Only 10 acts left in the running to represent Lithuania!

The seventh show of Lithuanian national selection "Eurovizija" was aired tonight (February 20), and it featured eight performances (qualifiers from the fifth round of this year's competition).
The contestants who performed in LRT's third and fifth show, were the artists who applied without a song for the national selection in Lithuania. Those who advanced in the competition, have performed the songs LRT received during the submission period.

Eight acts were performed in the following order:

1. E.G.O. Long Way From Home *eliminated
   
2. 4 Roses Butterfly *eliminated
   
3. Ieva Zasimauskaitė Life (Not That Beautiful)
4. Aistė Pilvelytė You Bet
5. Ruslanas Kirilkinas In My World
6. Milda Martinkėnaitė If Tomorrow Never Comes
7. Neringa Šiaudikytė Never Knew Love *eliminated
   
8. Saulenė Chlevickaitė Strong

TONIGHT'S QUALIFIERS

• Aistė Pilvelytė
• Ruslanas Kirilkinas
• Ieva Zasimauskaitė
• Saulenė Chlevickaitė
• Milda Martinkėnaitė

*The results are based on jury votes (Lithuanian and international) and a public televoting (50/50).

Like in the previous shows, the acts which received the least support from the jury members and TV viewers across the country were eliminated, except this time three artists had left the show instead of two.

Five qualifiers in tonight's show will finally join the other five artists from the previous round of the competition. That means the contestants from both groups of this year's national selection (with and without a song) will perform in the same show.

The national jury in the fourth show consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys, Darius Užkuraitis, Dalia Ibelhauptaitė and Nomeda Kazlaus.

Furthermore, the international experts who shared their votes in tonight's show were: Denis Ingoldsby, (British producer), Karl Frierson (a member of the German jazz ensemble De-Phazz) and William Wells (a producer of the US band Imagine Dragons).

Lithuanian "Eurovizija" show was opened with the special performance of Latvian representatives in the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest, a pop-rock band Brainstorm. They finished third in that year with a song My Star.

Producer of the show talks to Eurovision.tv

“National selection is undoubtedly the cruelest of all TV shows here. Unlike in other shows, no trimmings have been used, and no mistakes have been corrected. You make a mistake – you have it on air," Lauras Lučiūnas (picture above on the right), the TV producer of Lithuania‘s national selection 2016 told Eurovision.tv

This year, however, the contestants who have qualified for the "Eurovizija 2016" joined the production with their teams, bringing a lot of professionals on board - experts for sound and light, Lučiūnas explained. "It has never been professional as this year."

Having international jury in the show seems to be very important to the producer of LRT's Eurovision marathon. "They might be unknown to our TV viewers, but they are big names in music industry abroad.  Their judgement doesn't necessarily correspond with the opinion of the national jury. But that’s the idea, to have a biggest possible variety of views in the show."
 

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.

In the meantime, the Lithuanian public broadcaster confirmed that there will be 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" is scheduled for 12th of March at 20:00 CET. It will also be broadcasted live via webcast on Eurovision.tv.

The next round of the competition will be aired on 27th of February, 2016 at 20:00 CET. If you've missed tonight's show, you can still watch it online www.lrt.lt