LITHUANIA

The Lithuanian Final was held on February 23rd, hosted by Gabriele Martirosianaite & Giedrius Masalskis. Before the final there were 4 quarter finals and 2 semi finals. The winner was chosen by televoting (50%) & an "expert" jury (50%). The winning act was Jurijus with “Run with the lions”

Jurijus is alone on stage and is dressed casually in black clothing. As the song starts, he is shrouded in darkness with very little going on around him however there is quite a lot of camera changes which creates tension and build up. As he reaches the chorus, beams of light shine behind him which explodes into the next part. During the chorus the camera trickery continues while the backdrop becomes a blotchy yellow but returns to black for the verses.

The song is an electronic ballad which relies a lot on Jurijus’ strong falsetto range. The verses are performed in two halves, the first in his lower register and the second in his falsetto whilst the pre chorus waivers between the two. The chorus is mostly in his chest voice which makes it stand out and be more powerful. Just before the 2 minute mark Jurijus leaves the mic stand behind and engages in some oh-oh-ohing in his falsetto voice which I feel goes on a bit too long. There is one last repetition of the chorus before returning to his oh-oh-ohing and leads into a rather unexpected ending. This is a performance for camera, rather than one for those in the hall.

Jurijus has a great connection with the camera, has a relaxed easy style on stage and he certainly comes across as laidback and likeable. The song itself really shows off his vocal range and ability but the fact is the whole thing comes across as very bland and flat. Part of this is down to the stage setup, the generic nature of the backdrop and the lack of movement on stage. For a song alluding to lions, I would’ve thought some kind of motif towards this might be on stage but no (even something similar to the big cat backdrop of Vanilla Ninja). Although Jurijus needs backing singers, he doesn’t really need them, or any other kind of distraction, to sell the song as he does a good enough job. As far as the song goes, I feel the oooooohing in the middle is too long, should be cut down and the final chorus extended slightly instead.

This needs a lot of work and almost all of that is on the visuals and set up of the performance. I have every confidence in Jurijus’ abilities but wonder if something creative enough can be thought of to levitate the whole thing into something really memorable as right now I can’t see this qualifying.

           

ARTIST –  Jurijus

SONG – Run with the lions

MUSIC -  Ashley Hicklin, Eric Lumiere, Pele Loriano

LYRICS - Ashley Hicklin, Eric Lumiere, Pele Loriano