Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Estonia had its semi-finals in January and 20 songs became 10. Wildcard round added to the line up Elysa and Mia and so we have a perfect dozen for the grand final. The voting in final is first 50/50 with televote and jury and Top-3 will get to the superfinal where only televote is used.  Sissi seems to be an early favorite (and Eurovision winner  Dave Benson's daughter) and has got the pimp slot in the line up. And yes, this is the first time I listen to these songs, like most of the reviews I am doing this year. Haven't really followed the semi-finals at all.  Meelik - Tuju * Oh dear what is this? Garage Beach Boys light? Nah.... Inger - Awaiting you * That outfit, autsh. Quite monotonous, uninteresting song I wouldn't pay any attention outside the Eurovision bubble. Not really a great start, Eesti laul what's going on? Janek - House of glass *** Ok, now this is better. Not very original and sounds a bit suspiciously familiar but it doesn't matter. This is onto so...

The neverending Lithuanian selection continues tonight with the 8th heat. Half the entries will be kicked out after Lithuanian and international juries have cast their votes along with the televoters. For me in this heat there's only one I care for: Gabrielius Vagelis with his fantastic atmospheric ballad that echoes Jean-Jacques Goldman's masterpiece Nuit . In a good way. If only he manages to deliver live...  Four of these will qualify for the semifinal (yes, only eight songs left then! The end is near....) Watch here from 20.00 CET Alanas Chošnau - 7 Days Paula - Let U go Gabrielius Vagelis - Feel myself free Queens of Roses - Fisherman Kotryna Juodzevičiūtė - Love shadow Mia - Sacrifice Fusedmarc - Rain of revolution Valerija Iljinaité - You made me glow

Lithuania has completed the first round of eliminations, four heats in all. Now it's time for the second round and further eliminations. Tonight the ones who made it through in the first and second heat are against each other. Let's see if Edgaras and Mia can keep their lead and if there will be surprises or will someone in the bottom make it through this time, and will some one in the top flop.  Below I have put them in order by the scores the got in their respective heats.  It's quite striking and boring how similar in style the top ones are, except for Gabrieius ballad which is quite fantastic.  Watch here from 21.00 CET Edgaras Lubys - Could It Be? (12+10=22 tonight (8+4=12) Paula Valentaitė - Never Let You Go (5+12=17) tonight (7+10=17) Gabrielius Vagelis - Feel Myself Free (8+7=15) tonight (6+5=11) Gytis Ivanauskas - Get frighten () tonight (7+12=19) Fusedmarc - Rain of revolution () tonight (10+7=17) Grazvydas - Paint the sy blue () tonight 5+...

Lithuania is ready to start their marathon selection. A total of 51 singers will battle through ten episodes and March 11 we have the final with at least singers. Among the artists two previous winners Sasha Song  (2009) and  Vilija Matačiūnaitė (2014) as well as eternal runner ups Mia and  Aistė Pilvelytė - will she finally make it? This is her... 10th? try - and a string of other familiar names like Ruslanas Kirilkanas . Below is the full list of the artists taking part. The shows start on January 7, 2017. In the first four shows it's jury-televote, and from then on the international jury joins in making it a jolly threesome.  Golden Monkeys, Otreya, Augustė Vedrickaitė, Edgaras Lubys, Tadas Rimgaila & Tina,  Sasha Song, Rūta Andruškevičiūtė, Benas Malakauskas, Audrius Petrauskas, Justin 3,  Dagna Kondratavičiūtė. Paula Valentaitė, Valdas Lacko, Monika Mėčiūtė, Rugilė Daujotaitė, Kotryna Juodzevičiūtė, Deividas Žygas, Mia. Rasa Kau...

Lithuania. The country of the most compilcated and senseless national final process the past few years. After following it more or less without a clue the past two years now it seems to make some sense, after the revamp of the rules and process. The call for songs is now open until December 1, 2015. First of all now it has been divided in two categories; artists only and artists with their songs already. And this time the artists will stick to their songs and don't swap them every week.  In short there will be 20 artists selected who don't have a song. They will get one from the submitted songs without a singer. Aka the artists only category. Then there will be 20 artists who have their song already.  In the first four episodes there will be 10 songs each (10+10 of the artists only, and 10+10 of the artists with a song) and five will be voted ahead by the jury and televoters. The 40 songs/artists have become 20. The remaining 10 artists only will be featured in...

Lithuania's marathon selection has given us the song already, This time and we have still three singers in the race: Vaidas Baumila, Mia and Monika Linkyte. Whose version do you prefer? This blogger thinks Vaidas beats the ladies easily. Especially Mia's effort on this song is lame. But there's also a duet with Vaidas and Monika.... even with a kiss! This time - Vaidaus Baumila This time - Monika Linkyte This time - Mia This time - Vaidas & Monika

Lithuania kicked out two singers tonight and we have only three left and they are all familiar to us already: Vaidas, Monika and Mia. They came 2nd, 3rd and 4th last year! One of them will represent Lithuania in Vienna 2015 Eurovision, but we don't know yet who. And most of all with which song....  Edgaras and Jurgis had to leave tonight after combined televotes and jury votes. The artists final is yet to come, as well as the song final but eventually they will get there! Vaidas Baumila (02-01-05-06-02-3 Monika Linkyte (09-05-01-05-03-1 Mia (05-04-07-01-01-2 04. Edgaras Lybus (04-03-02-03-04-4 eliminated) 05. Jurgis Bruzga (07-09-09-04-05-05 eliminated) 06. Liepa Mondeikaite (06-07-03-02-07 eliminated) 07. Neringa Siaudikyte (10-11-08-07-08 eliminated) 08.Tadas Juodsnukis (01-02-04-08-eliminated) 09. Milita Daikeryte (03-08-06- 00 withdraw)* 10. Reda Striskaite (08-06-10 eliminated) 11. Wilma La (12-10-11 eliminated) 12. Rollikai (11-eliminated) ...

A few days ago we said goodbye to two singers, Reda Striškaitė and Wilma La . Now it's time to say goodbye to a song. Say you love me , written by Edgaras Lubys who is also in the running as a singer, was eliminated after online voting and 11 songs remain in the race. Last week it was performed by Mia, watch it here . For all the other performances you can find links here . If you want to listen the original demos they are here . 

Lithuanian television has announced the names who will take place in their national election. Once again there will be the rather weird way of selectiong artists and song separaely and then trying to find the match made in heaven, or at least in Eurovision to send to Vienna 2015. The list is filled with familiar names from previous selections and even last year's runner up Mia and third placed Vaidas Baumila are trying again as is 4th placed Monika Linkyté. Also several The Voice of Lithuania participants are in the list.... Eurovizijos Nacionalinė Atranka will start on January 3, 2015 and after weekly shows on February 14 we will have the winning song, and the week later the winning compination song + artist who will take it to Vienna...... Liepa Mondeikaité Neringa Šiaudikytė Edgaras Lubys (Amberlife) Vilija Pilibaityté (Mia) Vaidas Baumila Monika Linkyté Reda Striškaitė Milita Daikeryté Jurgis Bruzga Wilma La Tadas Juodsnukis Rollikai

Vilija Matačiūnaitė (27) emerged as a winner in the longest selection process in Lithuania with Attention , a song she co-wrote. The selection started before Christmas and finished in March. 30 artists became 3: Mia, Vaidas Baumila and Vilija Matačiūnaitė. At some point 16 songs came along, sung by remaining artists over and over again while both singers and songs were dropped out. The winner is a compromise of many things, Robert: Lithuania had the longest selection this year. But where it took weeks to find the right singer, The song had an inferior importance because it was only presented in the last episode of the Lithuanian selection. Lithuania made the classical mistake to focus too much on finding the best singer and too little to find the best song. The song Attention was obviously chosen with little attention. There is something really irritating about the song. The three remaining great singers had to struggle through it before a winner was chosen. The version of the o...

The endlessly running Lithuanian selection miraculously comes to an end eventually. Tonight the song was chosen out of the three still in the running until now. We have one song and three singers. Next week they will sort out the last handicap and we will have their entry for Eurovision 2014 in Copenhagen. I'm not a big fan of this song but maybe they will revamp and improve it somehow. At this point I like most the Baumila's version. It's less slutty. Which one do you prefere? Recap . Mia - Attention Vilja Matačiūnaitė - Attention Vaidas Baumila - Attention

The Lithuanian marathon selection is nearing the end, only two more weeks to go. Now we have finally three finalists but each has still two songs. My wild guess is next week we will drop one of them and so for the final they will have only one song left. Maybe. Who knows at this point... Anyways, the finalist singers are Mia, Vaidas Baumila and Vilija Matačiūnaitė. Vilija Matačiūnaitė: Worlds apart / It's all about the boy Vaidas Baumila: Dying / It's not too late Mia: Let's share the love tonight / Take a look at me now UPDATE : Now it's finaly clear. All three finalists will perform all three finalist songs and may the best combination win! The songs that made the cut are Take a look at me now, Attention and It's all about the boy. So it seems next Saturday we get the song, and in the final the week after the artist to sing it....

The Lithuanina selection has been going on forever and I have lost track of what's going on, but it seems there are only six singers left and... 16 songs? Justinas Lapatinskas and VIG Roses are already out of the race. I really haven't listened all the songs and none well but I kinda enjoyed Dying in some weird way.... Thought it would propably be more like Suicide in Eurovision..... Meanwhile the Lithuanian selection process continues until March..... Vaidas Baumila - Worlds Apart / Dying Monika Linkytė - It's All About A Boy / Breakaway Vilija Matačiūnaitė - You Found Me / Attention Martynas Kavaliauskas - New Beginning / It's not too late Mia - Let's Share That Love Tonight (Map) / Take a look at me now Ieva Zasimauskaitė - Blowing Out Cobwebs / One *Justinas Lapatinskas - Is This The Way (You Want Me) / Last date *VIG Roses - Silent Tears / In the rain

The selection process Eurovizijos in Lithuania has been going on for weeks with eliminations and now we have the final eight left, when Kristina Radžiukynaitė was eliminated last Saturday following Aistė Pilvelytė the week before. These eight now have 16 songs to sing, listen here . There are some good demos, but hard to tell how they will sound like after the final production and the result of this mix & match operation?! Matching the songs can be a nightmare, what if no one wants to sing a certain song and say, five singers all want another? Good luck LRT! The singers are Martynas Kavaliauskas , Mia , Monika Linkytė , Vilija Matačiūnaitė , Vaidas Baumila , Ieva Zasimauskaitė, VIG Roses and Justinas Lapatinskas . So we have four ladies, one lady duo and three guys who are not afraid to show some skin.... Kinda refreshing after all these half naked ladies we always see in national selections here and there ;-p  (From left Justinas, Vaidas, Martynas)

It's not uncommon to have cover versions made of Eurovision winners but this year, maybe due to the song's style, there haven't been any until now (as far as I know). MIA, known also from Estonian national selections has covered Ephoria as Eufooria ....