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Monika Liu will take 'Sentimentai' to Eurovision for Lithuania 🇱🇹

12 February 2022 at 22:13 CET
Monika Liu won Pabandom iš Naujo with Sentimentai
Lithuania has spoken! Monika Liu has won 'Pabandom iš Naujo' and will perform 'Sentimentai' at the Eurovision Song Contest in May this year.

📺 Watch: Monika Liu – Sentimentai

The Pabandom iš Naujo line-up for 2022 featured a fabulous selection of familiar faces and emerging artists, all hoping to replicate the success of The Roop who finished 8th in Rotterdam with the song Discoteque. That task now falls to Monika.

Monika has wanted to take to the Eurovision stage for many years, and this song, recorded in London, is what has finally made that dream come true…

Pabandom iš Naujo finalist Augustė came second in the jury vote LRT

Pabandom iš Naujo Results:

  1. Monika Liu – Sentimentai ⭐️

    (Jury 12pts, Public 12pts – Total 24pts)
  2. Augustė Vedrickaitė – Before You’re 6ft Under

    (Jury 10pts, Public 8pts – Total 18pts)
  3. Lolita Zero – Not Your Mother

    (Jury 8pts, Public 10pts – Total 18pts)
  4. Rūta Loop – Call Me from the Cold

    (Jury 7pts, Public 7pts – Total 14pts)
  5. Gebrasy – Into Your Arms

    (Jury 6pts, Public 6pts – Total 12pts)
  6. Justė Kraujelytė – How to Get My Life Back

    (Jury 5pts, Public 5pts – Total 10pts)
  7. Ieva Zasimauskaitė – I’ll Be There

    (Jury 4pts, Public 3pts – Total 7pts)
  8. Queens of Roses – Washing Machine

    (Jury 3pts, Public 4pts – Total 7pts)

    [Jury points given priority when acts are on level points]

Monika smashed the jury and televote, topping both, though Lolita Zero’s public vote haul was very close (20,929 to Monika’s 23,604), and Augustė came second with the juries.

Pabandom iš Naujo finalist Lolita Zero came second in the televote LRT

More to follow…

Lithuania at the Eurovision Song Contest

Lithuania has participated in the ‘Eurovizijos dainų konkursas’ on 21 occasions since their debut in 1994 when Ovidijus Vyšniauskas failed to score any points with his ballad Lopšinė mylimai (Lullaby For My Beloved).

Somewhat ironically, Lithuania’s best entry is LT United’s We Are The Winners, finishing 6th in 2006. The band re-recorded the song for the FIFA World Cup (held later that year in Germany) in case any other nation wanted to use it as their anthem… Lithuania hadn’t qualified for the tournament.

📺 Watch: LT United – We Are The Winners (2006)

Donny Montell took the country top 10 once again in 2016 with his track I’ve Been Waiting For This Night, picking up douze points from Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom’s televotes, as well as Ukraine’s jury. It was Donny’s second time representing his nation (Love is Blind, 2012, 14th place) and he hasn’t ruled out a third attempt.

📺 Watch: Donny Montell – I’ve Been Waiting For This Night (2016)

In 2021, The Roop scooped a record points haul of 220 (finishing in 8th place) with their dance floor filler Discoteque; the follow-up to their hotly tipped On Fire which was due to compete in the 2020 Contest before its cancellation.

Lithuania remains the only Baltic nation yet to win the Contest. That said, Lithuania does have the best track record for qualifying; they’ve made the most appearances at the Grand Final since the introduction of the Semi Finals – a total of 10 appearances compared to Baltic neighbours Estonia (7) and Latvia (6).

📺 Watch: The Roop – Discoteque (2021)

This gives the country a solid base to build on, and with reinvigorated selection show Pabandom iš Naujo! (We Go Again!) providing a wealth of talent and watched by thousands of fans across the continent, surely that elusive victory (and inevitable LT United reprise) is just around the corner?

📺 Watch: Twosome – Playa (Pabandom iš Naujo! 2020)

Let us know what you think via the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook channels.