Lithuania was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 with the song "Luktelk", written by Silvestras Beltė, Džesika Šyvokaitė, and Elena Jurgaitytė, and performed by Beltė himself under his stage name Silvester Belt. The Lithuanian participating broadcaster, Lietuvos radijas ir televizija (LRT), organised the national final Eurovizija.LT2024 in order to select its entry at the contest.
Lithuania was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 7 May 2024 and was later selected to perform in position 3. At the end of the show, "Luktelk" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and hence qualified to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Lithuania placed fourth out of the fifteen participating countries in the semi-final with 119 points. In the final, Lithuania performed in position 7 and placed fourteenth out of the 25 performing countries, scoring a total of 90 points.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, LRT organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Between 2020 and 2023, the national final format Pabandom iš naujo! was used to select its entry. LRT confirmed its intention to participate in the 2024 contest in mid-July 2023;[2] three months later, the broadcaster announced that it would use a new format, titled Eurovizija.LT.[3]
Eurovizija.LT2024 was the national final format organised by LRT to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. It was held between 13 January and 17 February 2024 and was hosted by Gabrielė Martirosian and Nombeko Augustė Khotseng, with TikToker Nerijus Trilikauskas hosting segments from the green room.[4][5] The shows were broadcast on LRT televizija and LRT Lituanica as well as online via the broadcaster's website lrt.lt and official LRT YouTube channel, while the final was also broadcast on LRT radijas and official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel.
Format
The competition saw 40 entries compete across five semi-finals, held between 13 January and 10 February 2024, and a final on 17 February 2024.[6][7] A 50/50 combination of jury and public vote determined the ranking in each phase, with the top two entries from each semi-final (out of the eight total) qualifying for the final; the top three entries from the final moved on to a final televoting round selecting the winner. In case of a tie in any of the previous stages, the jury ranking would take precedence.[3][8][9] The score system is the same used at the Eurovision Song Contest: the top ten entries from each of the jury vote and the televote are assigned 1–8, 10 and 12 points.[8]
Performances for the semi-finals were pre-recorded, while they were delivered live in the final.[3][8]
Competing entries
On 18 October 2023, LRT opened a submission platform for interested artists, lasting until 11 December 2023. Each applicant could only submit one entry. Performers were required to be Lithuanian citizens, while songwriters could be of any nationality.[3][8] At the end of the submission period, over sixty applications had been received.[7] The selected artists were privately informed of their selection by 18 December 2023 and were able to withdraw until 31 December 2023.[8]
The five semi-finals of the competition were filmed on 9, 16, 17, 23 and 24 January 2024 at the LRT studios in Vilnius, and were aired on 13, 20, 27 January, 3 and 10 February 2024.[7] In each semi-final, 8 of the 40 competing acts performed, with the top two entries progressing to the final.
Each semi-final opened with a performance of dancers staged by choreographer Marijanas Staniulėnas.[17] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, interval acts performed:
The live final of the competition took place on 17 February 2024 at the Švyturys Arena in Klaipėda.[23] The final was opened by a performance of dancers staged by choreographer Marijanas Staniulėnas, followed by a parade of participants presenting all ten finalists. In addition to the performances of the competing entries Mango performed "Penkios Minutės", "Sugrįžk, Prašau", "Paviršius Širdies", "Pavasariniai Žiedai" and "Alyvos", Dons performed 2024 Latvian Eurovision entry "Hollow" and Monika Linkytė performed 2023 Lithuanian Eurovision entry "Stay" as the interval acts. A combination of the votes of a jury (50%) and the public (50%) selected three songs for a superfinal, where a televoting round determined the winner.[16]
Due to a technical error during the superfinal, most votes had not been counted at the time of reveal of the results. During the broadcast, it was stated that "Luktelk" received 16,688 votes, that "Impossible" received 9,066, and that "Simple Joy" received 6,884 votes. Two days later, it was revealed that "Luktelk" had received 34,691, "Impossible" had received 20,307, and "Simple Joy" had received 15,046 votes. Upon counting all the votes, the results of the superfinal remained the same.[24]
As part of the promotion of his participation in the contest, Silvester Belt attended the Melfest WKND event in Stockholm on 8 March 2024, the PrePartyES in Madrid on 30 March 2024, the Barcelona Eurovision Party on 6 April 2024, the London Eurovision Party on 7 April 2024, the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam on 13 April 2024 and the Copenhagen Eurovision Party (Malmöhagen) on 4 May 2024.[27][28] In this period, he met with Lithuanian communities in Stockholm, Amsterdam, London, Copenhagen and Malmö.[29][30] In addition, he performed at the Eurovision Village in Malmö on 9 May 2024.[31]
On 16 April 2024, LRT launched the social media campaign Mums reikia šokt! ("We need to dance!"), during which Lithuanian residents were invited to film themselves dancing to the song "Luktelk" and upload it to social networks. The selected material was used by LRT during the Eurovision week.[32][33]
At Eurovision
Silvester Belt during a rehearsal before the final.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 took place at the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 7 and 9 May and the final on 11 May 2024. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progressed to the final. On 30 January 2024, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country would perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[34] Lithuania was scheduled for the first half of the first semi-final.[35] The shows' producers then decided the running order for the semi-finals; Lithuania was set to perform in position 3.[36]
In Lithuania, all the shows were broadcast on LRT televizija and on LRT radijas as well as online via the broadcaster's website lrt.lt, with commentary provided by Ramūnas Zilnys [lt].[29] Each semi-final was preceded by a half-hour preview show hosted by Zilnys,[37] and before the final, there was also a special 25-minute documentary by Rolandas Masiulis about Silvester Belt's road to Eurovision.[38] In addition, as part of the Eurovision programming, LRT aired a documentary titled ABBA – Against the Odds, produced by DR, SVT and several other EBU members on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Sweden's first victory at the contest with "Waterloo" by ABBA.[39][40][41] During the Eurovision week, a special radio show was broadcast, hosted by former Eurovision commentators Darius Užkuraitis [lt] and Gerūta Griniūtė.[42] In March and April, LRT radijas also presented the podcast Suvienyti Eurovizijos ("United by Eurovision"), hosted by Justas Buivydas.[43] Also, since March 29, during the LRT televizija morning show Labas rytas, Lietuva ("Good morning, Lithuania"), one song of this year's contest was presented every day.[44]
Performance
Silvester Belt took part in technical rehearsals on 27 April and 1 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 6 and 7 May.[45] The staging of his performance of "Luktelk" at the contest is directed by Povilas Varvuolis, who had been responsible for all Lithuanian performances since 2017, and Norvydas Genys, who is responsible for the content of the LED screens and lighting.[27] He is joined by four dancers: Arnas Ginevičius, Nerijus Trilikauskas, Eivydas Katkauskas and Andrius Vrubliauskas; while Monika Švilpaitė serves as an off-stage backing vocalist.[46][47] His clothing was designed by Vainotas Jakštas and created by Marija Petraitytė (costume), Kamilė Peleckytė (shoes) and Gintarė Pečkytė (accessories).[48]
Semi-final
Lithuania performed in position 3, following the entry from Serbia and before the entry from Ireland.[36] At the end of the show, the country was announced as a qualifier for the final. It was later revealed that Lithuania placed fourth out of the fifteen participating countries in the first semi-final with 119 points.
Final
Following the semi-final, Lithuania was drawn to perform in the first half of the final.[49] Lithuania will perform in position 7, following the entry from Israel and before the entry from Spain.[50] Silvester Belt once again took part in dress rehearsals on 10 and 11 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show on 11 May. He performed a repeat of his semi-final performance during the final on 11 May. Lithuania placed fourteenth in the final, scoring 90 points; 58 points from the public televoting and 32 points from the juries.
Below is a breakdown of points awarded by and to Lithuania in the first semi-final and in the final. Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public.[51] The Lithuanian jury consisted of Agneta Gabalytė, Jievaras Jasinskis, who represented Lithuania in the 2010 contest as member of the group InCulto, Povilas Meškėla, Kristupas Naraškevičius, and Monika Marija Paulauskaitė.[52] In the first semi-final, Lithuania placed 4th with 119 points, receiving maximum twelve points from Ireland and the United Kingdom, and marking a fourth consecutive qualification to the final for the country. In the final, Lithuania placed 14th with 90 points. Over the course of the contest, Lithuania awarded its 12 points to Ukraine in the first semi-final, and Switzerland (jury) and Ukraine (televote) in the final.[53][54]
LRT appointed Monika Linkytė, who represented Lithuania in the 2015 and 2023 contests, as its spokesperson to announce the Lithuanian jury's votes in the final.[55]
Each participating broadcaster assembles a five-member jury panel consisting of music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. Each jury, and individual jury member, is required to meet a strict set of criteria regarding professional background, as well as diversity in gender and age. No member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.[56] The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.
The following members comprised the Lithuanian jury:[52]
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