Lithuania – This year’s Pabandom iš naujo 2021 resumes tonight with second first heat out of two. 10 acts are taking part and 5 will qualify to the semi-final with a vote split with 50% jury and 50% televote.
At first, Lithuania revealed 23 acts who were selected to take part but in the end both Gintarė Korsakaitė and Evelina Sašenko withdrew so we’re down to 21. The Roop however are automatically qualified to the final. So we’re down to 20 entries, split in two heats of 10 acts. 5 will qualify through the semi-finals from both heats. Then the semi-final, which will feature 10 acts, will qualify 5 to the final, where they’ll join The Roop for a 6-act final.
This heat was already pre-recorded on January 19th and the juries have already cast their ballots. The jury members are Ramūnas Zilnys, Jievaras Jasinskis, Vytautas Bikus, Ieva Narkutė & Aistė Smilgevičiūtė (who represented Lithuania in 1999).
The hosts are Ieva Stasiulevičiūtė, Vytautas Rumšas Jr and Vaidas Baumila (who represented Lithuania in 2015). This is tonight’s line-up:
- UnoBand – “Eisiu”
- Rapolas – “Degam”
- Sunday Afternoon – “Open”
- Aistė Brokenleg – “Home”
- Cosmic Bride – “Solitary Star”
- Norbertas – “Man In Need”
- Gebrasy – “Where’d You Wanna Go”
- Evita Cololo – “Be paslapčių”
- Gabrielius Vagelis – “My Guy”
- Gabrielė Goštautaitė – “Freedom”
The show starts at 20:00 CET and you can watch it here.
The Eurovision Times 
I think the qualifiers of this semi have a more solid entry compared to the previous five. Gabrielius is singing better, maybe he will make it in the next 5 years :P I enjoyed a lot the performance and the song of Gebrasy, I hope he gets the second place because the difference between his act and the rest was abysmal, in my opinion.
The Roop is the clear winner, it looked like a MF act in the middle of the Belarusian NF, to put it in perspective. I think it’s better than “On Fire” and the whole act is a consecution of moments to capture your attention. I wish them the best, if this thing doesn’t become viral I won’t get it.
UnoBand – Eisiu: I am a big sucker for this kind of old-fashioned sound, but I’m afraid the band lacks charisma on stage.
Rapolas – Degam: ok, I’m taking back what I said about lack of charisma above :P
Sunday Afternoon – Open: Very interesting sound. Not so sure about the staging. Btw, she looks like Erika Prezerakou, a former Greek athlete.
Aistė Brokenleg – Home: It’s a yes from me. Damn, hats off to the Baltics for their electronic-pop scene.
Cosmic Bride – Solitary Star: Love the act’s name. Interesting sound here too. Awful outfit and ear-rings.
Norbertas – Man In Need: Next please.
Gebrasy – Where’d You Wanna Go: I have a feeling that I would enjoy this in studio version.
Evita Cololo – Be paslapčių: Melikes.
Gabrielius Vagelis – My Guy: His voice and the song are ok. I was eagerly waiting till the very end of the video to see whether he’ll take that hat off so we can see his face. Alas… For that alone, it’s a no from me. The whole act looks fake to me I’m afraid.
Gabrielė Goštautaitė – Freedom: Okish, but so “have seen, done that” like …zillion times.
Alexander Rybak´s “Europe’s Skies” is the last song I was expecting to listen to on a radio station like Sto Kokkino!!! Greeks here know what I mean :P
Accoustic Voilà
This is beautiful! <3
Btw, Taratata is the title of a classic soft-porn comic series of the early 80's :P :D
how odd! it’s a long running “late night” show based on 100% live music (instruments and vocals), hosted by one of the nicest French show hosts, Naguy (who would be my pick for esc if France ever won it):
:P :D
Tomorrow we are going to learn the 2nd esc entry of 2021, Israel.
La la love is my pick!
they barely treated 2021 like a NF, how odd! just pick internally??
I’ve rewatched all 21 lives in Lithuania and I’ve come up with a “final” ranking of them all! First of all, I don’t share the general negativity towards this NF. Sure, last year’s was great (and my personal pick for best NF of the 2020 season) so there’s a bit of a letdown. Moreoever, we can’t ignore the “specificity” of this year’s competition with the whole “20+1” where most people feel the NF is nothing but a confirmation for the Roop (whereas many countries just picked internally, and either let the artist did their own thing, or chose an entry for them or hosted a NF) and therefore many big names (Monique comes to mind) skipped this year’s, knowing The Roop won’t be back in 2022 either!
However, if you compare this line-up of just 20 (without the Roop) to the 20 Estonian hopefuls, there’s no doubt in my mind Lithuania wins the comparison. It’s a very nice “cozy” NF and, for everyone a bit nostalgic to old EL, this picked up a lot from it: the semis are pre-recorded earlier in the week, with a rather long focus on the juries discussing the songs and half of the songs qualifying to the final! Lithuanian televote is as bad as the Estonian one sometimes (Cosmic Bride and Aiste bottom 2 of semi 2? Thank god the juries did not agree and pushed Aiste in the semi at least). However, some quirks that only exist in Lithuania are there: the full results are posted on TV for us to see, including the exact number of televote, and there’s an extra show (it’s not Lithuania otherwise)… I wonder if anyone can pick up on that extra exposure to contest The Roop?
Anyway, the contrast with Norway (also semis with direct finalists televote had no say about their qualification) is quite big since both shows happen at the same time. The production value in Norway is wow, it’s very professional and there’s no problem in pace, fun and quirks. Overall, everything is polished but to the point I don’t have much fun in the 90mns where everything is rushed and too many songs are repeated. Especially since there are about half the songs per night I really don’t like (yes Twosome were better than “My life is OK”) and the whole spectacle for the 60 years of Norway in esc failed to deliver… Lithuania is smaller but overall cozier, and the live vocals in Lithuania mean you hear an actual human trying to convey things with voice, and not just showcasing a routine he/she learned poorly. If I wanted professional dancers or choregraphies, esc is not what I would turn to! The balance between “it’s a TV show we need spectacle” / “it’s a competition you need to stand out” vs. “we make music and we have the best place to showcase what we want to convey” is leaning too much towards one side of the whole thing!
—
GREAT
*01 The Roop – Discoteque (just as brilliant as last year, if not a bit more as the song was more instant to me than “On Fire”, also the lyrics feel more meaningful right now (we don’t need any excuse to dance, even locked down) and the live showed that they still wanted to make themselves noticed in Rotterdam, though the yellow and dance routine feel a bit more forced, mostly because they’re references to last year’s entry, which people won’t pick on and it might feel more like a joke entry, which is how Lithuania got its first Top 10 in 2006… I fear we don’t have an esc winner on our hands, but a great entry fans will love and a good way for us to move on from 2020)
*02 Aistė Brokenleg – Home (if there was one to beat The Roop for me it would be her, a great song and a very stand out performance! sadly, the radicality of its electro statement meant 9th in televote but top 3 with juries!)
*03 Gebrasy – Where‘d you wanna go (a very strong song, his vocals were superb, but the performance was a bit too static)
—
GOOD
*04 Cosmic bride – Solitary star (lovely song, lovely vocals but the live was all wrong and made it feel a bit amateurish)
*05 Gabrielius Vagelis – My guy (sometimes the song hit perfectly, and then after a while it’s a bit long; perfect vocals, atrocious outfit, so a top tier but no top 3 for me)
*06 Thomukas 1 – Wish (the only one from the first semi I really liked, he was a bit over the top in his hipsterish mannerism and everything was a bit too quirky, probably done unintentionally… but that made it very adorable, no?)
*07 Voldemars Petersons – Never fall for you again (decent song, strong yet straight forward live)
—
AVERAGE
*08 Norbertas – Man in need (a true star in the making, GORGEOUS boy, hence the top 2 in televote even with a rather boring generic song, he really delivered perfectly while being alone on stage, and with decent vocals too, could be the next Donatas for Lithuania)
*09 Sunday Afternoon – Open (I’m surprised: I hated “attention” so seeing her doing more dance moves with her husband wasn’t really what I wanted to see but this felt much better, the song was pretty good and her vocals nice too, but yeah the live still feels very very odd)
*10 Donata – The way I am (the song is pretty good, well produced and memorable and she really delivered fine, don’t know why in such a poor semi she didn’t do better)
*11 Evita Cololo – Be paslapčių (a bit too repetitious for me, even though I thought she was quite good, it still didn’t really interest me and it does sound like she sings “pikachu” which got me giggling)
*12 Uno Band – Eisiu (decent pop rock, cute singer, raspy vocals, but ultimately boring and doesn’t go anywhere: the lithuanian adds some charm)
—
POOR
*13 Rapolas – Degam (like the one before but a tiny bit more boring)
*14 Titas & Benas – No (gorgeous twinks doing boring ballad, at least they’re charismatic as hell and the one starting on the right is like INSANELY doable, but that’s all I could think of watching them… oh yes, it reminded me of Latvia 2005 which I find dull as hell)
*15 Aldegunda – Sit down (too much old fashion musically and live wise it feels a bit like esc in the 00s with the chair and r’n’b dance, though it’s not without the charm thanks to some right attitude and lithuanian lyrics add some personality)
*16 Martyna – Thank you very much (guilty pleasure in that it makes me smile, how in your face that live is “my ass on the left, here’s now my ass on the right” lol, and the pajamas with jacket and boots is another lol, at least the song is catchy so it’s not awful and in many years we’ll go “who was that ass girl in pajamas” and it’ll be her)
*17 Milita Daikerytė – Shadows (rather anonymous, it tries to be the anthemic pop but it fails and the live was underwheling in the sense it never grabbed me in its atmosphere! it was supposed to be powerful and therefore it’s more evident it failed to deliver)
*18 BE U – Love yourself (this one is like the previous two but on the irrelevant poprock side of things, it lacks the attitude the lyrics try to convey, both in the music and in the live performance)
*19 Gabrielė Goštautaitė – Freedom (it failed doing that laid back yet joyful electro pop that’s been quite popular a few years ago… it wasnt awful but in every aspect: music, lyrics, live, vocals, it was subpar, but still felt like an entry that a few years ago would be low Top 10 in my rankings because of way too many awful shaky craps, whereas this is just poor but not insulting)
*20 Twosome – I love my bear (SHOCK! this isnt my last, this isnt even in the awful category! yeah so Twosome are now Threesome and stil lmake joke entries but at least this one, besides some dubious lyrics, was actually funny at times, vocally stronger than before thanks to the third guy… with some strong “funny” entries, that were funny but did not take music or the contest as a joke and even had things to say (France 2008, Italy 2017) we now get better “fun” entries in NF and the few joke ones like Twosome are better too… Still wouldn’t want it in esc at all, which is why it’s so low)
—
AWFUL
*21 Black Spikes – Don’t tell me (maybe the bad luck of having this open everything really pushed people off and helped them decide to focus on Norway instead, also since the nordic songs are harder to find online, on YT for instance, after the semi, when LRT puts them all in HD right away! but that’s a good thing on Lithuania! Anyway, this was awful, felt like mid 00s esc entries, and hilarious sadly unintentionally…)
Why did I only see this now?
Cool! A chipmunk remix.
This was the best thing I’ve ever seen
Because I didn’t know for it either and didn’t post it! :P :D
it’s awesome ahah
ahaha like almost everything with my Samanta Tina! :P :D
I don’t like her or any song she ever sang, but the vid is hilarious
WHAT?!? :O
awful awful awful :p
:DD Daugavpils 2022! :P
Kudos Netta for this cover👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Dinaye – “Own Yourself”: It’s a cute song, appropriate for an introduction, and has some fun funky attitude. The message is heard-before and I think it’s a bit too close to Born This Way. Don’t know how big of an impact it’ll cause, but as an intro for an artist to future MGPs? Great.
Ole Hartz – “Vi er Norge”: Damn, the intro and the verses are this pirate themed crescendo stringy greatness, but it fizzles in the chorus BAD. It’s wasted potential, as if it kept some sort of “epic”, it could have really nailed it.
Emmy – “Witch Woods”: I am kind of loving this? Circus-odd music is something new I’ve been really drawn into (see new YOHIO stuff!), and this plays into it really well. It’s wacky, but really fun, and the music is great. I’m worried about the live as it is a really wordy quick song that needs a lot of off-kilter. But I’m into this.
Big Daddy Karsten – “Smile”: I’m literally speechless at this. I don’t know what to think of it, LOL. It’s extremely cheesy and corny and sugary, but it just feels wholesome. Gayly wholesome. It’s very effective in transmitting the joy, and the chorus is GREAT.
I have no idea who will go through.
Dinaye – “Own Yourself” – It’s a competent pop song. Nothing we haven’t seen before and it’s not doing anything too unique, but it’s still cute and fun. Should it win? No, but it’s still a fun and enjoyable song with some nice funk influences. She has a very sweet voice.
Big Daddy Karsten – “Smile” – This is interesting? It’s not bad (I was worried this would go the “I Am Gay” route), but still just not my thing.
Emmy – “Witch Woods” – I kinda love this? It’s very different and (I hate this word) quirky. I’m very interested in what the live will look like, but I’m just really drawn to this entry for some reason lol. Weird but fun weird.
Ole Hartz – “Vi er Norge” – I actually like this lol. It gives me some sea shanty vibes and is pretty fun. A lot of adventurous vibes, I just imagine myself on a ship sailing through the sea listening to this. I don’t think it should win obviously but I really do enjoy this.
I think this is the clear best semifinal, as it’s actually the first one where I genuinely like more than one song lol. I’d send Emmy or Ole to the final, but I wouldn’t be mad at Dinaye either. I have no idea who Norway will pick though.
LOL we agreeing a lot on this one :)
Lol we’re agreeing a lot today
I’d send Emmy too, but there is something about Smile. It’s so dumb but makes me so happy.
If anything this semi’s gonna be more fun to watch.
Emmy – “Witch woods” hahaha this started ok, but it ended soooo messy, ahaha a total mess.. I cant say I dislike it completely, exactly cause of that.. :P
Dinaye – “Own Yourself”, goosh this lasts forever.. o_O Im not a fan..
Big Daddy Karsten – “Smile” okaaaaay, I love this cheesy trashy rap! :p
It is so bright, light, trashy.. :D
I hope live will be great and colorful, I want this one in the final.. :D
Ole Hartz – “Vi er Norge” – this is so Norwegian, I think I love this too..
For now I prefer Big Daddy Kasten, but if he goes way too trashy (LOL), I want this one in the final..
Karsten, Emmy and Ole bring songs that aren’t great but entertained me and have their own vibe. I guess I’ll be rooting for the one with the best live, they all are potential disasters 😅
Israel is on. For anyone interested :
https://www.kan.org.il/live/tv.aspx?stationid=2
1. La la love : The most memorable imo. Catchy and playful (ok some lyrics are cringe-worthy). It should win
I love Eden’s hair lol
she’s cute <3
She is, love her
Set me free : My least favorite of the 3. A definite NQ if selected (which I doubt). Still better than Israel’s 2019 horror :P
Τhat’s the one that won apparently. Forgettable, filler material. Eurovision by the numbers.
Reaally? I gave up after song#2
:o
They are all terrible anyway.
LOL they picked Set Me Free??? Absolutely awful, the worst of the three by far. This is what they get for not sending Shoulders to the top three. Eden deserves better.
I expected nothing and still am upset.
(Though Ue La La had to be the one, come on)
Agreed on all of what you said
Well , good luck in semi 1 with SWE, RUS, AZE etc
Lol
I thought her 2020 entry was only a borderline qualifier but Israel managed to make their odds even worse this year. A shame since Eden is the only Israeli singer I’ve liked besides Netta since they reformatted their selection in 2015.
Semi and bye-bye – though that would have happened with either of the songs plus an irritating voice.
My favorite of a weak NF won:
My fave won at least, I didn’t like any of them..I miss African elements.. :(
But it is decent compared to other 2.. like the outfit and make up from the video..
I hope vocals are good live and outfit..
But she doesn’t seem satisfied with the choice LOL that face..
https://scontent.ftlv5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/142756937_116711433599725_3114897189835162669_n.png?_nc_cat=110&ccb=2&_nc_sid=ae9488&_nc_ohc=XX5iHS_nK3EAX-fhQMF&_nc_ht=scontent.ftlv5-1.fna&oh=d010d99acde547af7978fde6394f283b&oe=60351A43
Eden Alene – “Set Me Free” : It’s ok. Catchy and much better than last year IMO, more cohesive. Addictive beat and the verses are strong. The chorus could use a bit more strength.