LITHUANIA 2024

The Lithuanian act and song was chosen on February 17th through their selection process "Eurovizija.LT". Before the final, there had been 5 semi-finals of eight songs each with only 2 qualifying to the final. A 50/50 combination of jury and public votes selected 3 songs for a superfinal which would be judged through televote alone. Going to Malmö is Silvester Belt performing the song "Luktelk" (Wait).

Silvestras Beltė - aka Silvester Belt - was born in Kaunas, Lithuania but  a degree in Commercial Music Performance from University of Westminster in London. On his return to Lithuania after his studies he won the show "Aš – superhitas" (I Am a Superhit) which spawned him his first hit. A year later participated in Lithuanian X Factor being eliminated in the 4th week of the competition. This is not Silvester's first foray into Eurovision - in 2010 he came third in the selection contest for their Junior Eurovision song. 

Silvester is wearing a baggy red suit and what has become his trademark nose clip. He is joined on stage by 4 dancers in t-shirts, baggy trousers but also masks over the lower part of their faces. Because of the stark lighting most of what is on stage is seen mainly in silhouette but there is a lot of sharp chorography and intricate arm movements. Luktelk is a pop song with a driving hard bassline. Silvester's singing style is quite laid back and gentle which feels like it should be at odds with the harshness of the instrumental but isn't at all. The song's structure is very formulaic with a verse-prechorus-chorus order which goes around twice. There is then a bridge before the last chorus. Although the song is wholly in Lithuanian, the song has a lot of repetition in it and to be honest the rhythm and flow of the song is really what drives it.

The lighting for this is very stark and mysterious and it has this slightly shady club feel which fits with the style of song. I love the use of block colour and the slightly anonymous dancers as this adds a lot of flow and coolness of the track.  Although the song is in Lithuanian, one's lack of understanding of the words is made up with the repetition and simple rhythms made in the words and music. The repetitive chorus in particular is a straight-to-your-brain earworm. However, I feel that for this song to fully connect with the non-Lithuanian speakers and voters at home, there needs to be a little more effort put in to make Silvester (in particular) visible on screen. Yes, I understand the visual feeling they are trying to make, but that is much easier to execute when your audience understands the meaning of the lyrics. It is very obvious that this song went down well with the Lithuanian public at home, but is this is down to a great performer and performance OR down to a support of the Lithuanian language? 

ARTIST - Silvester Belt

SONG - Luktelk

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Silvestras Beltė, Elena Jurgaitytė, Džesika Šyvokaitė