This will be Lithuania’s 20th appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest, and despite having the longest lasting National finals, they have yet to impress at a Eurovision final.
Time after time Lithuania have failed to send anything that leaves a lasting impression with either juries or fans. Some of the songs receive diaspora votes regularly from the United Kingdom and Ireland, but generally Europe has not been impressed with their entries.
Lithuania have finished in the Top 10 only twice, ‘We Are The Winners’ by LT United in 2006 and ‘’ve Been Waiting For This Night’ by Donny Montell in 2016.
Ieva Zasimauskaité finished 12th last year with ‘When We’re Old’ which was the countries third best placing.
Forty-eight acts competed in the national selection show Eurovizijos atranka 2019 and after four heats and two semi-finals, eight acts were left to battle it out. And after seven weeks of intense competition, scandals and withdrawals Lithuania has chosen Jurijus as their Eurovision 2019 representative with “Run with the Lions”.
It won’t be his first time at the Eurovision, because in 2013 Jurijus served as a backing vocalist for the Lithuanian singer Andrius Pojavis. Later, in 2015, he joined Vaidu Baumila and Monika Linkyte on stage for their performance.
Originally Monika Marija, former winner of The Voice of Lithuania, was meant to take part in the grand final singing two songs (because she won two heats with two different songs). At the last minute she withdraw one of the songs because she feared singing two might hurt her chances of winning. It was to no avail because she placed second.
In the final we also witnessed the comeback of two former Eurovision artists: Erica Jennings (who was the lead singer of the group Skamp in 2001) and Jurgis DID (who was the lead singer of InCulto in 2011). They sang the song ‘Sing!’ in the final of 2019, and finished in fourth place.
Full results of Eurovizijos Atranka 2019:
01. Jurijus – Run with the lions – 24 points
02. Monika Marija – Light On – 20 points
03. Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio Dantys – Mažulė – 16 points
04. Jurgis DID & Erica Jennings – Sing! – 14 points
05. Alen Chicco – Your Cure – 12 points
06. Henry & Tommy Modric – Neverpart – 10 points
07. Jurgis Bruzga – CTRL ALT DELETE – 8 points
08. Justina Budaitė-Junà - "Strength of a Woman"– 6 points