Lithuania has decided: It's Ieva Zasimauskaitė!

Eurovizijos dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka, the Lithuanian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, was organised by broadcaster LRT and holds the record for longest national selection, having started in the first week of January. The final took place in the Žalgirio Arena in Kaunas, hosted by Mantas Stonkus and Ugnė Skonsmanaitė. The national selection featured 50 acts who were narrowed down to a final six though weekly heats that included two quarter-finals, one online wildcard round, and two semi-finals. 

The finalists

• Ieva Zasimauskaitė - When We're Old
• Jurgis Brūzga - 4Love
• Kotryna Juodzevičiūtė - That Girl
• Monika Marija - The Truth
• Paula - 1 2 3
• The Roop - Yes, I Do 

Amongst past Lithuanian delegates, Iceland’s 2018 representative Ari Ólafsson opened the show. After the contestants each took the stage one final time, viewers were treated to a performance by Finnish delegate Saara Aalto as final votes were being tallied.

Similar to heats before it, the winner of the final was determined through a combination of jury and public votes. Though the jury put Jurgis Brūzga in the 12 point position ahead of Ieva Zasimauskaitė, public votes put Ieva far ahead of the competition with 20335 votes, followed by The Roop with 16491 votes, and Monika Marija with 13755. The overall results put Ieva Zasimauskaitė in first, Jurgis Brūzga in second, and The Roop in third place.

Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest

Lithuania joined the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, scoring nul points with its first ever entry. Following Lithuania's debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, the country withdrew from the competition and returned only in 1999. That year, Aistė represented the country with the song Strazdas which was sung in Samogitian, a dialect of the Lithuanian language. 

Lithuania scored its best placing in 2006, sixth place, with We Are The Winners performed by LT United. The country has only made it to the top ten in the Grand Final once since then, in 2016 with Donny Montell's I've Been Waiting For This Night. Fusedmarc represented Lithuania at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Rain of Revolution, which finished 17th in Semi-Final in Kyiv.

Ieva Zasimauskaitė will perform When We're Old for Lithuania in the first half of the First Semi-Final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday 8th May in Lisbon.