There might be better ways to spend a Saturday night, but OnEuropean reporters have the interests of our readers at heart. We sit through the national finals, so you don’t have to. Sometimes, the experience can be sublime, other times ridiculous. Now and then it gets painful and you wonder when it’s going to end.
So that brings me nicely to the second heat in the marathon process to pick a Eurovision song for Lithuania.
The second heat took place last night – we’d been expecting it last week, but for reasons best known to broadcaster LRT, it didn’t happen. Six songs made it through to the next round, six were laughed off the stage. Though not literally, of course, because that would be too much fun. Instead televoters and a jury got to pass judgment. The biggest indignity went to Emilija Valiukevičiūtė whose appropriately named ‘Bye Bye’ kissed the proverbial dust when just 49 viewers/close friends of Valiukevičiūtė felt the urge to offer support and it picked up nothing from the jury.
Here we go then, the results:
| Draw | Artist | Song | Jury votes | Public | Total | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Televote | Points | ||||||
| 1 | Juozas Martin | “Don’t Give Up” | 8 | 202 | 4 | 12 | 5 |
| 2 | Justina Žukauskaitė | “Love Doesn’t Lie” | 0 | 61 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| 3 | Elvina Milkauskaitė | “So Long My Love, My Lover” | 2 | 143 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| 4 | LJ | “Over Now” | 1 | 74 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| 5 | Rūta Kotryna | “Ghost” | 5 | 126 | 2 | 7 | 8 |
| 6 | Saulės kliošas | “Man gaila” | 12 | 435 | 6 | 18 | 1 |
| 7 | Twosome | “Hello” | 10 | 643 | 8 | 18 | 2 |
| 8 | Paula | “1 2 3” | 6 | 678 | 12 | 18 | 3 |
| 9 | Audrius Petrauskas | “In My Bones” | 7 | 244 | 5 | 12 | 6 |
| 10 | Elizabeth Olshey | “Bejausmis” | 3 | 643 | 10 | 13 | 4 |
| 11 | Mia | “Arrows” | 4 | 541 | 7 | 11 | 7 |
| 12 | Emilija Valiukevičiūtė | “Bye Bye” | 0 | 49 | 0 | 0 | 12 |