The Eurovision marathon in Lithuania has been concluded tonight and the final round of the national selection has spawned the perfect entrant for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. Donny Montell has defeated five other finalists after ten rounds of this year's competition produced and aired by Lithuanian public broadcaster (LRT).
The final of Eurovizija 2016 - Nacionalinė atranka broadcasted live from Vilnius tonight, included six incredible performances, which advanced from the semi-final, but Donny Montell received the greatest number of votes (from the jury and viewers).
Erica Jennigs ended second and Rūta Ščiogolevaitė third.
And this is how the viewers voted:
Donny Montell 18,962 votes
Erica Jennings 13,854
Rūta Ščiogolevaitė 7,293
Aistė Pilvelytė 4,826
Ieva Zasimauskaitė 3,558
Ruslanas Kirilkinas 1,756
Six acts were competing and performed in the following order:
Ruslanas KirilkinasIn My World
Ieva ZasimauskaitėLife (Not That Beautiful)
Aistė PilvelytėYou Bet
Erica JenningsLeading Me Home
Rūta ŠčiogolevaitėUnited
Donny MontellI've Been Waiting for This Night
About the voting
Like in the previous shows, the jury and TV viewers (through televoting) decided on the outcome of the show (50/50). However, there were two jury panels in this year's Lithuanian national selection: Lithuanian and international.
The national jury in the final was consisted of six members: Ramūnas Zilnys. Nomeda Kazlaus, Dalia Ibelhauptaitė, Justė Arlauskaitė-Zazzu, Tomas Sinickis and Vaidas Baumila.
For the first time, the international jurors: Peter Freudenthaler, Denis Ingoldsby and Daisy Syron, have joined the show and expressed their opinions on the competing acts that remained in the show.
The viewers across the country were allowed to vote during the whole show.
Why ten shows?
As many Eurovision fans around the globe wonder, why is LRT producing so many shows this year, turning the national selection into the so called Eurovision marathon, Audrius Giržadas, Head of Lithuania's Delegation in the Eurovision Song Contest explains.
"The show has excellent ratings, and apparently there's a big interest among the viewers for the content like this," Giržadas, who is also the executive producer of the show told Eurovision.tv. "But it's certainly also because of the artists and their great songs."
10 shows, 27 acts, one ticket to Sweden
On December 21, 2015, LRT announced the names of 28 artists selected for this year's national selection. Among the contestants, there are some well-known Eurovision faces. Erica Jennings represented Lithuania in 2001 (as a member of the group SKAMP), and Donny Montell, who took part in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.
Nevertheless, the Lithuanian public broadcaster confirmed that there are 27 acts competing for the role of Lithuanian representative in Stockholm at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.
There are ten rounds of the competition this year. The final of Lithuanian "Eurovizija 2016" was aired tonight. Still, if you have missed the show you can still watch it on Eurovision.tv
