Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Country	Lithuania
National selection
Selection process	"Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka
Selection date(s)	Elimination shows: 3 January 2015 – 7 February 2015 Semi-final: 14 February 2015 Final: 21 February 2015
Selected entrant	Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila
Selected song	"This Time"
Selected songwriter(s)	Vytautas Bikus Monika Liubinaitė
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (7th, 67 points)
Final result	18th, 30 points
Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2014 • 2015 • 2016►

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. The Lithuanian broadcaster Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) organised the national final "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka (Eurovision Song Contest national selection) in order to select the Lithuanian entry for the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria. The national final took place over eight weeks and involved 12 artists and 12 songs competing in two different competitive streams. The results of each show were determined by the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote, and "This Time" performed by Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila eventually emerged as the winner following the final.

Lithuania was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 21 May 2015. Performing as the opening entry for the show in position 1, "This Time" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 23 May. It was later revealed that Lithuania placed seventh out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 67 points. In the final, Lithuania performed in position 7 and placed 18th out of the 27 participating countries, scoring 30 points.

Background

Prior to the 2015 contest, Lithuania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 15 times since its first entry in 1994.^[1] The nation’s best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in 2006 with the song "We Are the Winners" performed by LT United. Following the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, Lithuania, to this point, has managed to qualify to the final six times. In the 2014 contest, "Attention" performed by Vilija failed to qualify to the final.

For the 2015 contest, the Lithuanian national broadcaster, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), broadcast the event within Lithuania and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. Other than the internal selection of their debut entry in 1994, Lithuania has selected their entry consistently through a national final procedure. LRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest on 4 June 2014 and announced the organization of "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka, which would be the national final to select Lithuania's entry for Vienna.^[2][3]

Before Eurovision

"Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka

"Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka (Eurovision Song Contest national selection) 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 eight-week-long process that commenced on 3 January 2015 and concluded with a winning song on 14 February 2015 and a winning artist on 21 February 2015.^[3] The eight shows took place at the LRT studios in Vilnius and were hosted by Simona Nainė and Arūnas Valinskas.^[4] The shows were broadcast on LRT televizija, LRT Lituanica and LRT Radijas as well as online via the broadcaster's website lrt.lt.^[5]

Format

The 2015 competition consisted of eight shows and involved artists competing independently from songs, potentially being paired with any of the selected songs. Rule changes included the ability for artists to indicate a preference to perform a particular song on their application. Should the artist and their song reach the final, the artist and the composers were to agree to allow the other finalists to perform the song.^[6] In the first six shows, the 12 competing artists performed covers that related to the theme of that particular show and the potential Eurovision songs. The voting results from the first show were combined with those of the second show and the first artist was eliminated. During each of the third to sixth shows, one artist was eliminated and the remaining three artists advanced in the competition. Starting from the third show, the 12 potential Eurovision songs competed online on a weekly basis and a total of nine songs were eliminated following the sixth show, leaving three songs remaining. The seventh show was the competition's semi-final where only the winning song was selected from the remaining three songs, while the eighth show was the final where the winning artist-song combination was selected from the remaining three artists. Monetary prizes were also awarded to both the winning artist and songwriters. The Lithuanian Copyright Protection Association (LATGA) sponsored 15,000 LTL, awarded to the songwriters in order to encourage further development of the song in an aim to achieve international success, while the Music Association Annual Awards (MAMA) sponsored 5,000 LTL , awarded to the artist in order to assist in their preparation for the Eurovision Song Contest.^[7]

The results of each of the eight shows were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and public voting. The ranking developed by both streams of voting was converted to points from 1-8, 10 and 12 and assigned based on the number of competing songs in the respective show. During the first seven shows, the jury votes consisted of a Lithuanian jury panel consisting of four members and an international jury panel consisting of three members. In the final, a two-member Lithuanian panel and the three-member international panel voted. The public could vote through telephone and SMS voting. Ties in the elimination shows and the semi-final were decided in favour of the entry that received the most votes from the public, while in the final, a tie would be decided in favour of the entry that was awarded the most points by the jury.^[6]

Competing artists and songs

On 31 October 2014, LRT opened two separate submission forms: one for artists and another for songwriters to submit their songs. The submission deadline for both applications concluded on 15 December 2014.^[8] On 18 December 2014, LRT announced the 12 artists selected for the competition.^[9][10] The 12 potential Eurovision songs selected from 168 submissions received were announced for listening and voting on 13 January 2015.^[11] The song "Skęstu" was originally entered in Lithuanian, however, the song was also translated and performed in English during the fourth elimination show.

Artist and song progress in the shows

Artists

Songs

Shows

Elimination shows

The six elimination shows of the competition aired between 3 January and 7 February 2015 and featured the 12 competing artists. Audrius Giržadas temporarily replaced Arūnas Valinskas as a host during the fourth show.^[12] The members of the Lithuanian jury consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys (music reviewer; all shows), Juozas Liesis (journalist, first show), Edmundas Seilius (opera singer; first and second show), Linas Adomaitis (musician; first and second show), Audrius Giržadas (LRT chief producer; second show), Sigutė Stonytė (opera singer; third show), Vytautas Lukočius (conductor; third show), Justė Arlauskaitė (singer; third show), Gediminas Zujus (producer; fourth show), Ieva Norkūnienė (choreographer; fourth show), Darius Užkuraitis (LRT Opus director; fourth to sixth shows), Rosita Čivilytė (singer; fifth and sixth show) and Gintaras Rinkevičius (conductor; fifth and sixth show). International jury members included Lela Tsurtsumia (Georgian singer; all shows), René Romkes (organiser of the annual Eurovision in Concert event in the Netherlands; all shows), Peter Jenner (British music manager; second show) and Ralfs Eilands (Latvian singer; third to sixth shows).^[13][14][15]

In the first two shows, the artists performed covers that related to the theme of that particular show: Lithuanian hit songs in the first show and worldwide hit songs in the second show. The results of the two shows were combined and one artist was eliminated. The remaining 11 artists in the competition performed the potential Eurovision songs starting from the third show. The artists each performed one song between the third and fifth shows and two songs in the sixth show, and one artist was eliminated per show. The group Rollikai, which was eliminated following the second show, recorded a performance for the song "Sound of Colours" for the third show, however, the performance was not part of the show as they were previously eliminated. Milita Daikerytė withdrew from the competition following the third show due to illness.^[12][16]