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Lithuania: Second round of “Eurovizijos 2016” tonight!

While Donny Montell sits back and sips a cold drink with his 12 points from the first “Eurovizijos” show, eight more Lithuanian talents take to the stage with their songs to see who will progress in the multi-staged contest.

As with the first show, the national jury (Darius Užkuraitis, Nomeda Kazlaus and last year’s Lithuanian representative in Eurovision – Vaidas Baumila) and international delegation (Peter Freudenthal, Syron, Karl Friersonas) watched the performances live, with the Lithanian jury delivering their points during this show. The international judges and the Lithuanian public vote will be revealed and combined on Saturday to reveal the winner overall.

In the first show Mr. Montell had started off in second place with 10 points from his national compatriots, but with the televote and international scores, he leapt into top place for the round.

The order for this program is as follows:

  1. Jurgis Bruzga “GoOne” – 8 points – Generally praised by the judges, though one felt that the song, which was written by the performer’s wife, had more of a climax to it, and also felt it needed some rearranging
  2. Ugne Smile “You Don’t Know” – 4 points – Most of the judges seemed to find this performance to be poor, if at best, inexperienced, calling her nice and charming, but falling into the traps of young performers
  3. Lawreigna “Falling” – 5 points – Depending on the judge, this song felt like it came from either Latin America (Darius), or Greece (Vaidas), and the singer’s voice was praised for its uniqueness, but need to be better conditioned and practiced.
  4. Istvan Kvik “Please Don’t Cry” – 7 points – Praised not only for having some Lithuanian, but also for thinking of how it could be staged further down the road, others felt the visual was a bit much, especially the blindfold (Trijntje Oosterhuis 2015, Donny Montell 2012), but the vocals were a good point for the judges
  5. Catrinah “Be Free” – 10 points – High marks for looks, this artist not only wowed visually, but also had some judges sparing no compliments for the vocals, a few tweaks were offered should it move forward to the Eurovision stage
  6. Egle Jakstyte “Leisk Dar Buti” – 6 points – Some immediately doubted whether on not this was too much of a ‘Eurovision song’ but it was generally praised for what it brought, though more was certainly something that would be appreciated
  7. Valdas Lacko “Stay Tonight” – 3 points – Described as ‘very loud fun’ and ‘very Christmas’, the song seemed to be getting praise for being quite Swedish as well, but it was maybe a road too traveled for these judges as they didn’t reward it in kind
  8. Ruta Sciogolevaite “United” – 12 points – The song sounded ‘very interesting and very Eurovision-y’ to one judge and to another, this year’s Polina Gagarina (Russia 2015), Ruth’s voice was praised and her English was recognized, ‘Excellent’ overall

Not surprisingly for the judges, the best was saved for last and Ruta collected the most points earning her the first place thus far. On a night where we didn’t seem to hit the lows matching show #1, the international experts and televote may provide a bit of a shakeup. Last time the winner was changed after combining the scores, so come Saturday, we’ll see if the same happens again and if Catrinah or Jurgis can unseat Ruta.

Considering her position within the Lithuanian music scene and multiple attempts to represent Lithuania, this one may be set in stone. If so, that would send a clear message for the other competitors for the future shows.

As was the first round, the second show of the Lithuanian final was recorded earlier, and will be aired today at 20:00 CET on LRT.

Stream 1
Stream 2

Stream 3

Who do you like in this year’s contest? Let us know in the comments.

 

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