Lithuania was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "Love Is Blind", written by Brandon Stone and Jodie Rose. The song was performed by Donny Montell. The Lithuanian broadcaster Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) organised the national final "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka (Eurovision Song Contest national selection) in order to select the Lithuanian entry for the 2012 contest in Baku, Azerbaijan. The national final took place over five weeks and involved 36 competing entries. In the final, fourteen entries remained and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote selected the top three to qualify to the superfinal. In the superfinal, a jury vote entirely selected "Love Is Blind", performed by Donny Montell, as the winner.

Lithuania was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 24 May 2012. Performing as the closing entry during the show in position 18, "Love Is Blind" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 26 May. It was later revealed that Lithuania placed third out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 104 points. In the final, Lithuania performed in position 26 and placed fourteenth out of the 26 participating countries with 70 points.

Background

Prior to the 2012 contest, Lithuania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twelve times since its first entry in 1994. The nation's best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in 2006 with the song "We Are the Winners", performed by LT United. Following the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, Lithuania, to this point, had managed to qualify to the final four times. In the 2011 contest, "C'est ma vie" performed by Evelina Sašenko qualified to the final, where the song scored 63 points and placed 19th.

For the 2012 contest, the Lithuanian national broadcaster, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), broadcast the event within Lithuania and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. Other than the internal selection of their debut entry in 1994, Lithuania has selected their entry consistently through a national final procedure. LRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest on 11 September 2011 and announced the organization of "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka, which would be the national final to select Lithuania's entry for Baku.

Before Eurovision

"Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka (Eurovision Song Contest national selection) was the national final format developed by LRT in order to select Lithuania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The competition involved a five-week-long process that commenced on 4 February 2012 and concluded with a winning song and artist on 3 March 2012. The five shows took place at the LRT studios in Vilnius and were hosted by Liepa Rimkevičienė and Darius Užkuraitis. The shows were broadcast on LTV, LTV World, and Lietuvos Radijas, as well as online via the broadcaster's website lrt.lt. The final was also streamed online on the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.

Format The 2012 competition involved 36 entries and consisted of five shows. The first four shows were the semi-finals, consisting of nine entries each. The top three entries from each semi-final proceeded to the final, while two wildcard acts were also selected for the final out of the remaining non-qualifying acts from the semi-finals. The two wildcards were selected by the public through two separate voting platforms, one on the Balsuok! mobile application and one on the website of the mineral water brand Akvilė. Viewers using the Balsuok! app during the four shows were able to select the "for" or "against" option for each entry, and the song that received the most "for" votes received the Balsuok! wildcard. In the final, the winner was selected from the remaining fourteen entries over two rounds of voting. The first round results selected the top three entries, while the second round determined the winner. Monetary prizes were also awarded to the top three artists. The winner received 15,000 LTL, while the second place received 10,000 LTL and the third place received 5,000 LTL. The winning artist(s) were awarded an additional 10,000 LTL sponsored by Akvilė in order to assist in their preparation for the Eurovision Song Contest.

The results of each of the five shows were determined by a jury panel and public televoting. The qualifiers during the semi-finals and the first round of the final were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from the jury and public. The ranking developed by both streams of voting was converted to points from 1–8, 10 and 12 and assigned based on the number of competing songs in the respective show. The public could vote through telephone and SMS voting. Ties were decided in favour of the entry that received the most points from the jury. In the second round of the final, only the jury voted.

Competing entries LRT opened a submission period on 14 October 2011 for artists and songwriters to submit their entries with the deadline on 31 December 2011. On 5 January 2012, LRT announced the 47 entries selected for the competition from over 100 submissions received. The final changes to the list of 47 competing acts were later made with only 36 entries ultimately participating in the competition. Artist Song Songwriter(s) Alive Way "Amazed by You" Justinas Stanislovaitis Beissoul "Why" Darius Julka Bekešo Vilkai "Letter by Letter" Jievaras Jasinskis, Girmantė Vaitkutė Chill Out, Have No Doubt "Until the End" Vytautas Karpauskas, Gražina Guobužaitė DAR "Home" Gorgi, Arvydas Martinėnas Diana Jasilionytė "Dear Someone" Vytautas Bikus Donata Virbilaitė "Superman" Andreas Anastasiou, Gorgi Donatas Šimkus-Dūmas "Party All Day" Arvydas Martinėnas, Rūta Lukoševičiūtė Donny Montell "Love Is Blind" Brandon Stone, Jodie Rose Gražvydas Sidiniauskas "When I Say Yes" Gražvydas Sidiniauskas Greta Jorudaitė "Show Me What You Got" Emanuel Gonzalez, Elen Jay Greta Šmidt "The One" Greta Šmidt Indigo "Sugrįžk" Rūta Lukoševičiūtė, Igoris Barinas Jurijus Veklenko "Tu ne viena" Edgaras Lubys Kamilė Kielaitė "Try" Kamilė Kielaitė Katažina "Euforija" Deivydas Zvonkus LadyBell "Mano muzika" Andrius Bernatonis, Aleksandras Latuškinas Laiptai "Ašarų lietus" Audronis Grincevičius, Vaidas Dzežulskis Laisva "Nutolk" Deivydas Zvonkus Laura J and Stiga "Fading in the Mist" Mindaugas Stiga, Jonas Krivickas Liepa "Viena" Liepa Mondeikaitė Martynas Beinaris "Bella Donna" Martynas Beinaris Merlin "Wheel of Time" Rodion Kolomin, Feliks Kutka Monika "Happy" Edgaras Lubys, Marius Leskauskas Multiks "Star" Paulius Burba Sati "Light Is the One" Edgaras Lubys Simona Milinytė "One of a Kind" Fredrik Westin, Bobby Ljunggren, Marcos Ubeda Sound's Engineers feat. Natalie "Blind" Vitalijus Lipovecas, Natalja Chareckaja Sweetsalt "My Love" Rokas Dobunžinskas The Artrace "Fly LT" Aurimas Galvelis, Justas Kulikauskas, GEnerG The Independent "Baby" Kipras Varaneckas Thundertale "Heroes, Arise!" Laurynas Baškys, Jonas Chockevičius Vaida feat. Movetron "Medieval Love" Jukka Tanttari, Timo Löyvä Valdas Maksvytis "Dar laiko yra" Romas Michailovskis, Valdas Maksvyti VIG Roses "Come Back Home" Giedrė Girnytė, Arūnas Rakšnys Vytautas Matuzas "Take It Back" Vytautas Matuzas, Linas Adomaitis

Jury members The jury panel in the semi-finals and the final consisted of five members. +Jury members by show Jury member Semi-finals Final Occupation(s) 1 2 3 4Aras Vėberis producerArnoldas Lukošius musicianArtūras Novikas composer Karolis Ramoška radio hostLaurynas Šarkinas musician, drummer for the group Saulės kliošasMerūnas Vitulskis singer Raigardas Tautkus composerRosita Čivilytė singerSaulius Urbonavičius television and music producerVladimiras Prudnikovas opera singing professorVytautas Miškinis director of the "Ąžuoliukas" choir

Shows

Semi-finals The four semi-finals of the competition aired on 4, 11, 18, and 25 February 2012 and featured nine competing entries each. The top three entries from each semi-final advanced to the final, while the bottom six were eliminated.

On 26 February 2012, "The One" performed by Greta Šmidt was announced to have received the most positive reactions on the Balsuok! app (164,252 "for" votes) and was awarded a wildcard to also proceed to the final. On 28 February 2012, "Light Is the One" performed by Sati was announced to have received the most votes on the Akvilė online voting platform (46,028 votes) and was also awarded a wildcard to proceed to the final.

Key Qualifier Wildcard qualifier

+ Semi-final 1 – 4 February 2012 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points Votes Points 1 The Independent "Baby" 39 10 484 8 18 2 2 Kamilė Kielaitė "Try" 31 8 151 4 12 5 3 Multiks "Star" 28 7 549 10 17 3 4 Valdas Maksvytis "Dar laiko yra" 20 3 396 7 10 7 5 Chill Out, Have No Doubt "Until the End" 26 4 316 6 10 6 6 The Artrace "Fly LT" 33 8 199 5 13 4 7 Indigo "Sugrįžk" 43 6 121 2 8 8 8 Laisva "Nutolk" 29 5 131 3 8 9 9 Beissoul "Why" 43 12 895 12 24 1 + Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "Baby" 9 8 6 8 8 39 2 "Try" 7 7 7 7 5 31 3 "Star" 7 6 5 8 5 28 4 "Dar laiko yra" 5 4 3 5 3 20 5 "Until the End" 7 5 5 5 4 26 6 "Fly LT" 7 5 5 8 8 33 7 "Sugrizk" 5 7 5 7 5 43 8 "Nutolk" 6 6 5 6 5 29 9 "Why" 8 9 8 9 9 43

+ Semi-final 2 – 11 February 2012 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points Votes Points 1 Sweetsalt "My Love" 30 5 218 3 8 8 2 Diana Jasilionytė "Dear Someone" 36 8 1,047 7 15 4 3 Martynas Beinaris "Bella Donna" 26 4 687 6 10 7 4 Alive Way "Amazed by You" 41 12 1,149 8 20 2 5 Sati "Light Is the One" 33 6 222 4 10 6 6 Vytautas Matuzas "Take It Back" 40 10 1,923 12 22 1 7 Katažina "Euforija" 34 7 1,703 10 17 3 8 Laura J and Stiga "Fading in the Mist" 25 3 110 2 5 9 9 Jurijus Veklenko "Tu ne viena" 34 7 241 5 12 5 + Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "My Love" 5 7 5 6 7 30 2 "Dear Someone" 7 8 7 7 7 36 3 "Bella Donna" 8 6 4 4 4 26 4 "Amazed by You" 8 9 7 8 9 41 5 "Light Is the One" 7 7 6 6 6 33 6 "Take It Back" 9 9 7 7 8 40 7 "Euforija" 7 7 6 7 7 34 8 "Fading in the Mist" 6 6 3 4 4 25 9 "Tu ne viena" 6 7 7 7 7 34

+ Semi-final 3 – 18 February 2012 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points Votes Points 1 Thundertale "Heroes, Arise!" 27 3 631 6 9 8 2 Sound's Engineers feat. Natalie "Blind" 33 7 157 2 9 6 3 Donatas Šimkus-Dūmas "Party All Day" 33 7 1,049 8 15 4 4 VIG Roses "Come Back Home" 35 8 1,073 10 18 2 5 Bekešo Vilkai "Letter by Letter" 42 10 918 7 17 3 6 Greta Jorudaitė "Show Me What You Got" 31 4 303 5 9 7 7 Liepa "Viena" 32 6 168 4 10 5 8 Gražvydas Sidiniauskas "When I Say Yes" 31 5 159 3 8 9 9 Monika "Happy" 43 12 1,416 12 24 1 + Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "Heroes, Arise!" 6 5 6 5 5 27 2 "Blind" 6 7 7 7 6 33 3 "Party All Day" 7 6 7 7 6 33 4 "Come Back Home" 6 6 7 8 8 35 5 "Letter by Letter" 8 8 8 9 9 42 6 "Show Me What You Got" 5 5 6 6 6 31 7 "Viena" 6 6 6 7 7 32 8 "When I Say Yes" 6 6 6 7 6 31 9 "Happy" 9 8 9 9 8 43

+ Semi-final 4 – 25 February 2012 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points Votes Points 1 Merlin "Wheel of Time" 34 7 123 4 11 4 2 LadyBell "Mano muzika" 32 5 137 5 10 5 3 Donata Virbilaitė "Superman" 33 6 97 3 9 8 4 Laiptai "Ašarų lietus" 31 4 358 6 10 6 5 Greta Šmidt "The One" 30 3 522 7 10 7 6 Vaida feat. Movetron "Medieval Love" 27 2 51 2 4 9 7 DAR "Home" 42 10 2,122 8 18 2 8 Simona Milinytė "One of a Kind" 37 8 2,173 10 18 3 9 Donny Montell "Love Is Blind" 50 12 6,541 12 24 1