Lithuania: LRT introduces changes to Eurovision 2020 national selection
The Lithuanian national broadcaster, LRT, has revealed some changes in the national selection Eurovizijos Atranka that will determine the country’s next Eurovision entry.
The changes introduced by LRT have to do with the number of shows, the contestants and the voting format. Specifically the changes are:
- The total number of shows will be reduced to 6 from 7 that we watched this year. National selection shows will kick off in January and conclude in February.
- Each act will have the right to compete with only one song in the selection.
- The jury will be watching the show from a seperate studio commenting on the entries occasionally and not necessarily after each song.
- In the last edition of Eurovizijos Atranka the scoreboard was displayed during the voting process. In next yeat edition there will be no indication of the results during the show and the final results will be revealed only at the end of each show.
- The winning entry will receive financial back up by LRT concerning its Eurovision stage performance, vocal lessons and the whole production.
The submission window for interested acts will be open from September 30 until December 8, 2019.
THE EUROVISION STORY SO FAR
Lithuania has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 20 times since its debut in 1994, when Ovidijus Vyšniauskas finished last, receiving zero points. Lithuania withdrew from the contest, without returning until 1999. LT United’s 6th place in 2006 with the song “We Are the Winners” is Lithuania’s best result in the contest. The country reached the top ten for a second time in 2016, when Donny Montell finished 9th with “I’ve Been Waiting for This Night”.
In 2018 the country was represented by Ieva Zasimaskaite with her emotional ballad song When We’re Old, which finished 12th in the grand final.This year national final winner, Jurij Veklenko defended the Lithuanian colors in Tel Aviv with the song Run With The Lions, but failed to qualify to the final left in the 11th place of the second semi final.
