LITHUANIA

The Lithuanian Final was held on February 21st in at the LRT TV Studios in Vilnius, hosted by Arunas Valinskas & Simona Naine. Before the final there were several shows to narrow down the initial field of 12 acts as well as a separate vote to choose the song. The winning act was chosen by a mixture of televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%) and singing "This Time" will be Monika Linkytė & Vaidas Baumila.

LRT decided to do a similar Eurovision selection show as last year, which even brought back some of the unsuccessful candidates from last year's show. As well as different singing rounds where acts where eliminated each week there were also chances to showcase the different songs on offer which could be voted for online. It was decided on 14th February that the song would be "This Time" and the act chosen a week later.

The song is a modern up tempo number with a repetitive structure. It has a fastish tempo and is in the country/bluegrass genre. The song tells a nice simple story with is acted out in a basic fashion on the stage. The tune is really simple and has an effective earworm in the middle of the chorus. It works really well as a concept up until the very end when it gets a bit mre  free form and relies more on 'oooooooh-ing' rather than sticking with the lyrics and I feel that keeping to the words will make it stronger.

Monika and Viadas started off in the competition as solo artists. However after performing this song at an earlier stage as a duet, and this version becoming a real fan favourite, they decided to forgo their singles chances and enter into the final as a duet. The two of them have really good voices that work by themselves and in harmony. Monika has a nice small floaty voice that can carry of the high notes really well whilst Vaidas has a richer and more characterful tone. They also have great chemistry - accentuated by the snog slap bang in the middle of the song!

In fairness, the staging of this sing the shows has been pretty minimal and in some ways this works. I think the two of them could be choreographed more in terms of getting involved with the audience but that is all. The song lends itself to a free fun performance rather than something blocked within an inch of its life. I also could imagine a really bright and colourful back drop but hopefully not too frilly or girly. They will need to keep the backing singers, who really work, which will hopefully mean no superfluous dancers or musicians on stage.

This is a really good song and a performance that has scope for some strengthening. The whole thing lends itself not only to a personal performance between the two singers but also good audience and viewer interaction. For many Eurovision fans, they may see too many comparisons with Firelight and the Common Linnets from last year and therefore not see this as truly original. However I think this is a catchy number which would work well on stage but also as a radio song. This could easily be Lithuania's best performing song ever.

ARTIST - Monika & Vaidas

SONG - This Time

MUSIC - Vytautas Bikus, Monika Liubinaitė

LYRICS - Vytautas Bikus, Monika Liubinaitė