who were able to cut-out petals featured on the dress in the colour of their choice at special booths set up in Klaipėda, Panevėžys and Vilnius in April 2015. The duo was joined by two female backing vocalists, Rūta Žibaitytė and Justė Kraujalytė, and two male backing vocalists, Dainotas Varnas and Jurijus Veklenko. The performance included choreographed moves for both Linkytė and Baumila including a kiss shared between Linkytė and Baumila with the two female backing vocalists and two male backing vocalists kissing as well. The background LED screens displayed bright colourful rays in shades of red, blue, yellow and orange.
At the end of the show, Lithuania was announced as having finished in the top ten and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that the Lithuania placed seventh in the semi-final, receiving a total of 67 points.
Final
Shortly after the second semi-final, a winner's 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 grand 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 first half. 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 7, following the entry from Armenia and before the entry from Serbia.Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila once again took part in dress rehearsals on 22 and 23 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. The duet performed a repeat of their semi-final performance during the final on 23 May. At the conclusion of the voting, Lithuania placed eighteenth with 30 points.
Voting
Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member were released shortly after the grand final.Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Lithuania had placed sixteenth with both the public televote and the jury vote in the final. In the public vote, Lithuania scored 44 points, while with the jury vote, Lithuania scored 31 points. In the second semi-final, Lithuania placed sixth with the public televote with 98 points and tenth with the jury vote, scoring 52 points.
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Lithuania and awarded by Lithuania in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:
Points awarded to Lithuania
| 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
Points awarded by Lithuania
Split voting results
The following five members comprised the Lithuania jury:- Lauras Lučiūnas – Chairperson – music producer
- Jolita Vaitkevičienė – choir conductor
- Jurga Čekatauskaitė – journalist, author of song lyrics
- Jurgis Brūzga – singer
- Rosita Čivilytė – singer