Lithuania: Eurovizijos semi-final airs today!

We are entering a new and nearly final stage of the Lithuanian final, Eurovizijos—semi final time! No show recorded Tuesday, no commentary to color your opinions. Everything is live today!

So what then will you see today? Eight artists. 100% live performances. Judges’ reactions. Eurovision-style points. Heartbreak. Only six will move to the final show next week. At this stage in the competition, we’ve reported on the delicate dance that is impressing the audience performing the same song again while not ending up a flaming motor crash. Whether you’re coming in an established performer, or a new and raw talent, these are the shows that will make either take you to the end or leave you just one step shy of being the best of the best your country has to offer.

The draw is also unknown, but the eight acts you should be familiar with by now:

• Aistė Pilvelytė “You Bet”
• Catrinah “Be Free”
• Donny Montell “I’ve Been Waiting for This Night”
• Erica Jennings “Leading Me Home”
• Ieva Zasimauskaitė “Life (Not That Beautiful)”
• Ruslanas Kirilkinas “In My World”
• Rūta Ščiogolevaitė “United”
• Valdas Lacko “Stay Tonight”

If you’ve been paying attention to the points and voting, the advancing acts this week were not completely surprising. Valdas is perhaps the most surprising as both Saulenė and Milda had more points given from the judges, but Valdas has proved ever popular with the audience. He’s used that backing to move through the contest from the very start as he dodged barbed comments and criticisms galore from the judges. As a ‘veteran’ that shouldn’t come as a complete surprise, his established star power in Lithuania helped him progress beyond many a ‘rookie’.

In fact, only three of the rookies made it to this round. That division was a new to the contest this year and it will be interesting to see if it is kept in place for next year’s competition. Of the rookies Aistė and Ieva look fairly safer bets to continue into the final with Aistė being hailed fairly early on as the leader of her pack, a necessity in the final, and indeed, probably fair competition for the win. She’s been hit and miss while trying to keep everyone’s attentions from faltering, so keep and eye out to see how that works for her today! Ruslanas was an endearing and commanding performer walking over shattered glass to get this far, but has never seemed to hit a high peak, and without that, he’s probably ready to bubble burst.

To the veterans, Catrinah has been solid week in and week out, but will be the most likely to be sitting out the final round with Valdas. She received the second fewest points from the judges, and only a scant few more televote points than Valdas, who came in just under the blade last time. Ieva even received more points in the televote than both vets, so unless something goes wild (and it could, it usually does at Eurovizijos), the scales will balance more in favor of the rookies next time.

However, at the top of the leader board, there sits a crowded group of talents and stars from Lithuania who have all but demanded a spot in the final. Erica, Rūta and Donny have all played at the top spot with the judges and televote in their heats, with Donny being most consistently in the pole position. The two femmes both claimed the ‘main competition’ for his taking the title outright until Aistė merged with them. Both also score higher in the televote than the rookie upstart, who is being dealt precious points by the local and international juries. Rūta has also faded a bit in the intervening shows, so the race really stays with the top three. Two veterans who are immensely popular and the girl with her suitcase packed.

You can catch the action starting at 20:00 CET on the Lithuanian broadcaster streams, or you can join us on ESC+Plus as we digest multiple events from one page! You can pick your favorite and keep tabs on the others, or switch between the best bits as you see fit!

LRT Streams:
Stream 1
Stream 2
Stream 3

ESC+Plus Multi Window Link

It’s exciting to see who will make it, but we do have to get through this week first. Who do you think will make it to the final? Vote at the ESC+Plus poll! And finally, I would be very happy to hear if you’ve enjoyed the articles and commentary on Eurovizijos as we move into the final!